Rather unexpectedly, a message appeared on the Blue Aeroplanes website at the beginning of the year that there was a possibility they would be travelling to Spain in the summer to headline a festival. Well, that became fact and so to make the trip worthwhile, this gig on Friday night was arranged to act as a warm up and further spread the Aeroplanes love to the Spanish capital.
Pre gig drinks with some of the band members and friends at an outside bar, in the high 20s Spanish heat was adding to the whole slightly surreal experience, however there was an element of concern that relatively few tickets had been sold.
We made the short journey down to Boîte for the 11pm start time, and though not the biggest of crowds, there were more there than expected, and it was great to meet with Spanish fans of the band for whom this was their first time seeing them.
So, onto the stage they came, with the impressive backdrop of the band name in neon lights and with enigmatic dancer Wojtek in tow, they kicked off with oldie, and first ever single Action Painting. They then launched into Broken and Mended, an often used opening track due to explosive opening riff and first line with Gerard asking "Hi, How are you, how's it going?"....We were all doing fine by now thank you very much.
Brand new as yet unreleased new tracks sat alongside established songs such as Jacket Hangs (never not played live), Huh! and Yr Own World. It's almost as if these new songs have come from sessions from old classic albums but have not yet seen the light of day. They are that good.
The finale for the evening is, as ever, Breaking In My Heart, a Tom Verlaine cover during which the band is often joined on stage by even more guitarists. They didn't need this tonight. The trio of Bec Jevons, Mike Youe and Gerard (Starkie) are the new vibrant heartbeat of this band, add to them longer termers John Langley on drums, Chris Sharp on bass and of course chief Aeroplane Gerard Langley on vocals, and you have a band you would swear were on the verge of a big label breakthrough, not one that has been going for 30 years. This might just be the best Aeroplanes line up Gerard has assembled.
Bring on the new album, bring on the new tour and bring it on as soon as possible please. Up in a down world? You better believe it.
Keith @kjsmith4082
