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Podcast The Heavy Setlist
Ramona Flowers Setlist
Tour Dates
09/26/16 San Jose, CA The Ritz
09/27/16 San Francisco, CA Mezzanine 09/28/16 Los Angeles, CA Fonda Theatre 09/30/16 San Diego, CA Observatory North 11/18/16 Frankfurt, Germany Batschkapp 11/21/16 Sheffield, Leadmill 11/23/16 London, O2 Forum Read More
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This was no lightweight show—
With a new album to promote, almost 1,500 in the audience, and tens of thousands potentially watching online, and a kneel down answer to their songs, ‘What Makes a Good Man?’ and ‘What Happened to the Love?’ – The Heavy had returned to Minneapolis after a four-year absence for a show in the Mainroom at First Avenue in Minneapolis.
Named for the “ninja delivery girl” in Bryan Lee O’Malley’s cult classic comic series (and subsequent movie), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Bristol, UK’s five-piece The Ramona Flowers opened the evening with a forty-minute set of arresting stadium-size indie rock in support of their latest, Part Time Spies (Distiller Records).
The quintet (Steve Bird-vocals; Sam James-guitar; Wayne Jones-bass; Dave Betts-keyboards, guitar; and Ed Gallimore- drums) plays songs that both make you dance and make you think, enhanced on the new record by co-producer Chris Zane, who has previously worked with Friendly Fires and Passion Pit.
Singer Bird’s voice lifts to heights in a Bono-like way, only to move effortlessly into a Thom Yorke falsetto while James’ guitars set the atmosphere with a touch of electro such as on the title track to 2014’s Dismantle and Rebuild and its lyric, “The stars are out tonight / They’re as wide as my eyes”.
The new ‘Skies Turned Gold' echoed vintage Simple Minds/Tears for Fears while songs like ‘Lust and Lies’ and the new ‘Designer Life’ would rise to Muse-like crescendos. ‘Sharks’ was a mostly somber piano-driven ballad, ‘Tokyo’ was a widescreen visually evocative song, and the electro throb of the set closing ‘Run Like Lola’ was directly inspired by the Tom Tykwer 1998 film, Run Lola Run.- definitely a band to keep your eye on.
Entering to the bombastic intro music, Bath, UK band The Heavy frontman Kelvin Swaby immediately addressed the anticipating crowd, acknowledging it had been four years to the day, since they last played town before launching into ‘Can’t Play Dead’.
The foursome had played a memorable set of three previous shows at the Fine Line Music Café but with new album, Hurt & the Merciless (on Bad Son Records), the touring band has expanded to another three members (guitarist, keyboardist, and background vocalist) and the group was obviously ready to graduate to bigger rooms. “We’re going to have to pace ourselves”, Swaby cautioned, saying the audience might have to do the same, to keep up.
The concert was also being webstreamed live via Yahoo/Live Nation, so came with a pair of stationery cameras just behind the soundboard, and another roaming around the photo pit, so the worldwide audience could experience what the rest of us were witnessing live.
Swaby and band (guitarist Dan Taylor, bassist Spencer Page and drummer Marc Jones in place of Chris Ellul) bravely played three songs from the new record early, though had the crowd singing and moving on cue, like they were old familiar tunes. The back to back “hero” songs, ‘Short Change Hero’ (theme song to Cinemax’s Strike Back) and ‘Nobody’s Hero’ had heads bobbing, with Swaby picking up his police walkie mic on the latter, for the first time.
‘Big Bad Wolf’ found the crowd howling on cue and the crowd roared on command, every time yelled “cut it!” during recent single, ‘Since You Been Gone’. The garage funk of ‘Turn Up’ had Swaby dabbing while pointing to the sky during the chorus and the main set ended with ‘What Happened to the Love?’, which has become more germane with recent political and social unrest events.
The three song encore began with Swaby’s ode to fatherhood in ‘Slave to Your Love’ and continued with the call-and-response of hit ‘What Makes a Good Man?’ after which, Swaby decided to show the crowd what makes a good man by calling fan Steven Fike onstage to take the mic. Somewhat choking up, he asked his girlfriend, who he met at The Heavy show at the Fine Line four years ago, to come up to the stage then bent down on one knee, to propose to her in front of the crowd …and she said yes.
Clearly pleased, Swaby regained the mic, saying “this dude must be thinking like this right now” and “…who knows this song?!” before launching into ‘How You Like Me Now?’, familiar both from their 2009 album as well a Kia Super Bowl commercial and a handful of movies. As Swaby approached the chorus, he held out his old style microphone to have the crowd sing it back to him, before they exploded on cue, into a pogo-ing, cheering mass.
Playing a very merciless live set, The Heavy proved themselves more than worthy of the larger room, larger band, and bigger sound, and their electric live show was again memorable, especially to the newly engaged couple who had come full circle exactly four years later.
With a new album to promote, almost 1,500 in the audience, and tens of thousands potentially watching online, and a kneel down answer to their songs, ‘What Makes a Good Man?’ and ‘What Happened to the Love?’ – The Heavy had returned to Minneapolis after a four-year absence for a show in the Mainroom at First Avenue in Minneapolis.
Named for the “ninja delivery girl” in Bryan Lee O’Malley’s cult classic comic series (and subsequent movie), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Bristol, UK’s five-piece The Ramona Flowers opened the evening with a forty-minute set of arresting stadium-size indie rock in support of their latest, Part Time Spies (Distiller Records).
The quintet (Steve Bird-vocals; Sam James-guitar; Wayne Jones-bass; Dave Betts-keyboards, guitar; and Ed Gallimore- drums) plays songs that both make you dance and make you think, enhanced on the new record by co-producer Chris Zane, who has previously worked with Friendly Fires and Passion Pit.
Singer Bird’s voice lifts to heights in a Bono-like way, only to move effortlessly into a Thom Yorke falsetto while James’ guitars set the atmosphere with a touch of electro such as on the title track to 2014’s Dismantle and Rebuild and its lyric, “The stars are out tonight / They’re as wide as my eyes”.
The new ‘Skies Turned Gold' echoed vintage Simple Minds/Tears for Fears while songs like ‘Lust and Lies’ and the new ‘Designer Life’ would rise to Muse-like crescendos. ‘Sharks’ was a mostly somber piano-driven ballad, ‘Tokyo’ was a widescreen visually evocative song, and the electro throb of the set closing ‘Run Like Lola’ was directly inspired by the Tom Tykwer 1998 film, Run Lola Run.- definitely a band to keep your eye on.
Entering to the bombastic intro music, Bath, UK band The Heavy frontman Kelvin Swaby immediately addressed the anticipating crowd, acknowledging it had been four years to the day, since they last played town before launching into ‘Can’t Play Dead’.
The foursome had played a memorable set of three previous shows at the Fine Line Music Café but with new album, Hurt & the Merciless (on Bad Son Records), the touring band has expanded to another three members (guitarist, keyboardist, and background vocalist) and the group was obviously ready to graduate to bigger rooms. “We’re going to have to pace ourselves”, Swaby cautioned, saying the audience might have to do the same, to keep up.
The concert was also being webstreamed live via Yahoo/Live Nation, so came with a pair of stationery cameras just behind the soundboard, and another roaming around the photo pit, so the worldwide audience could experience what the rest of us were witnessing live.
Swaby and band (guitarist Dan Taylor, bassist Spencer Page and drummer Marc Jones in place of Chris Ellul) bravely played three songs from the new record early, though had the crowd singing and moving on cue, like they were old familiar tunes. The back to back “hero” songs, ‘Short Change Hero’ (theme song to Cinemax’s Strike Back) and ‘Nobody’s Hero’ had heads bobbing, with Swaby picking up his police walkie mic on the latter, for the first time.
‘Big Bad Wolf’ found the crowd howling on cue and the crowd roared on command, every time yelled “cut it!” during recent single, ‘Since You Been Gone’. The garage funk of ‘Turn Up’ had Swaby dabbing while pointing to the sky during the chorus and the main set ended with ‘What Happened to the Love?’, which has become more germane with recent political and social unrest events.
The three song encore began with Swaby’s ode to fatherhood in ‘Slave to Your Love’ and continued with the call-and-response of hit ‘What Makes a Good Man?’ after which, Swaby decided to show the crowd what makes a good man by calling fan Steven Fike onstage to take the mic. Somewhat choking up, he asked his girlfriend, who he met at The Heavy show at the Fine Line four years ago, to come up to the stage then bent down on one knee, to propose to her in front of the crowd …and she said yes.
Clearly pleased, Swaby regained the mic, saying “this dude must be thinking like this right now” and “…who knows this song?!” before launching into ‘How You Like Me Now?’, familiar both from their 2009 album as well a Kia Super Bowl commercial and a handful of movies. As Swaby approached the chorus, he held out his old style microphone to have the crowd sing it back to him, before they exploded on cue, into a pogo-ing, cheering mass.
Playing a very merciless live set, The Heavy proved themselves more than worthy of the larger room, larger band, and bigger sound, and their electric live show was again memorable, especially to the newly engaged couple who had come full circle exactly four years later.
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Ramona Flowers |
Ramona Flowers |
Ramona Flowers |
Ramona Flowers |
The Heavy Setlist |
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The Heavy |
The Heavy |
The Heavy |
The Heavy |
Marriage Proposal |
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The Heavy at First Avenue, Minneapolis (19 Sept 2016) |
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