Gomez - 'Bring it On' in Bristol

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A nostalgia trip worth going on

Gomez **** Despite my son being disappointed I wasn't seeing Selena Gomez, not a disappointment I shared, we were to celebrate that twenty years ago Gomez burst onto the scene with their debut album ‘Bring it On’. I still can’t believe it has been that long either, with their mix of Indie and Blues coming in the post Brit-Pop era when there was change in the musical direction of the country. They hit at a perfect time to make an impact and judging by the crowd the songs still mean something to people today, the place was packed.

In fact let’s get the moan out of the way at the start so I can end on the positives, firstly this is aimed at the venue and not the band. The place was almost too busy, the only floor space I could find was on the top floor where I could not see the band at all. But I could hear them perfectly well, but part of the experience is seeing them too. A number of people I could see wandering around most of the evening looking for somewhere, even the staircases were taken. When you are looking at pushing £40 a ticket, I think it is something the o2 Academy in Bristol should look at.

Back to the music, as has been popular recently they played the album in it’s entirety and it’s original order so opened with ‘Get Miles’ followed by the rousing ‘Whippin Piccadilly’. But perhaps the nature of the fact that people have lived with this album for twenty years  it was not what might be the obvious tracks that got the biggest sing along with ‘Make no Sound’ in fact getting the biggest reception of the night for the first few songs.  

I would guess that by the age of the crowd most people probably came across Gomez in their Uni years so it has resonance with a memorable time of your life so has almost become part of their life story. If you didn’t know all the words to the songs, that was fine as at one point Gomez wanted everybody to sing along with the riff, almost the opposite of you hum it I’ll play it.

They raced through the songs, of course a massive reception was given to ‘Get myself Arrested’ and ‘Bring it On’ the title track of the album we all came here to hear. They still have the sound perfected and while Ben Ottewell has released some solo material, I think tonight proved that they still have the fans there if they want to release some new material. For now we can enjoy the songs we first loved them for and with a turbo version of ‘Whippin Piccadily’ it was all over.  See you again in 2038 for the 40th anniversary, but hopefully sooner.

Review by Jon Cooper and Photos by Steve Owen

Check Out! the Video for 'Bring it On' Below...