Ash @ ULU

Now a three piece again after Charlotte left lat year Ash seem to have regressed to their punky beginnings with seemingly half of tonight's set coming from their debut 1977.

Not that this was a bad thing for me - It's the only album of theirs that I own and was one of my favourites back in the Britpop days. It's just a bit worrying for me that a band that is still going ten years after they were formed is heavily relying on their earliest material to get the crowd going and bulk out the set. The sound overall wasn't great either, a muddy mix highlighted the lack of finesse in the band. Now this is the first time I've seen them live so I don't really have a frame of reference but I can imagine they are still in a period of transition after Charlotte leaving - losing a quarter of your line up I guess is going to affect the live performance and I can only think this is why they were playing the smaller venues in the first place - trying to tighten up the act. Maybe this is also the reason for the reliance on early stuff - when of course they were a three piece - certainly its the only reason I can think that they didn't play Shining Light which was one of their more successful later singles.

So I sound disappointed - and in a way I was but having said that to pogo up and down to Girl From Mars and Kung Fu like it was '97 all over again was a bit of a treat and they do still have an energy about them - fitting really since they are actually still younger than some of the Kaiser Chiefs.