Local band Apriori open the show today, and do a damn fine job of it too. They have changed a lot since I last saw them. Previous vocalist Mouse is now the drummer, his brother Tony still plays the guitar but also handles lead vocals, and new boy Mark covers pretty much all other bases on an impressive bank of keyboards. I’ve seen bands play with a drum machine before but I think this is the first time I’ve seen bass played on a keyboard, with feet!
Read MoreIt’s been a helluva week. I started out by getting caught up in civil insurrection in Spain, got home intact thankfully only to come down with some variety of D&V bug that completely knocked me out for a few days. So it was a fragile Jo that trundled up the M6 to Blackpool on the Friday afternoon to attend the Massive Weekend. Massive because both nights feature local Lancashire lads Massive Wagons as headliners, ably supported by a plethora of some of the best up and coming bands on the circuit.
Read MoreHuddersfield’s Gandalf the Green have both a fantastic moniker and a massive Electric Wizard fanboy crush. They trade in massive scuzzy fuzzy riffs and psychedelic widdlings. What they do is under-produced and rawer than Sushi that is still swimming around the pool but is full of passion. This is a band that is loving the music they are playing and the fact they are playing it in front of a paying audience (admittedly not theirs).
Read MorePrimordial radio is trading on that often used phrase that we as a group of fans of the same music are a family. This is the second of their “Primordial Presents” events, designed to move the friendships out of cyber space and into a bar. As the bond that binds us is music, they have thrown in four bands and also, as we are a caring and sharing community, they have made this a charity gig. Which is where I come in. When not badly writing reviews of little known Sludge metal acts, I work for Mind as their Strategic Lead for Greater Manchester and one of the two benefiting charities tonight is Manchester Mind.
Read MoreThere was a time where Kyle Falconer was the bees knees and with his Indie darlings The View was the best big thing. Sadly something happened on the way to paradise and here we are first on at half seven to a half full Academy. Its ballsy angsty acoustic stuff and those who have made it in sing along with gusto.
I'm not one to take umbrage against a band and I usually look for the redeemable features in every act I review, however I may have met my match with King Nun.
Read MoreThis is hardcore prog metal gigging, not for fair-weather fans that once saw Dream Theater at Download and rather liked that 'Pull Me Under' song. Advertised as an “Evening with”, its two sets format and nearly three hours in length makes it a gift to long standing Between The Buried and Me fans and frankly inaccessible to everyone else. Essentially this unashamed celebration of what makes Between the Buried and Me so wonderful and intriguing, is firmly for the initiated (there is not a person in the room that doesn’t know every word and every chord).
Read MoreWhy is it I’ve never seen The Wildhearts before?, I think to myself as I’m driving across the M56 heading for Chester. For a band of some 30 year standing and myself, a rock fan of some 40 years, I have to say that I’m slightly perplexed at the fact that our paths haven’t yet crossed before. Perhaps it’s because I’m lazy in my musical choices at times, or maybe that when the Geordie superstars first burst onto the scene I was still shaking my poodle mullet to the likes of Whitesnake and Kiss, with my heavier musical tastes grinding right to a halt no heavier than Judas Priest or Motorhead. Either way, tonight we’re putting it right and leaping at the opportunity to review one of the hardest working class, self- imploded bands that have ever graced the UK’s music scene, and who are currently busy on part 2 of their tour supporting their first album in 10 years, “Renaissance Men”. As well as re-education on what I've been missing out on, I’m also hoping that they will rip me a new one in the process by ways of a suitable punishment.
Read MoreLiverpool. To quote a member of tonight’s headline band “it’s an odd place to gig. Everyone is IN a band so nobody wants to go and SEE a band”. Yep, not tonight though as the sold-out Zanzibar club can attest. So we walk into the dark, red-lit, womb-like space not really knowing what to expect in terms of show or crowd. But hey ho, the drinks are cheap, the toilets are nice and there’s a comfy chair for the Grumpy One; there may even be cake later. Let’s go.
Read MoreAs I skipped out of my house filled with excitement and expectation, I found it hard to describe to my disparaging other half just how important Sleep are. A clumsy “they are the Doom Metal Beatles” is as far as I got and whilst a lazy comparison, it is actually rather apt. if you are currently producing or have produced anything in even a vague orbit of Doom, then you will have been influenced by “Holy Mountain”. This includes tonight’s openers Pharaoh Overlord, who are actually bonkers Finish post-rockers Circle getting a mutual love of stoner rock out of their collective systems.
Read MoreLet me tell you about the first time I encountered The Burning Crows. It was all the way back in 2012, at a Hard Rock Hell event in Pwlhelli. I walked into Stage 2 to find a band I’d never seen before on stage and literally stopped in my tracks. Mesmerised, mouth open, I watched this group of four young men weave an intricate and delicate mix of great music, good humour and fantastic hair and was instantly hooked. Grumpy Twat asked if I wanted to go and get a drink? I’m not moving. Go and see our friends? Nope, still not moving, I need to savour every note of this. So began a somewhat one-sided love affair that has persisted throughout the last seven years, culminating in tonight.
Read MoreIt is the eternal rule. When you cannot be bothered with a night out, you go on to have the best night ever.
Now don't get me wrong, I've been positively horny with joy for a long time over this line up. I often jest I am a child of the nu-metal generation, but honestly, I'd wear my bondage pants to work if I thought I could get away with it (and if they fit me........... never mind). The happiest memories of my entire life revolve around gigs and albums and songs and bands and sneaking into the Krazyhouse when I was dramatically underage.
Read MoreUnfortunately, thanks to a crash on the M56, I miss the opening act on tonight’s bill (sorry Portrayal of Guilt!). I put a positive spin on the situation by thinking that it might help the cause; co-headline gigs, especially those with intense bands such as Touché Amoré and Deafheaven, can sometimes be hard work. How wrong I am, as both bands tonight deliver masterclasses in their art.
Read MoreBe careful what you wish for, it may well come true. For literally years I have bemoaned that fact that the UK never seemed to succumb to the utter joy that is Volbeat. As they graduated to stadium and festivals headliner status on the continent, in this country it felt that they had become caught in a groundhog day loop of club gigs and mid-afternoon second stage slots at Download. Tonight, however, things may have finally changed. The Apollo is literally bursting out the seams and the entire tour has been sold out for months, so why oh why, do I have reservations?
Read MoreHurrah, it’s Friday and there is a gig to go to that features four very good bands for just ten of your English pounds. There is of course a downside to this – it’s in Wigan. Now, I have nothing against Wigan per se but I suspect its one-way system was actually designed by a bonafide demon one wet Sunday when he was bored with torturing individual souls. It’s worthy of being one of the outer roads of hell I think, so after driving around it aimlessly for far longer than I intended I finally find the Boulevard and somewhere to park that’s more or less in the same postcode as it. The Boulevard turns out to be a rather funky rock bar in a cellar under several much more “normal” pubs, so I settle in to enjoy the rest of the evening and try not to think about how the hell I am going to navigate home later!
Read MoreOn this night, I find myself dashing into Satan’s in time to catch opening act Sertraline. I’d recently caught this local band at UK Tech-Fest and immediately took a liking to them, with their take on modern melodic technical metal. In Lizzie, they have a charismatic, energetic and gifted singer, but the whole band offer an energising vibe through their staging and impressive musicianship.
Read MoreMy day job involves saddling up to the system and telling it that it needs to change. Prior to this evening’s show, the system went toe to toe with me, looked me straight in the eyes and made it very clear that it had no intention of changing. This had both a positive and negative effect on the day. On the downside, my sizeable ego and faith in my abilities took a considerable beating, but on the upside I was in the perfect frame of mind for an evening of relentless extreme Death Metal. Omophagia take to the stage at the ridiculously early time of quarter to seven, not sure who was there to witness their particularly vicious brand of Death Metal, I certainly wasn't.
Read More8ft2 are like a fish out of water at the Tiv tonight. I miss the very start of their set due to the M56 being slower than a slow thing, and arrive just in time to catch them finishing off a version of Taylor Swift’s ‘Never Ever’. OK, I wasn’t expecting that. Turns out that their own material is a sort of summery jangly indie pop fused with some lightweight bursts of rock.
Read MoreDo you like your music laced with silliness? Do you enjoy inflatables? Pirate hats? Mankinis?
Then my dear ROCKFLESH friends, I have found the line up for you.
I have returned from my involuntary hiatus (there was infidelity, unexpectedly relationship status changes, money problems, bereavement... more bereavement... and some drum and bass) to delve headfirst into the sublimely weird and wonderful side of metal.
Metal is usually an array of the most colourful characters clad in black and tonight the battle jackets are complemented with pirate attire, UV paint litters the audience in Rebellion. It's Friday, it’s probably pay day for some of us, and spirits are high.
Read MoreTonight’s support band are, it seems, a bit of a last-minute shoe-in. So much so that their drummer has never actually played with them before. With that in mind, he actually did a pretty good job of it! They are a 3-piece band with good hats and beards, and they play fuzzy bass-driven blues rock.
Read MoreTonight I thought I was taking you to the Wild Wild West. My (t)rusty Megane was headed towards the sunset and I’ve been to Wales before so can attest to its wildness. I’d fastened on my spurs, talked the Grumpy Husband out of wearing his Dolly Parton wig, and was ready to roll my wagons. All my cowboy homilys were poised and ready to be slipped into the review. Well until I got to the venue and discovered that tonight’s triumvirate of bands are actually Southern Rock and not Country and Western. Damn. Foiled on a technicality! Genre fail!
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