The Hoosiers

Last night I was at the Brighton Dome to see The Hoosiers and while they were fabulous I have noticed a worrying new trend and that is to have not one but two support acts, and I am not sure why they feel this is necessary. Do they want to market themselves as mini festivals instead of gigs? It just seems a bit odd, I mean if you go to the theatre you don't get the local am dram society warming you up with a couple of scenes of a play they have written.

I know a lot of people always skip the support act anyway however I usually like to try and catch them as you might as well get your money's worth and you never know they might actually be good. Last night the first support group was Envy and Other Sins and their indie tunes were ideal for getting us up and dancing, ready for the Hoosiers. But then we had to sit through the second act as well, who I thought had said they were called Squib or Scrib but they actually said they were called The Script. Anyway while they were ok the music sounded more like an American type band (they were actually Irish) who seemed to be very cool, slightly R 'n' B and was all terribly heartfelt and emotional I'm sure but not really the mood we were after, thereby undoing the good work of Envy and Other Sins. Clearly this new trend is the music labels trying to get more exposure for their new bands and hopefully selling a few extra albums, however I think it is rather annoying as at the end of the day you have paid to see the main act not these other numpties. Festivals such as the Great Escape and Brighton Live are when you want to run around and see as many bands as possible, however when you have paid to see the Hoosiers then they are the ones you want to see. Ok I'd better wind this rant up before I move on to the whole charade that is the encore, I mean we know they are coming back, they know they are coming back, so what's the point?

After all that you may think that I didn't enjoy myself but au contraire as from the moment the band came bursting out of the closet, closely followed by a couple of skeletons, they were full of energy and enthusiasm. The songs sounded even better live and it was a great fun show. They had encouraged people to come in fancy dress so when they came back to do their encore they too were dressed up, however as I had already thought the lead singer was just the right size to go in my handbag to serenade me whenever I wanted, when he came back out in an Admiral's type jacket I couldn't help but be reminded of the toy soldier from Bladerunner, bless! So if you get the chance to see them you are in for a good show just be warned that you'll have two support acts to see first.

Charlotte