




Off to Manchester today! 10 years ago my wife and I caught them in Cardiff for the Fuzzy/Radiator tour. Here are some of my SFA T's
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Hello everyone!
First off, I want to take a second to thank the entire city of Cardiff. I had such a wonderful time in the city and especially at the show Saturday evening.
I was out on a walk last September(ish?) when I saw a notification about the 20th anniversary LoveKraft release and went to the SFA website to see more. As a side note, I rediscovered what an incredible record LoveKraft really is. I saw the Euro tour announcement and convinced myself immediately this was a good idea/excuse for a UK trip. I figured this may be my best chance to see SFA play live again.
The first time I saw SFA was in 2002 at the 40 Watt in Athens, GA. I loved it so much that I went to the show in Atlanta a few days later. Both of these shows had a capacity of 400-500 people and this is around the crowd size in the shows I saw for the next 6-7 years.
So seeing a crowd around 10x that size in Cardiff was something really incredible. We opted for the balcony seats because A) We were already spending money to travel, may as well go all the way and B) All the other tickets sold out quickly. Everything sounded great there! A bit muddy with some of the bass but that's expected at almost every arena show I've seen.
I'm not a writer so I won't give a full on review of the show but here are some of my favorite moments of the experience.
- There wasn't just an energy inside the arena but seemingly in the entire city the day of the show. Everyone in Cardiff seemed to have a SFA story to share. Lots of places playing SFA on the day of the show. The city really seems to love the band.
- Seeing so many people at the merch pop-up was so cool. I went later in the day on Friday and walked out with the print and the coffee, the two things I wanted.
- The crowd was amazing to me! In the US, I'm accustomed to crowds with very little knowledge of the songs so seeing everyone singing along, pumping fists, and becoming a part of the show was a different and magical experience.
- This show was the most I've appreciated Cian. I'd seen Mountain People before but the outro is pure bliss. I think I went into some sort of trance state at that point. I loved where he took MDGAF. I've seen the full-on rave scene unfold but what he did in Cardiff was ambient and beautiful and I could have listened to another hour of that.
- LoveKraft was the reason I went and was bummed at first that they didn't play anything from the record. Cloudberries live is one of my favorite things. But I ended being so happy seeing so many songs from Fuzzy Logic, Radiator, and Guerrilla.
Definitely still on a high from this experience and so glad I took the trip and decided to make this happen.
I think I've had this since 1996, when I was a student journalist in Cardiff. Creation Records used to send us promos, and I'd been an SFA fan since Hometown Unicorn so I would have gladly grabbed this If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You promo in a slipcase with The Man Don't Give A Fuck.
I actually don't remember being too excited about TMDGAF, even though it was removed from the eventual single release. It was a time before filesharing or streaming so there wasn't much buzz about a song most people couldn't hear. TMDGAF was released three months later, but I think it was only really with the Radiator tour that it became their grand finale. Back then it was more of a weird song that they couldn't get a sample cleared for.
I also just found a postcard advertising the single release of TMDGAF, "the track that they tried to ban". Interestingly, it says "You may have heard it blasting out as SFA's intro track on the last tour". I missed the Fuzzy Logic tour, and saw them for the first time in the week TMDGAF was released (at the Hip'po Club, mentioned in Keep the Cosmic Trigger Happy). That was the wildest SFA show I ever saw. It was filmed on camcorders but I don't know if the footage still exists.
Some thoughts on this excellent rarities compilation.
Hi, I've tickets for the London shows this weekend. I've downloaded the O2 app, and then selected bought with another vendor / See tickets - which then takes me off to See tickets to login with the order number. I get to a page which says download tickets, but all that's there is my order confirmation. I take it this isn't going to be enough for entry. Anyone else in the same situation?
Solved - Found in the O2 app, after i logged into Ticketmaster
Spent rather a lot more than I planned to today… hope everyone that is seeing SFA tonight have a wonderful time, I wish I could have made it!
I've just got out of the SFA Supamarket. I joined the queue at 12 and definitely underestimated their popularity! I had to wait just over an hour to get inside, and bought a black Radiator bears t-shirt, the incense tank and some incense, and I got given some Phantom Power stickers (presumably because all that came to £105 - eek!).
When I left the queue was about half what it was when I joined, so people shouldn't wait much more than about half an hour. I'd imagine it'll be busier on Saturday though.
First time trying this out. You can't really see the smoke but it looks very cool. Sound up.
So, my mate (honestly, not me!) bought four tickets for Brixton on Friday. He has the receipt on PayPal (Eventim is listed as the seller).
However, he cannot find the tickets anywhere and he can't remember which site he bought them on. Not showing up on O2 app, Ticketmaster or See tickets. Any ideas? I know they don't always show up until a couple of days before but surely they'd show as an event in an app somewhere?
I’m debating whether to head to Cardiff on Saturday to try and get a yeti 😂 I’m wondering how much it will cost because once I’m there I’m going to get it (let’s not pretend I won’t!), but I’m trying to balance my expectations for how much I might sink on a cuddly toy 🤣 guesses welcome as I debate with myself!!
Edit: updated link to the show below - available for the next month. SFA are about 1 hour 55 minutes in.
Love Kraft: Zoom, Atomik Lust, Frequency
Hey Venus: Runaway, The Gift that Keeps Giving, Into the Night
Dark Days/Light Years: Inaugural Trams, Very Best of Neil Diamond, White Socks/Flip Flops, Cardiff in the Sun
I get why they have trouble fitting these in. Their first six albums are arguably better, though I’m sure someone here thinks otherwise. Still, loads of great songs and would be great to hear one or two get their due, especially from the last album. I could also add a ton of b-sides if I were in charge of set lists. Trouble with having so much good music.