St. Paul's Church Birmingham reviews by real event-goers

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Great show with two amazing musicians, and St Paul's Church was a cool venue.

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Two very good performances at a great venue.

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Excellent night and venue

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Great music but the wrong venue for this type of music

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Two great electronic artists in one place! The venue is good acoustically, but the P.A was too quiet/flat for Banco and then only just loud enough for Ulrich Schnauss. The pews are VERY TALL with doors on the end, so they felt claustrophobic to the point where people tended not to fill them up fully. Large pillars made viewing from the side pews very difficult. Not enough toilets available and there were too many people in there talking through the performances instead of listening, something better security could have dealt with. I would not recommend this venue for this type of event, the blue orange theatre is way better if a but smaller.

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Fantastic gig in a wonderful venue.

only thought is that more use could have been made of the vaulted roof with lights/lasers/glitterballs

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Great concert from both Ulrich and Banco with a lovely setting and superb visuals to complement it. Well recommended.

Review of An Evening with ..... Richard Barbieri (Japan/Porcupine Tree)

Excellent show by Mr barbieri as always

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Brilliant to see two of my favourite artists Toby Marks/Banco de Gaia and Ulrich Schnauss at one intimate venue. St Pauls Church had good acoustics and freedom to watch from downstairs, or upstairs in the gallery. The pews however were not particularly comfortable! Great video/computer graphics show by the bands accompanying video artists too. Pity that Ulrich suffered a technical hitch by one of his treasured sampler instruments dying before the performance (he originally got it in 1994), but he apologised for this and the show went on regardless and still sounded great. Would go to this venue again, and certainly look forward to future concerts by them.

Review of An Evening with ..... Richard Barbieri (Japan/Porcupine Tree)

Fantastic to be transported back to the Japan era! Nightporter with the fabulous Nick Beggs just about finished me off and I had tears rolling after the first few notes.....thrilling and spine tingling all at the same time!
Great evening

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Came for the Ulrich Schnauss' "retrospective". I hadn't come across Banco de Gaia, and was left with the distinct impression that I hadn't missed out on much. As others noted, he didn't introduce himself or say anything at all. I wish these "supporting acts" would be second such that I can leave earlier :)

As for the main set: Schnauss explained that there had been a problem with some of his equipment -- though we couldn't really hear what he was saying. Use a microphone?! Still, we got ~30 mins of improvisation and ~60 mins of pre-sequenced music. I liked the improvisation, as it really reminded me of (recordings of) Tangerine Dream's 1970s concerts (also in churches). I enjoyed the retrospective, though would've preferred more from his earlier works.

The venue was fine. I liked the fact there was seating, as I'm not one for standing at concerts. Sadly, the pews were uncomfortable.

Acoustics weren't really set up for electronic music. There were only two speaker units (left and right). No-one had bothered to tune the dynamics for the space, leaving some rather uncomfortable resonate frequencies.

Others have mentioned that people were talking.

Visuals from Nat were good. But what was with that squid thing with tentacles between the toes? That'll haunt my nightmares for years.

Schnauss needs someone else to play along with him at live events, I think. Call up Jerome Froese?

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Well worth a 200 mile round trip and standing outside in a monsoon for!

Been waiting a long time to catch a full Ulrich Schnauss show, the closer London venues have never appealed so jumped at the chance of a front row pew here. Plus a lengthy and enjoyable support set from Banco de Gaia, a new discovery for me despite being around for 30 odd years.

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Couldn’t make it to the concert

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

I came to hear banco de Gaia. Terrible venue - couldn’t see the light show - people talking very loudly ruined it. No introduction or thank you. Bar had poor quality wine and ran out of red before the show started. I travelled from Leicester for this miserable experience. Great great music but a sad night for me.

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Well worth the trip to see this. Great atmosphere, fantastic music and slide show, what more could you ask for.

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Marvellous and enthralling set in a wonderfully atmospheric setting

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Really enjoyed the concert - great music (as always).
Liked the venue - small & intimate; very atmospheric - never been to a music concert before in a church.
Loved the collision of Ancient & Modern :-)

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia

Excellent bands, but lacking in atmosphere. But then again I was doing the gig "straight edge, the audience needed to cut loose a little. But overall a excellent night

Review of Ulrich Schnauss + Banco de Gaia