Category: Live Reviews

Electric Ballroom
Future of the Left
Steriogram
01.11.07

Well, Against Me are back again, always a good thing, support bands, not so much of a good thing. Apparently these guys had the whole tour, how? Up first was Steriogram from New Zealand and wow what a way to start what was to be an amazing gig. I felt like I was at a battle of the bands contest with a teenage crew churning out Terrorvision hits, honestly take a listen to some of their riffs, not good. I think the singer wanted to be in a hip hop band with his half talk rhyming confused with random Smash Mouth choruses.

Next for the chopping board was Future of the Left hailing from Cardiff. Whoever booked the support bands has a thing for high-pitched white men trying to rap to rock. I think I must be missing something because their tour schedule looks pretty impressive, obviously someone talented working for them. I think I’ve said enough about them, although I must note that the London crowd appeared to appreciate them slightly more than the Brighton crowd.

Finally to the crowd’s delight, not least because it meant not having to listen to anymore painful support acts, Against Me! took to the stage. Commencing a whirlwind tour of the new album, and I mean the entire album, the band interspersed the new songs with a few golden oldies which sent the fans into a frothy moshpit frenzy. They must really like the new album, I think it’s rare for a band to play every single song, especially with such an impressive back catalogue and not that long to play it in. The new songs were played with a palpable energy.

‘Ocean‘ was especially enjoyable due to Tom’s brilliant father dancing that he seems to have adapted as his new stage movements for this song. The best songs have to have been ‘American Abroad‘ and ‘White People for Peace‘ which were delivered with the energy and force which one has come to expect from Against Me! They triumphed in bringing out some old favourites, although a few fans were left disappointed that it wasn’t more, but with so many anthemic songs under their belts, it is almost inevitable that some would be missed off the setlist.

One of the things that makes Against Me! such a brilliant live act is the chemistry that you can almost touch, you know these guys love each other and really love doing what they do. On top of this Tom, Andrew and James on guitars and bass all have brilliant voices and manage to deliver the same harmonic quality live as featured on their recordings. So all in all, this was a great gig if you were happy to see Against Me! alone, if, on the other hand, you were hoping to make a bit of an evening of it, then you may have been left slightly disappointed by the support.

Katya Ozols

Brixton Academy
04.11.07

‘NOFX: Recycling the same music for 25 years’ proclaims one of the t-shirts for sale at the merch stand tonight. A somewhat harsh assessment, perhaps, but NOFX‘s self-deprecating humour has always been their trademark. In any case, the sound of the capacity crowd shouting the band’s name a good fifteen minutes before they take the stage is proof enough that, although time has aged the band, their fans’ love endures.

Said fans don’t seem particularly enthusiastic about Tat, but the London trio give it their all anyway, with singer/guitarist Tatiana clearly enjoying the chance to play to so many people. Tunes-wise, ‘Peace, Sex And Tea‘ is great, but ‘Champagne, Cocaine And Strawberries‘ is just annoying and repetitive.

The Loved Ones fare better; with a clutch of rough edged but melodic tunes that just about survive the Academy’s notoriously hit and miss acoustics. Vocalist/guitarist Dave Hause deals with a heckler in suitably good humoured style (“Chill, dude, we’ll be fucking your mom whilst you’re watching NOFX!”), and they’ve evidently won a few new fans by the end of their set.

To see NOFX live, you’ll need a fair amount of patience, as Fat Mike and co are renowned for giving short shrift to any clichéd ideas of showmanship. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course, but tonight the band’s between-song banter ranges from highly amusing to painfully crass – and they certainly like to talk. You can’t help but feel that the tunes-to-chatter ratio is a tad on the small side, especially considering the size of the NOFX back catalogue.

That said, when NOFX truly hit their stride, it’s hard to imagine a more entertaining way to spend a Sunday evening. Only they could rip through endearingly sloppy renditions of ‘Liza And Louise‘ and ‘Eat The Meek‘, before perfectly nailing their magnum opus ‘The Decline‘ in its full eighteen-minute glory. Only they could torture the crowd with about eight ‘last songs’, most of them barely a minute in length, before finally unleashing ‘The Brews‘ onto a grateful crowd that goes utterly nuts and hollers along throughout.

And only NOFX could end their set by dancing stupidly onstage to Damien Marley’s ‘Welcome To Jamrock‘, before returning to play an ‘encore’ of ‘Stickin’ In My Eye‘ to a now half-empty venue. If there’s one thing that tonight has proved, it’s that NOFX remain an unpredictable bunch – and after 25 years together, that’s quite an achievement.

Alex Gosman
Photos by Jen Saul

Astoria 2
1/11/07

A last minute change of venue from the Astoria to it’s smaller sibling, the Astoria 2, didn’t seem to affect the fans turning up to see Baltimore’s collection of animals, err, Animal Collective.

Having been a fan of previous albums ‘Feels’ and ‘Sung Tongs’, I felt a little dissapointed by their latest album ‘Strawberry Jam’, so I was desperately hoping that their live performance would be as bizarre and magical as the weird noises this group of people create on their records. The skeletons dressed as ballerinas at the side of the stage was a good start.

The band walked on; Avey Tare bouncing on in a kind of Hunchback of Notre Dame pose that he would hold for the rest of the night, and Geologist in his trademark miner’s headlamp and tie-dye tshirt, so the noise began. Animal Collective produce a sound that is very hard to describe. Half live samples and loops, half live instruments, they make music that kind of envelopes you and seeps into every part of your body. Not so much listening to the music, you feel it deep in your bones.

While this may be good (I’m a huge fan of bands that utilise this as part of their ‘show experience’), it does need something else to go with it. If your band consists of playing around with tiny boxes full of electronics and buttons, then a something else visual should be there, like an amazing light show.

Unfortunately, despite Tare’s efforts moving around the stage, dancing like a cross between Bez and Ian Brown, and impressive vocal range from Marc Bolan’s airy wailings, to visceral screeches usually employed by The Locust, there was nothing else there that excited me and kept me interested.

Maybe the venue change didn’t help, which numbed the potential that Animal Collective have, but I really expected more from them. Don’t get me wrong, they were incredibly technical, professional, and played so tight it could have been the record playing, but there just wasn’t that butterfly-stomach, tingly-neck feeling that bands like them should give you when they create music this special.

My girlfriend describes watching them perfectly, so I’ll end with that. “They would be really good at the end of a festival, when you’re a bit out of it, lying on the grass and someone has soaked you in beer. Spilling beer on my chin just then helped a bit, but not enough.”

Moose

Shepherd’s Bush Empire
26.10.07

Mark Ronson is a friend to the stars. He’s hung out with Puffy, he chills with Ghostface and he’s the producer du jour for the big names in pop. So when the ex-pat does a UK tour, you can be pretty sure you’re going to see a host of guests and he didn’t disappoint in London.

Opening with an instrumental version of Apply Some Pressure, Ronson took to the stage in his dapper suit, strumming his guitar nonchanantly [when they plugged it in!] and his band backing him up superbly, especially the trio of brass players. It wasn’t long before the guest vocalists joined Mark on stage with Daniel Merriweather being the most prominent, running through Amy [in place of Kenna] before rapper Wale came out to do his thing on Toxic as Ronson hit the decks for his best track, Ooh Wee.

Londoner Tawiah took her place at the front of the stage to give her own version of the Lily Allen fronted Oh My God and returned for a piece of the action on Pretty Green and the hugely successful and infinitely popular Valerie. Whilst it was a shame there was no Winehouse, it wasn’t surprising and Tawiah did a good job covering.

Alex Greenwald was then bounding out in his overly long t-shirt [going for that rap look Alex old chap?] to break out Just which got a rousing response from the crowd, including Mark’s mum on the balcony, before he returned for the finale to perform his California track. The rendition of Stop Me got the biggest cheer of the night as the Empire turned into a glorified Karaoke bar, the audience belting out the tune louder than Merriweather as the horns went into overdrive. Add Estelle, Baby J and a host of UK rappers from the Valerie remix and you can imagine how full the stage was by the end!

But the high point of the night was definitely the inclusion of Sean Lennon, who walked on stage in a waistcoat, looking sheepish yet assured as he performed a Beach Boys track and then We Can Work It Out, the Beatles classic.

Ronson might not be a showman, he might not be the most entertaining of frontmen, but with a little help from his friends, he was able to get the packed venue on his feet and smiling non-stop.

Abjekt.

Brixton Academy
22.10.07

It’s probably just as well that the positive vibes of the Get Happy tour await us, because the journey to Brixton tonight is more of a Get Angry or Get Sweaty affair, with the tube out of action and the local buses rammed to bursting point. Apparently openers Army Of Freshmen and Zebrahead went down well with those that were lucky enough to arrive in time to see them.

It’s been ten years since the Bloodhound Gang unleashed their One Fierce Beer Coaster debut, and tonight there’s a sense that Jimmy Pop and co’s smut-laden keg party tunes would work better in a smaller venue with the booze flowing freely. As it is, the Academy isn’t doing their sound any favours, so they compensate with all manner of odd (or just plain stupid) antics; most of them courtesy of bassist Evil Jared Hasselhoff. After he’s finished dragging a flight case across the stage – using a rope attached to his penis, of course – the band finish with The Bad Touch (complete with footage of animals fornicating on the giant projector screen), and leave most of crowd with huge grins on faces. Job done.

Bowling For Soup were treated as something of a joke when they first arrived on the scene; viewed by many as just a bunch of chancers attempting to follow in Blink 182’s goof-punk slipstream. However, 2007 sees the band not only continuing to proudly fly in the face of critical opinion, but also in possession of an arsenal of tunes that, whilst they could hardly be described as classic, are nevertheless catchy as hell and great fun to sing along to in the live setting. I‘m Gay, 1985, Girl All The Bad Guys Want; all delivered with no little panache and a handful of endearing lyterrible jokes. Granted, the closing massacre of Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire is a step too far, but if you’re expecting good taste from this lot, then you’re clearly at the wrong gig.

Jumping around like a madman and acting half your age – is this what it takes to Get Happy in 2007? Oh well, discovering your inner child was rarely such a guilty pleasure before.

Alex Gosman

Cargo
20.10.07

Walking into a music venue full of toff rugby fans watching England’s egg chasing beefcakes lose the World Cup Final isn’t the most inviting of situations, yet that’s the predicament I found myself in as I entered Cargo, ready to see Ohmega Watts.

Having missed his last two jaunts over to the UK, I was determined to see the producer/rapper supremo so when he announced he was bringing Lightheaded crewmate Braille over with him, it was definitely one not to be missed and from the off it was worth the wait. Flipping beats from his laptop, Ohmega, or Milton Campbell as his mum named him, strode out front and got down with the rhyming, breaking out tracks from his brilliant new album Watts Happening.

Joined on stage by Theory Hazit and the quirky Braille, the trio ran through a variety of tracks such as the banging Roc The Bells [with TH filling in for missing Lightheaded member Othello] and Eyes & Ears [with Braille knocking out Jneiro Jarels’ part]. Both the guest MCs got their solo shit in too with Braille’s The IV being particularly impressive.

But what set this show apart from many others is the amount of fun Ohmega was having. During one song when Braille was busting out some hyped up running man steelo, Ohmega was behind the decks running through every cheesy dance move in history, his a smile the size of a small country. This is what uplifting hip hop is all about – listen to some rap, dust off your dancing shoes and have a ball. Fresh.

Abjekt
Photo by Ian Hsieh

Islington Academy
14.10.07

It’s encouraging to see the Islington Academy so completely and utterly sold out for a metal bill of this calibre, and it’s entirely appropriate that Reading-based upstarts Malefice get the party started not with a bang, but with a sickening crunch.

Leviathan riffs rain down into the crowd like sonic boulders, whipping the pit into a maelstrom even at this early hour; and the overall impression is that the owners of the Barfly chain (where Malefice are touring in January) should take out some hefty insurance on their venues before the New Year.

According to their t-shirts, God Forbid are ‘metal’s best kept secret’; and whilst few here tonight would dispute that claim, it’s baffling as to how they remain relatively unknown, especially in the light of tonight’s ferocious performance. Man-mountain frontman Byron Davis commands the stage like a deranged, dreadlocked heavy metal preacher, exhorting the crowd to greater efforts; and the mayhem that greets the likes of ‘Better Days‘ and the Dimebag Darrell-inspired ‘To The Fallen Hero‘ speaks for itself. Be warned, these underdogs have sharp teeth, and they’re still hungry.

After their semi-legendary performance at this year’s Download festival and the release of a storming third album ‘The Last Kind Words‘, this UK tour seems more like a lap of honour for Devildriver. Except that they’re not ready to rest on their laurels quite yet; with opener ‘End Of The Line‘ proving a suitably brutal start to an hour-long lesson in how to pulverize the sense. There’s no tiresome grandstanding from Dez Fafara and co, no unnecessary between-song banter; just one prime quality blast of melodic death metal after another, and no shortage of energy or conviction on display.

Granted, the Academy’s acoustics could be better, but the venue does at least lend itself well to the set’s climax; a reprise of the mammoth Download circle pit for ‘Meet The Wretched‘. It’s an excellent finale from a band that started life as a mere side-project, but who are now sounding more than ever like genuine heavy metal contenders.

Alex Gosman

with Shitty Limits
Cross Kings, London
September 17th

Pic by Ben ‘motherfucking‘ Norton

There’s no limit to how shitty the Shitty Limits actually are. These Guildford based punks play with such a snotty attitude you can practically feel yourself slipping on the sticky green phlegm they dribble from ever pore as they crank out ultra lo-fi raw-as-fuck garage hardcore punk like a car collision between the Rip Offs, The Germs, Angry Samoans and The Adolescents.

When bassist Ellis chucks his axe to the floor at the end of their set it instantly splits in too like the cheapest, crappiest Woolworths guitar that must have cost no more than 50p. Perfect.

Brutal Knights hail from Toronto, Canada and again, they’re what happens when hardcore punks play garage punk rock n’roll. The Datsuns they are not. This is cranked up, high-velocity, rapid-fire, high-speed, in your face rock n’roll that burns scorch marks into either side of the venue and burns our eyebrows clear off with songs like ‘Grow Up Throw Up‘ and ‘I Wanna Die‘ while frontman Nick Flanagan screams his lungs dry with his dirty jeans round his ankles, naked from the waste up, falling over his jeans. And I swear you can see a brown stain smeared up his white Y-fronts. The dirty fuck.

Fucking brutal shit stained rock n’roll. You know you want it you slags.

James Sherry

Wurlitzer Ballroom, Madrid
11.10.07

I’ll admit, I wasn’t too keyed up on The Rip Offs but some of my learned brother-in-arms advised that this San Francisco quartet is ‘legendary’ live. A bit of background research beforehand revealed that, after all amount of trials, tribulations and infighting, this is the bands first trip back to Europe with their original line-up in about 12years. I figured I better hot rail it down to the Wurlitzer, and see what the deal was.

And the deal was this; after a couple of so-so support bands, The Rip Offs stormed on to the stage and laid in to 60+ minutes of filthy and raw stripped to the bone Punk RocknRoll, as tight as it was chaotic, with relentless taunting and baiting of the rammed frenzied crowd… (“ya fuckin’ Mexicans” proving to be a popular refrain) It was the day before a long weekend in Madrid and the punters were up for it big style, with the insults flying thick and fast from either side. Tension and adrenaline was at a premium. At one point guitarist Shane White is dragged off the stage, there’s an altercation, and he furiously swings his guitar above his head, preparing to take someone out… in a flash bassist/frontman Greg Lowry steps in to calm things down before we get a blood soaked re-enactment of Sid Vicious at Randy’s Rodeo, San Antonio.

And talking of Greg Lowry, the sometime Zodiac Killer, a man who clearly has a ‘thing’ for serial murderers, does have something of the night about him too, looks about as creepy as a guy dressed in black wearing a stocking mask over his head can do. On the far side of the stage from where I’m checking out the action is guitarist Jon Von, still going hard at it. I’ve not seen him play since Mr T Experience played at The George Robey, London Town back in the 1900’s. And holding it down at the rear, the grinning Shane White beats the “worst drum kit he’s ever played” to a pulp.

Equipment is broken, bottles are smashed, much beer is spat, spilt ‘n swallowed… and after 2 encores The Rip Offs finally depart having well and truly destroyed Madrid. It was a total blast. So, yeah, go on then… Legendary!

Pete Craven

Astoria – London
17.10.07

The last time HR graced us with his presence in London, i was just getting into hardcore at 17 and discovering that a new scene was there for me that would last a lifetime. This is the effect that Bad Brains had on me as a teenager, they knocked me for six when i least expected it.

As the years went by HR never returned and instead we had to watch people like Chuck Mosely fill HR’s boots in 1990 on the mic, but it never worked, i mean how can you replace such an individual? Despite this, Dr Know and Darryl Jennifer were not going to leave their childhood fun and carried on without the great man.

Tonight though, HR is back in the spotlight, his presence made the crowd roar as he shuffled onto the stage carrying what seemed like his life in shopping bags, dressed like E.T with a shaul over his face and sporting white sunnies!

They kicked off with classics such as I Against I and The Regulator to get the place rocking, followed by the supercharged Sailin’ On, Right Brigade and Attitude from their first 2 albums but these lethal tracks seemed to have some bite taken out of them at this show but no one seemed to really care.

Before the show, people hoping that they would not play too many songs from the brand new Adam Yauch produced record Build a Nation and they were not let down. The rastafarian vibes of Jah Love filled the Astoria with HR’s reverbed voice hitting each wall, this was followed by Universal Peace and were the only new tracks before a barrage of classics like I and I Survive, I Love Jah, Banned in DC, F.V.K, At The Movies and Re-Ignition got the place moving.

It’s true to say that the once explosive energy that this band used to generate has been slightly lost and mainly from HR’s presence. As they came back for the encore, people expected more than just Pay To Cum and some left the Astoria feeling that’s exactly what they did do. Moaning Brits aside, HR is in his 50’s and is not the ball of fire that he once was, but that doesn’t really matter. At least they made an effort to come back to the UK fullfilling most people’s dreams of seeing the OG line up rather than a circus band.

Jah Love to Bad Brains for that alone.

Zac