Friday 17^th October 2008 @ Academy, Bristol

The Streets, or Mike Skinner and friends, were performing to an almost full capacity Academy tonight. The Streets, on stage with a fantastic live band, gave a mature performance a world away from concerts past when Mike Skinner appeared more akin to a character from Shameless than the composed and professional musician we see today.

Songs off the new album Everything is Borrowed were well received by the crowd which was nice to see, especially as the new album departs significantly from Skinner’s usual subject topics. Chart hits such as Don’t Mug Yourself, Never Went To Church and Let’s Push Things Forward went down a storm with the crowd. The Streets even threw in a cover song for good measure, although Ben E. King’s Stand By Me, complete with Skinner on bass, was probably the least obvious cover imaginable! Musically, the song was awful, but it wasn’t intended to be a serious cover.

One word to sum up this performance would be ‘motivated’. There was more audience interaction than you could shake a microphone at. Skinner enticed the crowd to; “Strike a pose – and freeze!” and on hearing this, the audience posed and held it for a good ten seconds before the music started up again. The entire crowd ‘got low’ which was funny to watch a whole venue halve in height. There was even an exchange of jokes between the Skinner and a member of the audience, a punter at the front of the stage told the venue a ‘Your Mama’ joke; however, the golden moment of this gig came in the encore when the almost impossible not to enjoy Dry Your Eyes was sung with genuine enthusiasm and understanding by the crowd.

Tonight, a man from Birmingham in a plain white T-shirt, gave a performance that justified his popularity in the UK charts. An energetic, gratuitous performance, with a sober dose of realism – just what the mainstream ordered.

www.the-streets.co.uk

Fay Harley
Photos: www.crushimages.co.uk