Adam Ant: Newcastle O2 Academy, Sunday 29 May 2011



I promise I will try and get through this review without
making bad puns like how much I "ant-icipated" it, etc.



Well, a little girl's dream came true last night when Adam Ant came to town.  I've made no secret of how much I esteem him as a total underrated bloody marvellous musical genius, and when he announced he was going to tour again after all these years, I possibly waited about 4.5 seconds to work out whether it was likely that I was going to be in the audience that night:

Brain: Alive that day, do you think?

Body:  Most likely.

Brain:  WE'RE THERE. 

And what better gig-mate to accompany me than my fab Auntie Lisa (or should I say, "Ant-y Lisa") who is solely responsible for my induction into the insect nation back in the '80's.  Here's what I have said about Adam Ant before:

I implore you to have a careful listen and try not to be distracted too much by the videos – they are as mad as a box of frogs, make no mistake – but the innovations he makes especially in the depth and layering of the vocal harmonies is something truly special. Behind that pretty boy facade, Ant has a prodigious grasp of musical structuring, put together in an undeniably unconventional way that yet somehow makes you want to hit ‘repeat’ and listen again. And also? TWO drummers? Wha-hoo!

...and try as I might, I can't rephrase that any better to make you see why I love him so. 

Ever the show-off, the inimitable Mr Ant. 
*swoon*

I took some video but they all turned out too distorted and crap to share, but a few quick clicks to YouTube revealed some footage that I have spent most of this afternoon replaying.

If I had one bit of criticism, it's that he didn't really interact with the audience much, nor the rest of the band on the stage, which was a little odd.  Not to take away from the fact that I was enjoying myself immensely -- bopping and jumping and having a bit of drunken-Ant-mad-craic with the girls down at the front with us, representing the "naughty North" -- but save for the occasional 'thank you' and other generic between-song pleasantries he didn't talk very much and it distracted me slightly as I couldn't work out whether or not he was enjoying himself.  I felt a bit unsettled, because I really buzz off that,  you know?  Especially if I'm sweating my boobs off down the front, giving it crazy, shouting lyrics like a mental case.  It's like there was a noticeable deficit in one side of that give-and-take exchange of that energy that should bounce around a concert venue; fizzing between the band before thundering off the kick drum before being zapped  out across however many thousands of us are there watching.  You know what I'm on about, right? "Bad vibes akimbo." Hmm?

Be that as it may, it was still a fantastic night out - just the right ratio of new material to old, and I really enjoyed hearing some of my favourite songs performed nearly 30 years later and sounding as fresh and contemporary as some of the stuff I like these days.  Truly ahead of his time; Mr Ant and his music still tastes lip-smackingly delicious and I have no wish at all to try another flavour.