Supergrass
Bimbo's 365, San Francisco, CA, USA - 23 Macrh 2003

The Coral showed up on stage at about 8:10pm, all 1,200 of them. I kid, I kid. There are really only six members -- three guitarists who also play a few brass instruments, a bass player who doubles on the sax (not at the same time of course), a keyboardist and a drummer -- but they filled the stage with all of their instruments making it look like a horde of musicians had taken root in front of us.

I apologize to any of you Coral fans out there, but I'd never heard The Coral before, so I didn't know any of the songs by name. I can say that they really run the gamut of music, from straight-up rock to Irish-sounding jigs to melodic droning ballads. Their set was really tight and they were all great musicians, especially considering how young they were (they range from 18-21), but they were a little too jammy for my taste, drawing out songs for much longer than they needed to be and playing the same riff over and over and over, especially the song that ended their 45-minute set.

The Coral wrapped it up at about 9 or so, and I was off to catch a smoke, take a whiz, grab a beer and make it up to the stage before Supergrass came on. This was the last show of their North American tour, and knowing that Supergrass loves San Francisco, I figured it would be a good one.

The air at Bimbo's was certainly thick with some super grass when headliners finally hit the stage around 9:20, and packed with a crowd of about 800. They opened with Za and then headed into Rush Hour Soul. One thing I've always liked about seeing Supergrass live is that they go from one song to another without much silly banter in the middle. It's all music, no bullsauce.

The first few songs really set the order for the night, as the set was about 60% off their latest album Life on Other Planets, which wasn't really surprising since that's the album they're promoting on this tour. In addition to the aforementioned tunes, they rocked out "Brecon Beacons," "Prophet 15," and "Seen the Light" from Life on Other Planets as well.

They didn't forget their earlier albums though, and played bits off of I Should Coco, In It For the Money and Supergrass, including "Mary," "Sun Hits the Sky," "Strange Ones" and "Pumping on your Stereo," which really got the crowd going.

On nearly every song, Gaz switched up guitars, going from a double humbucker to a Telecaster for a brighter tone. His voice was spot-on for the entire show, and Mick even showed off his vocal talents on "Evening of the Day," "Never Done Nothing Like That Before" and "LA Song." I never realized that Mick sang so much on the new album until I saw them live this time around.

Unfortunately, the set was over before anyone was ready for it to be, and Supergrass wrapped it up after about an hour. Thankfully though after a five-minute break, they came back for a three-song encore that included "Moving," Neil Young's "The Loner" and "Caught by the Fuzz." Again, some tributes to the older albums as well as to ol' Shakey.

All told it was a short but excellent show.

Tal Blevins, IGN.com - 26 March 2003