Category: Live Reviews

Cargo
27.01.07

When one of the most technically gifted DJs on the planet comes to your town, you go out and see him. No ifs, no buts, no hair washing – you get off your backside and you hotfoot it to see him. After having witnessed yet another crap display from my football team, I needed a pick me up and thankfully the trip to Cargo provided it.

Mr Doris was on the decks when we strolled into the sparsely populated main room, with the bar area behind us heaving, but it didn’t take long for the bodies to transfer to the dance floor thanks to the funky sounds coming across the airwaves. Ugly Duckling, Skeelo, and Digable Planets were all thrown into the mix before breaking out into a funkfest.

With everyone hyped and ready to go, Kentaro stepped to the stage. Standing by the side of his turntables, I had a perfect view of the maestro as he began manouevering his hands faster than it takes for Palace’s defence to self destruct. With the video screen behind him being manipulated in time to the cuts on his turntables, everyone in the crowd was transfixed.

After fifteen minutes of breaks and a similar amount of time of hip hop, the fun really kicked in. Don’t get me wrong, the first half an hour had people dancing, but when the DnB kicked in, the shit was REALLY popping. Every time you thought the bass was at its most brutal, he kicked it up a level. By the end of his set, the crowd was baying for more, near-clambering on the stage to get more tunes pumping out.

Kentaro played the perfect set. He showcased his incredible ability as a turntablist and merged that in with a killer set list. Too often DJs get so caught up in the cutting that the music loses out, but not with him. It was a superb night and the smile on his face said it all. He loved us, and boy oh boy did we love him.

Konichiwa bitches.

Abjekt
Photo by Chris McShee

Biffy Clyro, The Bronx, The Audition, I Am Ghost
London Astoria
27.01.07

It’s that time of year again; when UK’s best selling rock magazine delves into a pick n mix of bands, and draws out an assortment of styles, before heaving them into renowned venues across the land to bring in the new year with as much noise as possible. This year’s roster was without a doubt, the most obscure yet.

Opening the evening were Long Beach’s Post Hardcore/Goth outfit, I Am Ghost. The concupiscent movements from what looked like a Satanist magician drew enough movement from the crowd to consider this performance a success. While I was more intrigued by the violinist’s ability to thrust her wrist back and forth faster than Sid from Skins wanking hand, I can’t deny that they got some action from the already sweat drenched audience. Sticky icky icky. Oo-ee!

Unfortunately, this is more than can be claimed from Chicago’s The Audition, whose mediocre set proved to be a perfect lullaby for many crowd dwellers. Frontman, Danny Stevens, as hard as he endeavoured to create some movement in the crowd, barely got more than an arm’s stretch from the yawning assembly. I won’t continue to focus on this band, as if I’m honest with you, my attention didn’t either.

Half way through the night now, and amongst others I’m beginning to question Kerrang’s choice of bands. Chants of “Mon’ the Biffy!” had already begun, and this was starting to simply resemble a Biffy Clyro tour. But before many punters had the chance to sleep off their boredom, LA’s The Bronx jolted everyone upright with their musical equivalent to a line of Charlie.

Viciously gorgeous riffs and yelps from a band that oozed character was a delight to hear in a room that was starting to overflow with glumness. The solid performance was amplified by superb frontman, Matt Caughthran, who spent as much time on stage as he did in the crowd. Intense gulps of a down to earth broth served up by this fantastic group make nights like this worthwhile.

But as Biffy Clyro mounted the stage like donning a raging bull, the jittery, powerful riff of recent download single, SemiMental, immediately tamed it. The Astoria had become transformed into a magnificent bouncy castle, or perhaps more like a dyslexic House of Pain concert? Either way, it was something else I tell you. Continuing to please the crowd with live favourites and cult classics, All The Way Down, and Toys Toys Toys, Choke, Toys Toys Toys, Biffy reigned supreme with an illustrious setlist that was delivered first class.

New single, Saturday Superhouse sounded wonderful live, and marked the gig as a enormous promotional tool for 4th studio album, Puzzle, which is to be released in the late spring. Unfortunately the night finished on a flat note with an early finish, and no time for desired encore. But looking back, they really didn’t need one. Le Biff are one step closer to becoming Scotland’s biggest export. And it’s phenomenal.

Joe Moynihan
Photo by Katy Pigg

Kingston Peel
21.01.07

Local hardcore shows can often double as endurance tests, thanks to the presence of a tiny minority of meatheads who hurl themselves around with little regard for their fellow punters’ safety.

That said, Nervous Wreck don’t help the situation tonight; their generic, uninspiring hardcore attack offering little incentive for mass crowd participation. In contrast, Sheffield crew The Legacy are smarter, tighter and sounding more impressive with every show they play; and with the release of their debut full-length ‘Solitude’ imminent, 2007 could well be their year.

Gallows, of course, could probably tell you a thing or two about the weight of expectations; but being dubbed ‘the best UK punk band since 1977′ doesn’t seem to have fazed Frank Carter and co any. “Thanks for coming out to see five scruffy kids from Watford,’ he declares, before the blast of sonic warfare that is ‘In The Belly Of A Shark’ incites utter pandemonium in the crowd.

However, the fact is that Gallows are so much more than just the sum of their parts. On one level, they’re a deeply sinister and unsettling band; evident in Frank’s deranged howl, darkly metaphorical lyrics, and the sheer chaos of the Gallows live experience. On another level, they’re triumphant underdogs; having attained the aforementioned recognition with no major label support, and flying in the face of current musical trends with a truly incendiary hybrid of hardcore fury and dissonant rock n’ roll swagger.

Whichever way you look at it, there’s a sense of danger and unpredictability surrounding this band that has been sorely lacking in punk rock of late. By the time ‘Orchestra Of Wolves’ is brought to its feedback-drenched finale, the front-of-stage area is a tangled mess of cables and flailing bodies, with Frank almost buried under the masses attempting to share his microphone. It’s sonic and physical wreckage united as one, and you get the impression that Gallows wouldn’t have it any other way. Whatever lies ahead for these guys, you’d be well advised to join them for the ride.

Alex Gosman
Photo courtesy of www.jmophoto.co.uk

First Avenue, Minneapolis
02.12.06

Flying over the Atlantic Ocean, there was only one thing on my mind – I was travelling with my best mate to Minneapolis, Minnesota to attend a show that I was more hyped for than any I’d ever been to. Having been a fan of the Doomtree crew for a good while now, it seemed like a dream come true to be able to get out to their hometown and watch the entire crew play live to their adoring fans.

After waiting at the head of the queue for over an hour in minus 6 temperatures, on the same night that Guns n Roses were playing the city’s Target Center, we got into First Avenue, and after about half an hour of being at the front, by the stage, it was packed out [we later found out they’d sold the venue out!].

The giant screen played an intro video, with all the members looming large over us, before it went up and the fun began with the crew joint No Homeowners. Seeing all the rappers lined up, each bringing their own individual style to the plate, was absolutely amazing and every track they performed, be it on their own on the jetty or in twos or threes, was perfect.

The crowd got hyped for POS‘ Yeah Right, turned into a frenzy for Sims‘ 15 Blocks, heard new Cecil Otter material with Sufficiently Breathless and 100 Fathers, witnessed Dessa rap, sing and sway her way into everyone’s hearts with Mineshaft and took part in Mictlan tearing the place down with Re-Evolve.

In between sets, the best breakers in the Twin Cities performed to MK Larada‘s funktified beats and made sure there wasn’t a second to take breath, even when the rappers had left the stage. The return of the MCs, along with Turbo Nemesis and Paper Tiger on the cuts, with Lazerbeak appearing every now and then to do wonders on the MPCs, made everything blur into a night of absolute brilliance, with I Self Divine and Crescent Moon turning up for a bit of guest action too.

On a selfish tip, having Cecil stop midway through Dreamsleep and declare “oh shit, you’re from London!” and hearing POS asking who the fuck had flown in from Europe made the already brilliant night that bit more personal. After the three hour show, the well known material had been great, the new songs were amazing and the crew album, due out this year, is something I can’t get soon enough.

Don’t think this was the best show I’ve ever been to? Yeah right.

Abjekt.

London Forum
01.12.06

Now in its fifth year, the Persistence tour remains a popular fixture in hardcore circles, bringing some of the genre’s finest and most respected bands together under one roof. This year, NYHC veterans Sick Of It All sit atop a typically strong line-up, which tonight has attracted plenty of tattooed, bandana-clad hardcore disciples to comfortably fill the London Forum.

Unfortunately, due to a combination of work commitments and the unreliability of London Underground, we only arrive in time to catch the last fifteen minutes of Comeback Kid’s set. A shame, as the Canadian quintet are on rabid form; with Andrew Neufeld filling former vocalist Scott Wade’s shoes with ease (and with no small confidence either). They treat us to a couple of new tracks from forthcoming album ‘Broadcasting…’, but it is the closing ‘Wake The Dead’ that truly whips the pit into a mass of flailing limbs and pointed fingers.

Walls Of Jericho make the grade in the heaviness stakes alone; utterly devastating the crowd with their punishing metalcore attack. The crowd’s focus is undoubtedly on vocalist Candace Kucsulain, who spends more time balanced on the pit barrier than onstage, but her band are no less impressive; wrenching razor-sharp riffs and thunderous grooves out of their instruments with precious little regard for our eardrums.

There’s certainly no loss of intensity with the arrival of Terror. “They wanna put a fuckin’ barrier here? Let’s make these people work!” growls Scott Vogel, shortly before a scathing ‘Always The Hard Way‘ prompts waves of crowd surfers to launch themselves at the hapless security guards in the
photo pit. This is hardcore at its most stripped-down and uncompromising; and pit-friendly anthems like ‘One With The Underdogs’ are as effective as they are brutal.

As with their Sounds Of The Underground performance (back in April at this very same venue), Madball struggle to match the ferocity and intensity of what has come before them. The crowd is definitely on their side, and there’s no doubting Freddy Cricien et al’s sincerety, but songs like ‘Hold It Down’ and ‘Heaven And Hell’ are fairly generic rap-core at best. There’s a definite sense that these veterans are having trouble keeping up with a scene that they themselves helped to spawn.

No such problems for their NYC brethren Sick Of It All, however. Not only are Lou Koller’s crew celebrating their 20th anniversary as a band, but they’ve also notched up an impressive four trips to the UK this year. Small wonder, then, that they’re so loved and respected by tonight’s audience, who roar along to every word of ‘Good Lookin’ Out’, instantly grant Lou’s request for a wall-of-death during ‘Scratch The Surface’, and merge into a bouncing frenzy for ‘Uprising Nation’. The band, as ever, are on frighteningly fine form; seemingly becoming tighter and more energetic with every show, and by the time the crowd coax them out for an encore of ‘Us Vs. Them’, it’s pretty damn clear why SOIA have enjoyed such longevity. ‘Built To Last’, indeed.

Alex Gosman
[Photos by Jen Saul]

Scala
04.12.06

Idlewild are a band that has to be seen live in order to realise just how good they are. The Scala in London’s Kings Cross played host to the Scottish heroes last date of a sold-out mini tour that saw them play a number of dates teasing loyal fans with snippets from their upcoming new album Make Another World, due for release early next year – and they weren’t disappointed.

Playing what can be essentially described as a mostly ‘greatest hits’ set, frontman Roddy Woomble and co took to the stage to a rapturous response and displayed a textbook example of how to play a rock show. Kicking off with classics Roseability and When I Argue I See Shapes the noticeably more mature crowd roared with approval, carrying on the cheers through the first new track of the evening, single If It Takes You Home. The amalgamation of tracks old and new continued throughout the set, with new numbers including No Emotion and The Ghost In The Arcade sandwiched between more crowd pleasers including A Modern Way Of Letting Go, American English and Love Steals Us From Loneliness.

Throughout their hour and a half long set Idlewild proved why they are one of the best live acts in the UK. New bass player Gareth Russell looked comfortable in his new role, filling Gavin Fox’s shoes with ease. Roddy Woomble’s distinctive vocals shone, sounding just as good live as it does recorded, although a few of the higher notes on older tracks were understandably omitted. The set also included the track Satan Polaroid, taken from their 1998 EP Captain, dedicating it to the fans that had followed them from the very beginning – which by the sound of the cheer from the crowd seemed to be three quarters of the venue!

Ending the night with The Bronze Medal, Idlewild rounded off their mini tour with one of the best performances I have seen all year. ‘See you in March’, said Roddy as the set wound down. I have a feeling I won’t be the only person in the crowd who will be buying tickets to the next show!

Pete Wackett

Photos from www.idlewild.co.uk

London Brixton Academy
20.11.06

The forthcoming Iron Maiden/Trivium tour may have been billed by some as “the best metal night out of the year“, but it faces some pretty fierce competition in the Unholy Alliance tour; a five-band bill comprised of some of the finest contemporary US and Scandinavian metal bands, with a rejuvenated Slayer in the headline slot. This is the second of two sold-out nights at the Academy, and the sense of excitement and anticipation in the air is almost tangible.

That said, Thine Eyes Bleed can’t be best pleased at having to start their set at doors-opening time. The Canadian quintet feature a certain Johnny Araya (brother of Slayer’s Tom) on bass, and make for a welcome treat for those who arrive in time to see them. Sadly, their punishing thrash metal attack doesn’t sound quite as impressive when you’re listening from the queue outside.

Children Of Bodom have always infused their synth-laden black metal anthems with a wicked sense of humour, and the band taking the stage to the ‘Naked Gun’ theme is a sure sign that it’s business as usual in the Bodom camp. Clearly delighted to be here, singer/guitarist Alexi Laiho goads the growing crowd to greater efforts as he rasps his way through the likes of ‘Needled 24/7’ and ‘In Your Face’.

The crowd need no encouragement for Lamb Of God, however: the Virginian quintet whipping a furious moshpit into shape with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the brain. Not since Pantera’s mid-90s heyday has a band unleashed such a potent and sickeningly heavy brand of hardcore groove metal with such brutal confidence as LOG do tonight. New offerings from recent album ‘Sacrament‘ are already crowd-favourites in the making, whilst the closing standard ‘Black Label‘ threatens to shake the Academy to its foundations. Folks, this is Pure American Metal, and you’ll be hearing plenty more from these guys in the near future.

In Flames sound like a black metal band playing stadium rock (or should that be the other way round?), and look as if they’re playing atop a fairground ride, with the drummer flanked by an abundance of colourful flashing lights. It shouldn’t really work, but somehow it does, with huge choruses and solos pushing ‘Pinball Map‘ and ‘Crawl Through Knives‘ into genuinely epic territory. Frontman Anders Friesen’s between-song mumbling stalls the momentum at times, but overall these Swedes do themselves proud.

Slayer can’t really fail tonight, but it’s still breathtaking to see just how vicious and vital these thrash veterans sound, over twenty years into their career. Tonight’s show features Marshall stacks arranged in the shape of inverted crosses, plenty of eerie dry-ice effects, and – most importantly – a wet-dream of a setlist that mixes plenty of the band’s classic material with choice cuts from this year’s excellent ‘Christ Illusion‘ album.

There’s no let-up in intensity throughout; Tom Araya screaming his throat raw on opener ‘Disciple‘; Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman still the ultimate thrash metal guitar tag-team; and Dave Lombardo anchoring the whole operation with deadly accuracy. A punishing encore of ‘South Of Heaven‘ and ‘Angel Of Death‘ is proof enough that Slayer can still hold their own amongst today’s young guns. Senslaytional.

Alex Gosman
04.12.06

Mean Fiddler
23.11.06

In terms of publicity, it’s arguably preferable for a band to incite feelings of either love or hate from their audience, as opposed to mere indifference. Towers Of London definitely reside in the former camp, but tonight they’re an aloof, uninspired shadow of their usual snotty-nosed selves.

With notoriously volatile singer Donny Tourette seemingly anchored to his mic stand for the first few songs. ‘Air Guitar’ and ‘How Rude She Was’ go down predictably well with the Towers faithful, but there’s just not enough fire in their performance to tempt anyone else away from the bar.

Fact is, the Backyard Babies do this kind of thing far better, and boast more than enough trashy sleaze-punk anthems in their armoury to unleash a virtual greatest-hits set on this adoring crowd. It matters little that their Hanoi Rocks/G’n’R/Ramones shtick has changed so little in the last few years, when old favourites like ‘UFO Romeo’ and ‘Star War’ rub up so well against choice cuts from this year’s excellent ‘People Like People Like People Like Us’ album. The sight of singer/guitarist Nicke Borg breaking out an acoustic guitar for ‘Roads’ is a relative surprise, but otherwise these Swedes are heads-down rock n’ roll fun of the highest order – and they could certainly teach today’s young pretenders a lesson or two in longevity.

Alex Gosman

Camden Barfly
09.11.06

If you’re craving a bit of sleazy glamour in your life, you could do worse than go and check out the Soho Dolls – a multi-national quartet that have attracted a small but loyal following in our fair capital. Essentially an electro-pop band with a darkly erotic edge, they’ve managed to sell out the Barfly tonight with only a couple of singles under their belt.

Like their namesake, this lot are all about forbidden delights just waiting to be uncovered; with singer Maya von Doll dressed not unlike the subject of future single ‘Stripper’ in eyeliner, high heels and fishnets. Tonight she’s taken over her ill keyboard player’s duties, and watching her seductive onstage presence is like having all your seedier desires paraded in front of you. Cynics may sneer at their pornographic glam-trash image, but the Soho Dolls can certainly walk it like they talk it; whipping Barfly into a dancing frenzy with the robotic beats and pulsing grooves of songs like ‘No Regrets’ and live favourite ‘Prince Harry’. His royal highness-to-be should be flattered.

With tunes and star quality of this calibre, you get the feeling that venues like the Barfly will soon be very much beneath them. Ultimately, the Soho Dolls are the musical equivalent of a beautifully manicured hand stroking itself up the quivering thighs of banality, and that’s definitely a good thing.

Alex Gosman

Storm
17.11.06

Moral Soul created one hell of a storm in the Storm Club, London. The audience was blown away by the thick bluesy beats of this Southampton quartet. It was a welcome change in musical weather considering the mundane bands which graced the stage before Moral Soul took the mike.

In one short show they put on the full throttle. No song was wasted. Every note skilfully tuned into a great song had full power charged into it-and what power that band had. Steely blues, electric rock and husky acoustic, they could do it all.

However, the real stamp on their talent was that they managed to beat the crap job of the techie doing the sound check. Where other bands had drowned in the rush of over-vamped amps, they whipped the chaos into good music. The audience loved them and they thrived off that love-the great rapport demonstrated loud and clear when they trusted the ordinary listeners to takeover their best song ‘Black Butterfly’. As yet they’re unsigned, but watch out for this one. Moral Soul may only have a few more dingy basements to play in before they get recognised.

Rebecca Geach
[Photo taken from www.myspace.com/moralsoul]