GARBAGE – SKYLINE SERIES, DIGBETH ARENA, BIRMINGHAM 8/9/2018

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Well as they say all good things come to an end and so tonight is the final show in The Skyline Series run of concerts across Bristol and Birmingham, over the last few weekends this summer. To close out this series we have Scottish-American alternative rock band Garbage, whom it`s fair to say haven`t toured these shores extensively for some time.

Tonight`s event goes under the banner of Garbage Version 2.0 Twenty Years Paranoid, to mark the twentieth anniversary of their second album Version 2.0 The title also references the album’s second single `I Think I’m Paranoid`.

This evening`s show features every song off the said Version 2.0 album, some b sides that have only had an airing on this tour, a couple of covers and a film theme song.

It`s indeed the flip sides that kick us of with the intensive `Afterglow` followed quickly by churning soulful `Deadwood`. The featured album in begins in earnest with the catchy `Temptation Waits` before the badass groove of `Wicked Ways` which blends into a section of Depeche Mode`s `Personal Jesus` before returning before the track finishes. This segment is completed with the break up song ‘Special. ` I must admit I’d forgotten that the band had done a Bond theme, it was for the 1999 film The World Is Not Enough staring Pierce Brosnan so this is shared prior to the heavily electronic entrancing `13 X Forever` where Ms Manson stalks the stage. A couple of more lesser known tracks follow with the strangely titled and quite bubbly `Get Busy With The Fizzy` The band then offer two quite interesting covers, firstly with `Thirteen`, a song famed by Big Star, the seventies rock band who were a forerunner of alternative rock bands. Their lead singer Alex Chilton felt that Garbage`s version was the best he`d ever heard, high praise indeed. The later cover cut being `Can’t Seem To Make You Mine` by The Seeds, a mid-sixties garage punk rock band. I have to say this was a very faithful version with the right amount of sleaze that erupts from the original. The group did enjoy a massive top ten hit with `I Think I’m Paranoid` and it’s with this that they send the audience into a frenzy. The final section of the show has the suggestive `Sleep Together`, `Dumb` dedicated to The President Of the USA, almost confrontational `Lick The Pavement`, `Push It` before ending with the powerful `You Look So Fine` We get a short breather before the troupe consisting of Steve Marker on guitar, Duke Erikson on bass and keyboards, Butch Vig on drums and Shirley Manson return for `The Trick Is To Keep Breathing` a song that Shirley explains is about breaking through barriers. “It’s that general feeling of just keep pushing and you’ll get through it. I think everybody can connect with that feeling” the final song is a cover of David Bowie`s `Starman`, which is scheduled for vinyl release later this year.

This was an interesting show as it`s a long time since I saw the band at a festival many years ago and they have really progressed as a live outfit to be reckoned with. It`s a little unnerving to realise that it`s twenty years since Version 2.0 was released but all I can say is Happy Anniversary and great to see you guys again.

 

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