“A”, The Horn, St Albans

Warmup show for A’s appearance at this years Download Festival. The Horn in St Albans was super easy to get to, right next to the train station, a perfect location for anyone travelling there. I choose to drive and there is ample parking for a couple of quid for all night. The venue itself is a pub, but it’s easily the best pub venue I’ve been to.

Support came from Sun Arcana & Elswhere Band.

Elswhere Band were first up, a young band who did a good set, while watching them I noticed the sizes of their guitars, they seemed slightly smaller than I’m used to seeing. I couldn’t decide if they were using guitars which they have had since they were younger, either way their set was in all fairness pretty solid.

Next up were Sun Arcana, another fairly solid set from them, the final two songs being the highlight of their show.

As with last night at Jonathan Davis I was happy with the support bands, far too many gigs attended over the past 18 months or so have been let down by shit support bands. Tonight was not one of them.

Finally “A” are here, I fucking love this band. They aren’t here to be serious, just to entertain, and they do just that. As with the previous shows in February A’s set is full of aborts as they take the piss out of each other and joke about on stage. The set is halted to ask about how much should be charged for a fully signed poster, which doesn’t feature Dougie Poynter scribble as he only just got there in time. The fee is agreed with the crowd that a fiver is value for money.

A few more songs in and the show is stopped for the important matter of a raffle. The band have 6 tickets to give away to Download festival. Everyone who is in attendance have their name is in the bag and can win a pair.

“A” continue to play all the classics and decided to play the encore before Nothing. This includes Cheeky Monkey, Pacific & Going Down. They said it was the first time they played Cheeky Monkey in 18 years after the record company told them it was too embarrassing to play. Jason Perry commented that his highlight of the year was looking at the crowd and seeing a load of almost 40 somethings with beards screaming “cheeeeeeeeeeky monkey” at him.

New shows will be announced on Monday for the Hi-Fi Serious tour, I’ll be attending for sure.