boldnerd | James Marsters @ the Point, Cardiff

Last Saturday, 17 November, I went to Cardiff, Wales, for the launch party of James Marsters' new album, Like a Waterfall.
I did not go to the Celtic Blues thing (short crowd mingle with James, photograph,autograph and Q&A) as £100 seemed to be far too expensive for that. But the concert was an affordable option, so here I am, in Cardiff, 4 hours drive from home. The venue was yet another church in some dodgy part of Cardiff. And as always, oh, so long queue outside, full of desperate females. At least 25% of all the people were the same core fans we saw on London events in May. The concert started at least an hour later, right at the moment when we all pretty much lost any hope to enjoy the luxury of central heating ever again. But as it always is on such gigs, queue was full of very fascinating people who seems to know everything about James and his projects so we spend some great time, discussing Dr.Who, Torchwood and Buffyverse.

This proper cool vamp bag I saw on somebody while waiting.

Finally we were in! For starters, there was a local band whose name I never did quite get. They were a bit too loud and screaming for my taste, though they were excellent musicians. They did two songs, then Gareth David Lloyd, who worked with James on Torchwood came out and did about 5 or so covers of blues songs, from Muddy Waters to The Doors.

After a short break, it was James' turn. We'd been wondering how he was
going to manage this show with his broken finger. Well, James had a guest
guitarist for the first 6 songs, an SFX guy on Torchwood whose
name is Rob (Lake?), who accused James of being a guitar junkie for wanting to
hold his Les Paul too much. And the guy was absolutely fantastic! While introducing him, James even joked: "Look what Daddy got you!"

The rest of the set James played himself—though on a borrowed guitar--after calling for Louise (of the song of the same name) to come out and "cut me" (the tape binding his two fingers together). Mixed results, but no one was complaining about a few missed notes or songs he just couldn't do. He seemed more afraid of dropping the guitar than how good or bad he
sounded. He assured us that while it hurt, he was not hurting himself by
playing, (his doctor had told him it was healing fine and he was OK to play) but
it looked to me like he was in a lot of pain, and by the end of the show you
could tell he was straining—even his voice sounded a bit thinner with the pain,
and he was sweating rather more than usual. But, trouper that he is, he
doggedly kept on until he finished the set, even doing an encore. Despite
everything, he sounded good vocally overall, and even did a mostly-decent job
playing (once the guitar was finally tuned right) considering the broken finger
and use of a strange guitar. He was still dressed the same as he'd been all
day, but he took off the Ramones over-shirt by the middle of the first song and
did the show in just the Polo brand undershirt. While he had the accompaniment,
he kind of danced around some, looking like he wasn't quite sure what to do with
himself during the solos. He also said we probably wished Rob would play
all of the songs, since he was so much better a guitarist. He apologized
for his hand, and said "But I gotta try…"

SET LIST:

*When I Was a Baby (first time live!)

*White Hot Girls

*Truth Is…

*London City

*Don't Worry, Son

After introducing this one, and while Rob re-tuned, James stopped to chat about
his son, talking about him `taking the piss' lately, because James showed him
Beavis and Butthead, and was now working on South Park. He said his son
was beginning to tell his friends his father was an actor. He hadn't wanted to
before, "cuz he might suck" --though those that had recognized James when he
picked him up from school had teased his son about how `his dad is a video game'
LOL! He went on to say that his son and friends had looked up James in the
Wickipedia, only to find it described him as a `cannibalistic pedophile' (!) and
had a hideous picture of him with it. He'd had to do a lot of explaining on
that one, as did his son. His son had finally asked if he could just claim
James wasn't his dad at all… LOL! The whole story was very funny. Finally he
did the song, then continued with)

*Birth of the Blues

Louise

He started the song after first tuning the guitar with the help of the guy
who's guitar it was. Then he stopped mid-song and said, "I can't believe this
is me. This sucks." because it hadn't been tuned right. And had the guy come
back up and re-tuned the guitar. He resumed with

Looking at You

Louise (the whole song)

Then he looked at his finger and told it to "Shut UP'

Button-Down Vandals

Not a Millionaire (which Gareth apparently hates: "No balls, man" J:"It's a
pop song!")

Katie ("about a beautiful lesbian I fell in love with")

ENCORE:

(He left briefly--as he always does, if he even does an encore—then he came out
and said "really?" to our yells. LOL! Then he said these were old ones, simple
to do, thankfully)

Dangerous

which he actually introduced by saying off-handedly just before he began
singing it "Oh, this is about Michelle Tractenberg" ROTFL! After all these
years!!!

Then he attempted to do Goodbye, but just couldn't manage it. Someone yelled
something to which he did a mimic-y voiced, snarky "Take your shirt off" to shut
them up. Finally he said he'd do something else, a self-pity song and ended the
show with

Up on Me

His final comment was something about not having played in a month…"Stupid hand"
as he looked at it in some disgust, and then he bowed and said "I love you guys,
man. Thank you." And he was gone.

Overall, he seemed rather more tired and worn out in compare with May London events. Definitely less playful. Somebody mentioned it is due to his girlfriend presence in the audience. Like he is always more reserved around her. No proof though ...
I did not go to Manchester Collectormania the next day for the autographs, as I was SO tired and spend half a day in bed. Hopefully James will be back here next year, and I still have a chance to sign my CD.

Sorry for the pictures being a bit blurred. It was the first time I've used a long zoom lens, which required very steady hands. Not mine, apparently :-)
The rest of the pictures are here http://picasaweb.google.ru/boldnerd