Ash Concert at the Carlin Academy on the 24th of October 2007

The Irish band Ash stopped at the Carlin Academy in Newcastle for their “Twilight of the Innocents” tour on the 24th of October 2007. This is probably their last tour to promote an album, seen that the band had announced earlier this year that their next releases will only be singles available for internet downloads.
Being good looking (well, depending on what you consider good looking) does not give you an excuse to make more noise than necessary. The Dodgems, the first of the two opening bands, hid their lyrics underneath loud music. There was definitely some sort of coordination problem between the instruments and the vocal cords of the singer. Ironically it was the strings of his own guitar that drowned his words the heaviest. But they the energy to be on stage, they made fun remarks in between sets and had a lot of stage potential.
Then it was the turn of the Belgians to show what they have got, the Dead 60s were next. Like their music suggests and their name doesn’t they had a lot of energy on stage. They were going a bit crazy at times, the singer kept making weird faces, but he could not beat what the guys of Art Brut have to offer in that category. One thing they seem to love is standing on the edge of the stage, holding the guitar or bass up into the air while playing it, the first couple of times it’s fun but after the 10th time you have seen the ‘trick’ enough times. And one other thing, instruments should not be mistreated, well that’s what the singer did to his guitar, he did not scratch it against an amp or walk on it, he used an half shredded drumstick on his guitar.
“You Can’t Have It All”, the first single of Ash’s newest album kicked off their set. Everyone in the crowed loved it, they all showed their affection by trying to kill the people up front, it seems to be a norm for rock concerts. Tim Wheeler the singer and lead guitarist (now that Charlotte who was a member of Ash from 1997 to 2006 isn’t there anymore he is the only guitarist) kept on changing his guitars. He had some impressive looking ones like the silver glittering one, or his golden guitar, well if it is real gold is questionable. He was linked to his amp not by a cable like it is normal but by some sort of wireless connection. This probably made the switches a lot easier between the instruments.
It being the tour for their newest album, four leafless black trees in different sizes were on stage, it gave the whole concert a different ambience, an ambience created by nature. They were loved by the crowed, and well love hurts, and it hurt me their last song “Burn Baby Burn” which ended for a mighty nosebleed for me. Besides the nosebleed it was a really great show, Ash is a band definitely worth checking out live.

Review by Solveig Werner