Academy 3 for the third time in just over a month?! Yes but is this the last time for a while… Sigh...? I arrive fashionably late, as usual, and am greeted by lots of familiar faces, but the room is quieter than expected and I sense that some people are obviously keeping away, some are lurking at the back and there are lots more masks to be seen.
Read MoreClashmute are a last-minute addition to the bill following Ghost Iris having to pull out of the remaining dates of the tour due to a positive COVID-19 test (gutting as I was very much looking forward to seeing those guys perform their new album). They kick off proceedings with their aggressive hardcore-tinged brand of Killswitch Engage style Metal.
Read MoreWhen this tour was announced earlier on in the year, this was a atypical main band / support act affair. Bossk were the main attraction and Dvne were along for the ride to make up the numbers. However, this all changed as the word of mouth about the incredible “Etemen Ænka” spread like wildfire. Critics and punters alike fell over themselves to heap praise on this album and the queue to get to witness them live at last month’s Damnation Festival (review here) was extraordinary.
Read MoreThis is the second time I’ve been along to Jimmy’s in Liverpool for a gig, and I’ve got to say I’m fond of this place already. The Honeycomb Pale Ale alone is worth a visit! First up are Liverpool’s very own Atanamir. There’s a heavy doom, stoner, sludge vibe with these guys but mixed with enough groove and thrash Metal to keep it fresh and intriguing. In fact, they sound very reminiscent of Crowbar.
Read MoreThe reason I gig as consistently and as vociferously as I do is in the vain hope that once in a while, I will experience nights like I did tonight. This evening is one of those instances where the stars align, and everything clicks into place. Cutting to the chase, tonight Orange Goblin were utterly phenomenal and by a country mile the best live act I have seen this year, if not this decade. Everything was right and everything worked. The band were hyped, the crowd were pumped and the bond between the two felt unbreakable. But I am getting ahead of myself as initially the omens weren’t great (cue flashback music).
Read MoreThis is a co-headline tour, but it seems that although they get similar set times Dirty Sound Magnet are scheduled to go on last tonight which surprises me a little as I thought Daxx & Roxane were the more well-known of the two. However, that might just be because they are the ones I’ve heard of and seen before.
I also got it wrong about the support. Cosmic Mother – hippies right? Dreads and paisley and beads? Nope. They are actually a 90s indie-type band. Very Manchest-or. The sound is in the vein of the Stone Roses, and they are good at it.
Read MoreThe Saddle Inn in Chester has reinvented itself as The Saddle Rock Bar, and is trying its hand at a few ways to generate the appropriate vibe (including band themed bedrooms in the hotel section!). One of these ventures is to use the renovated outhouse as a tiny gig venue called G21. It probably only holds 35ish people but is free to hire and is perfect for young aspiring bands putting on intimate gigs. Ryan and I make our way through the already busy pub (there’s a Foo Fighters tribute band on in the main pub later that night) and across the beer garden. Having had a chat with some of headliners Aleya (awesome chats I should add) we make our way into G21.
Read MoreIt’s a cold and rainy Liverpool tonight, yet the O2 Liverpool Academy is rammed. This is good but not good, the place is steamimg and so are my glasses.
I wipe them just as Massive Wagons hit the stage. Wagons are a band who have slogged their arses off on the pub and club circuit for the last dozen years or so, and it’s been amazing to see them transform from a fairly average pub covers band to the new Britrock powerhouse that they have now become. This tour with The Darkness is yet another rung on their ladder to success – they are here as a last-minute replacement for Steve Harris’s British Lion who pulled out for unspecified reasons that appeared to involve covid precautions. Yes, THAT Steve Harris.
Read MoreI arrive as A New Hope start their set within a fairly busy Academy 3. I would insert a Star Wars reference here but I know nothing and won’t embarrass myself so you can fill in for yourselves! Making my way to my usual position at the front I try to figure out their slightly squashed stage set up. A little way into proceedings it becomes obvious their singer is missing (apparently due to illness), so much respect to the band for going ahead with tonight’s performance. From where I am stood I see the drummer, guitarist and bassist. Behind the speakers I can hear someone else but I can’t see him.
Read MoreIt may feel like the world is returning to hell in its ever-reliable handcart, but if we are going to go down the crowd tonight at club academy are going to go down partying. I am not quite sure why there is such a jovial atmosphere tonight, maybe it’s the time of year or maybe it’s the promise of being in close proximity to living breathing superstar, but there is an air of a runaway hen do from the off. Openers Stitched Up Heart benefit greatly from this.
Read MoreWargasm – up and coming genius, or annoying AF? Let’s explore…
But not before we visit the weird and wonderful world of tonight’s opener, Bambie Thug. I find her nestled on a Spotify Misfits Playlist between some of my other favourites like Cassyette, Nova Twins and Ghostemane.
All the way through her set I’m hearing the influences of pop, trap, electro, but it’s on a much darker and unusual scale, and I can’t actually stop watching her. She commands the crowd with ease, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many people into an opener before. I may be wrong though, I am getting old and losing my memory a bit. By tonights crowds average age, I am practically their Nana.
Read MoreTonight’s audience is of a certain vintage and a certain gender. There are fadedIron Maiden t-shirts everywhere and a large gaggle of fanboys have already reserved their spot on the barrier and are not planning on moving anytime soon. Yes, a barrier at Rebellion (and two security guards), but it isn’t often that you get visited by Heavy Metal royalty. British Lion is Iron Maiden head honcho Steve Harris’s other band and there is a palpable level of excitement about being within touching distance of one of the most important and omnipresent figures in our world (presumably the barrier is there to stop any actual groping).
Read MoreIt’s been quite a weekend. Some months ago, April in fact, when we were still in lockdown and the world seemed bleak, The Offspring announced a winter 2021 UK Tour. This was received with some derision at ROCKFLESH Towers. It’ll never happen, they said. Other, better bands have booked and then cancelled. And anyhow it’s only The Offspring, are they even relevant these days? A little part of me died inside at that one, because I love The Offspring. Much of the 90’s passed me by musically (I’ll come back to that in a bit) but not The Offspring. I first heard ‘Self Esteem’, the “hit” single from their third and breakthrough album “Smash”, on German TV as the soundtrack to a programme that I couldn’t understand about the Isle Of Man TT. I was instantly hooked, tracked it down, bought the album and played it relentlessly. To this day it’s one of my all-time favourite songs.
Read MoreI’m dashing to get to the venue for the earlier start time, only to read online that Kill The Lights have pulled out of tonight’s show due to illness. As it turns out, they’re fine to play the next night, so who knows what the illness was. Anyway, I cross my fingers that it means longer sets from the remaining two excellent bands, and as it turns out we get good lengthy sets from them both.
Read MoreIt is weird being seated in a Philharmonic auditorium for a prog-rock gig, with hardly a head bobbing along to each song, let alone any other action. No circle pits or walls of death tonight my friend! Antimatter are the only (non-advertised) support on this tour, and they’re fundamentally now Mick Moss’ solo project. Tonight, they perform as an acoustic guitar/electric guitar dark/prog-rock duo, and as the crowd make their way in and to their seats there is a gentle murmur of appreciation.
Read MoreYes’s Pink Room is as you would imagine it, very pink. It feels like some bizarre torture chamber designed to affront the victim with pastel colours. Shading put to one side it is still a strange venue. The stage is carpeted meaning that Serena Cherry’s DM’s leave indentations in it as she stomps around the stage. There is also a nice curtain (pink obviously) behind the stage that makes it feel a working man’s club (one of course with an odd taste in interior design). Finally, it is hidden away, sandwiched between two hipster bars. If you don’t know exactly where you are going it is incredibly easy to miss its almost concealed behind a pink (obviously) door.
I head into Rebellion for the first time since the before times of January 2020, slightly disorientated by the new wall around the entrance (pretty sure that wasn’t there before?) and even more disturbed by the toilets now seeming to be outside… and while the original toilets were not great now I am greeted with portaloos! Bar isn’t much better as I order a pint of coke but it’s more akin to Rola Cola than something more palatable. Urgh.
Read MoreIn a time where tours are being pulled left right and centre, it is certainly hats off to Batushka and Belphegor for preserving with their co-headline endeavour. Across the continent, venues have changed and host cities have been swapped at last minute, but somehow, they have managed to keep the wheels on this tour. Maybe being in league with Satan is good for something after all? They pull into Manchester after a night in the Heavy Metal capital of Bedford (no me neither) and the Black Metal hordes of the north west are certainly out in droves to meet them. In many ways this line up is a promoter’s dream as Batushka, Belphegor and Diabolical all have their own fiercely loyal fanbases (don’t worry Warhammer and Almost Dead, your time will indeed come) and the presence of not one, but three well stocked Merch tables illustrates that all three are headline material.
Read MoreBritish AOR and melodic rock giants FM are in town with their first UK dates in nearly two years. It’s been a long time to wait since they last graced the stage on their Big 3-0 tour with Dan Reed Network and Gun, and tonight the tour that was postponed in support of their twelfth studio album 2020’s “Synchronized” finally gets underway.
Read MoreFirst on are hardcore thrash merchants Last Wishes. We’re only about five bars into the first song and the roundhouse-kick-brigade are in full force. This guys sound a lot like Madball or Terror, and when they hit their stride remind me of very early Stick To Your Guns. They’re intensity and passion is contagious and the energy in the room remains high throughout their set. They do lose my attention at points with repetition within songs, and the guitar tone is a tad tiring with the nu-metal mid scoop.
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