Winter Sounds...

Xfm's Winter Wonderland

Yesterday I got a text off my friend Mike asking if I wanted to go to Xfm's Winter Wonderland, and obviously I jumped at the chance! Unfortunately I was working until 7.30pm, but I drove straight there, so we arrived just in time for Delphic's set at 8pm. They were really good, and proper got the venue pumped up ready for the night's festivities. As there were a few different artists on they only got to play a four song set, but it included Doubt, so that was all that mattered!

Next up were Everything Everything, who I was particularly excited to see. They too played a small set of five songs, but ended on Cough Cough, which was so good live! I'm looking forward to the new album coming out in early January even more now. I was surprised at how young they all seemed, the bassist in particular looked like he should still be at school! Great talents, and they formed at Salford University, so you could tell they were pleased to be playing to a home crowd.

Next up were Maximo Park, who performed for about 45 minutes. The lead singer, Paul Smith, was crazy as ever, diving about the stage and putting on a great show, and they played 'Books From Boxes' which is up there with one of my favourite songs ever, so it was great to see it live. The last time I saw them was at Benicassim in 2009, which I can barely remember apart from the fact that it was rather tame, so it was good to see the band play in the high spirits they are famed for!

The final act of the night was Bloc Party, who have been on my 'to see' list for as long as I can remember. They played a really good mix of old and new, well known and less known songs, including a few from their latest album, which sounds a lot heavier than previous ones, I will definitely be getting hold of it after hearing a few samples.

The night finished at about 11pm, and we headed back to the car (which we had sneakily managed to find a space on the road for free!) and I drove us both home. Not bad for a last minute gig and free ticket!