Garbage

Last night I went and saw Garbage at the Festival Theatre. I am a huge Garbage fan and this is not the first concert of theirs I’ve been to – this was my fourth – obsessive maybe but I love their music.

Wow! Is the best way to describe the Garbage experience, they don’t need to rely on an over the top light show, dancers cluttering up the stage, big bangs and synthesized sounds. This is music in its purist form – the band playing and the singer singing. It was minimalist and the crowd loved it, hanging on Shirley’s every word sung and spoken.

The fans converged on the festival theatre (odd venue in my opinion) and once we were all seated the lights dimmed and the fans rose from their seats (like a Mexican wave) – Garbage had a standing ovation for the length of their performance, not one person remained seated. When the anticipation was hanging heavily in the air Garbage graced the stage and Shirley stood at the microphone shrouded in darkness. The fact we couldn’t see her didn’t stop us and the fans roared out their approval and when Shirley’s started to sing Queer the fans roared even louder.

The band had a good line-up, we got to hear songs off the new album live for the first time, but we also got to hear our old favourites like, “Only happy when it rains”, “I think I’m Paranoid” and “Cherry Lips”.

The fans loved every minute and we had a three song encore before Garbage disappeared backstage permanently.