Ting Tings, Manchester Academy 3rd October 2008

Went to see the Ting Tings on Friday at Manchester Academy. We met with friends in Jabez Clegg before hand as it's usually cheaper than the academy one, but for some reason 2 pints cost me over £6, which seems a bit extortionate for a student place, might as well go to Kro next door and get a decent pint for that sort of money. Although we did get given a free drink each from the Jim Beam representative in there, shame the only one of us who likes it was driving that night! But on the up side we're all apparently going to receive an email invitation to a survey about Jim Beam which if we complete we'll receive a £10 Amazon voucher...
Anyway, onto the gig, we walked across the road to the academy around 9pm, and it was still busy with people going in, this was my first time since the academy has been fully refurbished - the last time I was there, the toilets were still portable units outside the building. The first thing I noticed was that they hadn't learnt from the last time - the toilets were back to being the same - over flowing, poor layout/design, and they had put the bar back in the old position meaning that there was a huge bottle neck upon entering the venue, although adding an upstairs bit was a nice surprise I suppose (but their was a massive queue to go up there as well). Despite the new lay out there was still minimal bar space, so getting a drink took a good 15 minutes once we got into the venue, and of course we were paying around £3.50 for a can of beer. I think we pretty much missed the support act Fight Like Apes, as they were finishing as we were queueing for the bar.
The ting tings came on stage around half nine, I can't actually remember the first song they played, just that the crowd went wild jumping, dancing and singing along, which set the tone for the rest of the evening. They played the hit singles: that's not my name, great dj, shut up and dance, along with fruit machine, be the one and a couple more off the album, they also played a couple of songs I didn't recognise, so I don't know whether they are new tracks off the much anticipated second album or not, I hope so. It's great when you can see the band really throwing all their energy into the performance and that's what we got with the ting tings, at times they reminded me of blondie, with katie's 80's punky movement.
The crowd was very eclectic and friendly. really good gig in all, shame their next tour is going to be at the apollo though, as it's one of my least favourite venues and the hiked ticket price is making it a no go.