Doors Alive and Echoes of the Bunnymen at O2 Islington

I experimented at this venue. I have only ever been at the front down below. But I decided to give the balcony a go. Small venue so the balcony is actually pretty close to the band anyway, but a birds eye view! I was still standing, but unrestricted view.

First up were the Bunnymen tribute act. Now some tribute acts attempt to look like the act they are imitating, some eschew that but attempt to sound like them. This lot didn't do either. Bunnymen songs but the vocalist had nothing like Ian McCulloch's voice, neither singing nor speaking. Very not scouse. But that is in no way to denigrate their performance. They did a particularly memorable medley in the middle of Rescue, including some extracts from other bands' songs like Reward by the Teardrop Explodes.

Anyway, I have tickets to see the real thing next year for comparison!

You can see from below both the stage and the front of the audience

The main act was Doors Alive. They did try to sound and look like the Doors. The lead singer, from my viewpoint, was a very passable lookalike for a James Morrison turned podgy. They also sounded very much like the real thing. Including a Jim Morrison high on drugs and alcohol (by which I mean at least acting like he was, not necessarily that he was. He was swigging from a bottle of bourbon, but of course it could have been just brownish liquid. Acting is a thing!)

It was a pretty intense performance. There were clearly a number of middle aged hippies loving the meandering nature of the gig (and the smell of weed suggested they were getting thoroughly into it!). There were a number of proper pensioners from the Doors at their pomp, many of whom had left before the end of the epic encore. And a surprising number of youngsters, maybe having discovered the Doors through their parents. Or even grandparents.

The performance was quite something. It included a truly epic version of Light My Fire, during which "Jim" left the stage and the band just riffed seemingly endlessly until he returned to finish the song. And naturally the encore was "The End" which also seemed interminable, and by the end of it my balcony was almost deserted, perhaps unsurprising as the well exceeded the curfew of 11pm.