Have you ever been to a gig which you suspected was going to be good, but when you got there it exceeded all your expectations? Well if you managed to catch The Lazys and Junkyard Drive on their current run of UK dates you may very well have. Both are not regular visitors to these shores, with The Lazys hailing all the way from Australia and Junkyard Drive hopping over the North Sea from Denmark, and both absolutely brought their A-game to the Tivoli on this occasion.
Read MoreAfter a hectic week or so of dashing around the world in pursuit of musical excellence it’s good to be back in the dark, cool confines of The Tivoli for 2 of the UK’s finest alliterations, Tigertailz and Takeaway Thieves. The bar is cheap, the atmos is friendly and the crowd is keen – just how a good gig should be.
Read MoreWhen you think about The Wildhearts, there are certain pictures that immediately come to mind. From a musical point of view they are very positive, but from a relationship point of view there has been a toxic dynamic for a long time. The band thrives, falls apart, splits, reforms, thrives, falls apart, splits in an endless cycle that has gone on for years now. Eventually there has to come a point in any dysfunctional situation where you have to walk away for the sake of your own sanity, and it seems that after many years of being drawn back in for the highs, CJ has finally managed to find himself in a situation where he is older, wiser, and comfortable in his own skin.
Read MoreI may take on assignments that take me all over metal’s glorious multi-verse of genres, but my home will always be the scuzzy outlier that is sleaze rock. Pretty Boy Floyd are an original 80s purveyor of the art form (despite there only being one original member left) and The Midnight Devils are upstart pretenders to the glam rock crown, so tonight I can breathe a sigh of relief and bask in the musical familiarity that surrounds me.
Read MoreOne of the things I like about the Tivoli (apart from the newly-refurbished jungle-themed ladies loos and the cheap rum) is that they always try to get at least one local band on the bill. This is a huge boost for the local rock scene, and I applaud it wholeheartedly.
Read MoreOpeners Kaine play basic metal. They're very Iron Maiden, the music is fast and furious and the band seem very angry about something. I'm trying to work out what they're singing about and it’s hard to decipher. It might be Bastille, it might be something made of steel. Either way they seem a bit pissed off about it! There’s a song called ‘Slave To The Grind’ but it's not that one, it's a double paced headbanger with a slow guitar bridge. Widdly instrumentals abound and there’s a huge amount of echo on the singer's voice.
Read MoreLater on this evening, Baz Mills from Massive Wagons makes a very profound statement about a time when he was lucky enough to meet the late great Lemmy. “Lemmy told me there are only two types of music” he said, “music you like and music you don’t like”. As I review my notes from The Virginmarys set tonight, I reflect that this is true and that The Virginmarys are unfortunately very much in the second section for me. There are only two of them, one providing guitars and vocals and the other doing a very energetic and entertaining turn on the drums
Read MoreThe crowd is a bit thin when Warrington lass Kim Jennett hits the stage, but she doesn’t let that bother her. Despite her tiny stature she can really belt out a tune. Not only that, she uses her body to illustrate the songs as well, making her point with full movement that verges on being theatre at times. She’s supported tonight by guitarist Tyler Kent who is set to be a member of the new Kim Jennett Band that she has just put together. Tyler is quieter, sitting calmly on his chair, smiling at Kim’s antics and letting his fingers do the talking on his fretboard.
Read MoreWe open proceedings tonight with The Razor, a competent local covers band who rip through some rock classics and warm the place up nicely.
Next up are a group no doubt inspired by tonight’s headliner. Blue Ruin are a female quartet who play up-tempo, bouncy pop punk. They introduce themselves and as 2 of them are from New Zealand, one from Italy and one from Bristol I can’t help wondering how the hell they rehearse? Anyhow that’s bye-the-bye.
Read MoreLittle do I know as I wander into the always welcoming arms of the Tiv that tonight is going to be a night full of surprises! We start off with Dea Matrona, who are two young lasses from Belfast who came to fame via youtube. Apparently they busk on the streets of their home city, film it, and have amassed over seven million views in the last couple of years. Not bad going! Tonight they also bring a drummer and come on playing bouncy blues. OK, that's not a bad start, accessible and hummable.
Read MoreAfter last night’s nostalgia-fest here at the Tiv, tonight I am viewing two of the stalwarts of the modern British rock movement.
The Howling Tides start tonight with some rather smashing slide guitar and a bluesy accompanying vocal. I would describe them as modern retro -they have that 70s feel but with a modern twist and they mix it up well. There’s plenty of melody but also with that heavy bass sound and beat.
Read MoreTonight is set to be a night of nostalgia down at the Tivoli. Three bands that I remember from many years back who are still going in one form or another, I’m hoping for an evening that takes me back to my teenage years in the early 80s. The thing is, can these three veterans of the scene deliver?
Read MoreTonight I am a fish so far out of water I might as well be up a tree. Getting Brazillian thrash pioneers Sepultura at the Tiv, one of just 3 appearances outside their Download set, was a real coup for them. There was no way ROCKFLESH could ignore it, I mean these guys are one of the cornerstones of the music most of my colleagues live for. And that’s the problem. They are in the UK to play Download Festival, and essentially everyone else is at Download too. So here I am, clutching my notebook somewhat nervously and wondering what on earth I have let myself in for. I have never heard a single song by any of tonight’s artists, couldn’t even name a band member for you. It’s all new, which is also kind of exciting I suppose. So fortified with a large rum I step into the fray. Let’s do this.
Read MoreTonight kicks off with Before The Storm, a local-ish band from Wrexham who play radio-friendly rock that crosses a number of genres. I didn’t catch any song titles but the band were competent and the music was OK. Personally I wasn’t keen on the vocals, the singer has a flat, nasally style that is like nails on blackboard to me. Don’t get me wrong, he can sing, he has both power and range, just not to my personal taste.
Read MoreWhat a bill to be touring together. One established band with a great reputation, one new-ish band who are also building a solid fanbase for themselves on the club circuit and one (in my opinion anyway) of the most exciting new bands on the scene right now. I had to be there. You should have been there too! No seriously, although we are now “living with” covid the unfortunate aftermath of that is that an awesome bill like this at the Tiv was woefully under-attended. The crowd was enthusiastic, and a reasonable size, but for such a great bill in such a great venue it could have been better. I mean come on, the Tiv even has new post-lockdown carpets so you don’t stick to the floor any more – what more could you want?
Read MoreUnfortunately on this, my first gig back of the year, logistics meant that I didn’t make it to the Tivoli in time for tonight’s first support Severenth. Seems a shame, as friends who live a little nearer and arrived a little earlier told me they were pretty good. They were described to me as modern doomy rock with a bit of a bounce. A bit like Killswitch Engage apparently, and the vocals were very good when not shouted. Oh well, hopefully I’ll catch them again at some point.
Read MoreAnvil. Could a band name actually be more heavy metal than Anvil? A band from Canada that have been going for some 40 years through good times and bad. Some times so bad in fact that someone made a documentary about them. Yeah, this band is special alright. But more about them later, first let’s have a quick look at the two supports.
Read MoreI’ve not been getting my usual Wagons fix recently, so when the opportunity came up to pop along to their first “breakin outta the studio” tour date, I jumped at it. After all, who doesn’t want to drive down the M56 in a storm so bad it’s got a name, just to see them? Well, me actually. So I brought the Grumpy Husband along to do that bit.
Read MoreSometimes you can go to watch a band and they sound really similar to someone else, and you go “Oh they are just like <insert band name> aren’t they”? Whereas sometimes you go to watch a band and they have captured a genre just right, and although they don’t sound exactly the same as anyone you can definitely hear their influences and get where they are coming from. Hand Of Dimes fall into that second category.
Read MoreWednesday. It’s a bastard of a day. Just far enough away for you to be forgetting the fun you had last weekend, not close enough to the fun you’re going to have next weekend. It’s a desolate, bleak day, it’s the place where you can view a long horizon during the hell of another working week. So whose bright idea was it to have one of the best gigs I’ve been to this year on it then eh? Eh? Eh? I want to know who is responsible for this travesty! Well that would be the people at the Tiv, a venue that is continuing to improve every time I go there. It’s now got a lovely, shiny, new, long, well-stocked bar, so naturally it’s Wednesday and I am a) driving home and b) needing to be up for work in the morning, so I don’t get to sample the wares. Bloody Wednesday!
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