Be 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!
Read MoreWell recess is over and school is back in after summer. My festival tent has been retuned to storage and I am once again lurking in Rebellion like nothing happened (though video evidence does exist). Tonight it's modern progtastic heaven as a trio of bands, with not a member over thirty between them, prove that at the end of the 21st century's second decade Prog is indeed alive and high-kicking. Rendezvous Point are first out of the traps and straight away prove that there is more to Norwegian Metal than corpse paint and an unhealthy obsession with Satan. They share a member with Norway’s avant-garde prog uberlords Leprous, so from the off I am excepting random time signatures and sumptuous depth. What I get is still Prog, but a lot warmer and rawer than I expected.
Read MoreWe start tonight with a female-fronted metal band from Romania. Scarlet Aura tried really hard, but as first band up on a Monday evening in rainy Manchester they didn’t really stand a chance. The music was OK, generic Metal, some rather intrusive use of backing tracks for intros though. The singer had a pleasant voice, she was in tune, but it wasn’t a Voice if you know what I mean. She was kind of a minor version of Doro. A moon of Doro. Doro-lite even.
Read MoreFirst band tonight The Clan I have mentioned in these hallowed pages previously. They are a local 3-piece, competent, who play pub rock. Dad rock even. They have all the clichés (waistcoats, raccoon tails, synchronised guitar necks, songs about rock and motorbikes) but they do it with a smile. They are easy on the ear, they won’t set the world on fire but I bet they play at an awful lot of bike rallies.
Read MoreThe night didn’t start well. The Creamfields Festival was on the same weekend in my home town of Warrington, and I forgot. This meant that I spent a whole lot more time than I had planned for sitting in barely-moving traffic on the M56, resulting in me completely missing tonight’s first band Hollowpoint. Bah. Sorry Hollowpoint, I’ll catch you next time. The next thing I realised was that my “proper” camera, which had been on the coffee table in my living room while the battery was charging was….. still on the coffee table in my living room. Damn. So I apologise in advance if the pictures aren’t up to our usual standard, the bands were great, the lighting was great, your reviewer is a fuckwit. Onwards!
Read MoreThirteen Stars, aka The Cumbria Cowboys, have been a little quiet of late. A couple of years ago they were all over the place, you couldn’t go to a gig without tripping over a misplaced cowboy boot or bumping into a tasselled suede jacket but recently? They seemed to have dropped off the radar. Probably had real life and stuff to deal with I expect.
Read MoreThe gig tonight has been moved from Academy 2 to Club Academy, which actually allows for a more intense and intimate event usually, tonight is no different. The support bands are both greeted by a decent size crowd as well, which is good to see especially on a Monday night. It’s interesting to see such a diverse demographic represented in the crowd as well, and that speaks to the unique offering of bands tonight.
Read MoreIt's my first time in Satan's Hollow for a gig, and I’ve got to say it's weird seeing bands on the dancefloor! It's certainly intimate though, and as I know tonight is pretty much a sell-out I'm expecting it to get even more intimate. I leave Johann down the front and set-up shop by the stained glass windows at the back of the room…about five people back from the front of the stage still. It's a great line-up secured by Tapestry Promotions and I wait for local lads Where Oceans Burn to start things off for us tonight.
Read MoreIt probably seems like I start most of my reviews with either a travel or weather report...but seriously when trains are delayed and cancelled due to melting overhead cables and buckling train tracks, then it’s worth mentioning! Right? With the journey to Manchester finally completed, I stroll down to the Academy 2 for doors. Now, Academy 2 is sweltering at the best of times, but tonight I'm early enough into the venue that it hasn't filled up yet, and so it's cooler than outside, bizarrely (spoiler – that doesn’t last!).
Read MoreSomewhere in the outlying stretches of our world is a thin expense entitled alt-metal, experimental drone and Blackgaze. Its that forbidden zone where Metal and hipster collide. Tonight I stand on that exact apex as this may be classed as a metal gig, but the audience as one looks like they should be running organic beaver milk cafes in Shoreditch. It really is trendy à gogo; the beards are neatly trimmed, the beer extra hoppy and every t-shirt is of bands that you will never ever hear of. I miss Caina completely. Its too hot and I had a paddling pool to fill, so sue me.
Read MoreToday has been an absolute scorcher. I'm sure half my face is now melting in my cleavage as I battle through the heat and humidity to make my interview slots with Crobot and Wolf Jaw. Being a fat bird in this weather is never fun.
At least Rebellion is surprisingly cool tonight. I'm grateful for the colder air as the evenings festivities kick off.
Read MoreI was a bit meh tonight when the support act came on. I mean when you have come to see an acoustic show by a very famous bloke with a good voice and a guitar it would really make sense to have something different supporting right? Maybe a woman? A skiffle band? A dog act? I mean, KISS had a painter recently on their arena tour and if it’s good enough for Gene and Paul…..
Read MoreIt's been a rough week for Rebellion and there is still an air of dazed and confused about the place. However, there is also a very British aesthetic of keep calm and carry on. In a remarkably short time, Rebellion has become a second home for many of us and tonight the scene has rallied around to ensure that it is business as usual.
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