You and Others by Vega 4

Vega4 Setlist

Traffic Jam
You
Bullets
Billion Tons of Light
Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2 Cover)
Schrodinger’s Cat
Paper Cuts
Life Is Beautiful
— Encore —
You and Me

There was a big push for the British/Irish band Vega4 when they released their sophomore album You and Others. In America, in particular, the band was showcased at SXSW around mid-March 2007. Since they were already in America, they book to tour for the next few months. One of those stops was at the Varsity Theater, in Minneapolis on May 22, 2007. I don’t have photos of the show, but we have a bad vuart sketch summarizing the technical difficulties the band experienced. We also have a setlist, so we know what was played.

The band did team up with Augustana for some dates on the US tour.

Unfortunately, shortly after this tour, and returning to the UK, in 2008, the band broke up.

Original post about the Varsity Theater show:

Vega4 met in London, but the four-piece are from different countries, two are from Ireland (Johnny McDaid & Gavin Fox, formerly of Idlewild), Canada (Bryan McLellan), and New Zealand (Bruce Gainsford).

They have a huge hit single with “Life is Beautiful”, and I was told are playing on all the hit radio station that would cater to such acts like Snow Patrol and similar-sounding bands. I did notice that on their live set that “Life is Beautiful” is clearly the strong number.

Some highlights from yesterday’s show at the Varsity in Minneapolis:

■ Johnny spent a few minutes wondering why his acoustic guitar was not showing up on the monitor. When Chris (sound roadie?) came on and replaced the input box, they still couldn’t hear the guitar. Then after a few more minutes, Chris noticed that the guitar’s volume was NOT TURNED ON. Quite embarrassing, but also very funny.*

📷 Vega4 vuart

■ They did a wonderful version of U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, in almost acoustic/slowed down version. I immediately noticed the cover as soon as the first chord and verse (“I can’t believe the news today…”) were sung. Does anyone have this song by Vega4? As you know I am a huge covers fan and this would go nicely with all the other Bono songs.

■ The last song, “You and Me”, Johnny asked the audience, “Does anyone here want to dance?” A minute later, a woman came on stage and slow-danced with him as he sings the last verses of the song. I can hear a man behind me shouting out, “That’s my WIFE!”

That was one of the more memorable shows I’ve attended recently.

* To be fair, out-of-country bands usually rent (or as they like to call it, “hire”) their instruments instead of lugging around their equipment through customs, so often are not familiar with their rentals.

Vega4 2007 USA Tour Dates: