Category: Music

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Live Reviews

Lucero live at the Windmill, Brixton

Lucero,
London Brixton Windmill,
28/11/12

These days, it seems that more and more of London’s venues are covered in corporate branding, so it’s comforting to arrive at the Brixton Windmill and find it still resolutely independent and reassuringly shabby. Certainly, Lucero seem to have adopted it as their home from home – this is the third visit for Ben Nichols’ crew, and tonight is the first of a four night stand.

Sweetheart Contract are Londoners, but their sound is steeped in Americana, with alt-country rhythms, twanging rockabilly bass and even a touch of harmonica in the mix. You could argue about authenticity, but the numerous folks tapping their feet along to the catchy ‘Summer Heist’ and ‘Honesty Is Comedy’ would rightfully ignore you. Singer/guitarist Dexy is blessed with the voice of an indie-pop angel, but sprinkles everything he sings with a touch of gritty defiance. Check them out – you won’t regret it.

Lucero arrive to a heroes’ welcome from a sold-out crowd, but neither crowd nor band seem quite as invigorated as they did five years ago at this very same venue. Still, it’s a cold Wednesday night outside, and old favourites ‘Sweet Little Thing’ and ‘Nights Like These’ are a fine tonic for weary souls, whilst a few tunes from recent album ‘Women & Work’ are lent a welcome ragged edge in the live setting. They play for nearly two hours (but for some reason ignore 2007’s superb ‘Rebels, Rogues…’ album), and by the end, it feels like we’re part of the congregation in some kind of alt-country chapel, with the preachers bashfully enjoying the devotion on display. Six old Memphis road-dogs they may be, but Lucero know – as ever – how to create a sense of occasion.

Alex Gosman

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Live Reviews

Converge and Touché Amoré live at London Koko

Converge,
London Koko,
25/11/12

Tall, cavernous theatres like Koko may not be the ideal setting for a hardcore show, but then Converge are no ordinary hardcore band, and tonight’s line-up reflects this.

A Storm Of Light are armed with some seriously seismic grooves that fill the venue with ease, and give its foundations a bit of a shake into the bargain. Behind the band, a huge projector screen shows footage of rioting, war and burning cities – an appropriate backdrop if ever there was one, as this is perfect ‘impending apocalypse’ music. It’s an assault on the senses, and an oddly reassuring one at that.

A combination of almost non-stop touring and last year’s excellent ‘Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me’ album have gained Touché Amoré plenty of well-deserved recognition, and tonight they justify the hype in fine style. Every word is screamed back at vocalist Jeremy Bolm as his band rip through the likes of ‘Pathfinder’ and ‘Home Away From Home’ with minimum stage patter and maximum conviction. They’re clearly stoked to be touring with Converge, and with their intelligent, honest approach to hardcore, greater things surely await Touché Amoré.

The last time we witnessed Converge separated from their audience by a barrier (at the Electric Ballroom a few years ago), frontman Jacob Bannon seemed uncomfortable – prowling the stage like a lion unable to savage a nearby herd of wildebeest. This time around, he comes across more like a hardcore Spiderman – zipping around the stage with barely a pause for breath, and that’s when he’s not actually down on the barrier screaming into the front rows.

Never slouches in the live department, Converge get through a good 20-odd songs tonight. ‘Sadness Comes Home’ (a highlight of recent album ‘All We Love We Leave Behind’) is already a crowd favourite, although – as ever – ‘Jane Doe’ era favourites like ‘Bitter And Then Some’ are the ones that really push the already-seething pit into overdrive.

Few bands find themselves making some of their best records after nearly two decades’ existence, but such is Converge’s position. No surprise that their fans are as devoted as they come, and on tonight’s evidence, that shouldn’t change anytime soon.

Alex Gosman

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Album Reviews Buzz Chart Reviews

Tilly and the Wall

TILLY AND THE WALL
‘Heavy Mood’
(Team Love)

When you’ve documented the joys and pains of youth as much as Tilly And The Wall did on their first two (fabulous) records, how best to grow up? Three of the Omaha quintet are now parents, and with evenings of drunken hi-jinks (as recounted on early classic ‘Nights Of The Living Dead’) surely growing distant in their rear view mirrors, you’d be forgiven for fearing that the feisty Tilly spark has dimmed over the last few years.

Not a bit of it. Having started to shy away from their swoonsome folk-pop sound on their previous self-titled record, they’re getting feistier and noisier with age. The title track is the closest they’ve come so far to an out-and-out dance number, whilst ‘All Kinds Of Guns’ (replete with girl-group melody) and ‘Thicker Than Thieves’ (typical Tilly riotousness) are among several fine additions to their bulging armory of ‘us against the world’ anthems.

It’s when they finally slow things down that the band run into trouble; ‘I Believe In You’ and ‘Hey Rainbow’ just drift languidly by without making much of an impression, in contrast to genuinely affecting past efforts like ‘Let It Rain’.

A chorus of kids accompanies the closing ‘Defenders’ – an appropriate finale, as on the evidence of ‘Heavy Mood’, Tilly And The Wall are still very much in touch with their collective inner child.

Alex Gosman

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Music News

Slipknot vs Cliff Richard for Xmas number 1

Sorry for the lack of music news for the last 2 whole weeks. Our music team were making way for this Christmas banger. Ladies and Gentleman, please enjoy Slipknot vs Cliff Richard doing a rendition of Mistletoe and Wine.

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Live Reviews Music

Deaf Havana Live at Shepherd’s Bush

Deaf Havana

DEAF HAVANA
w/ There For Tomorrow, Canterbury
Sherperd’s Bush o2 Academy, London
15th November 2012

Shepherds Bush Empire was the venue for Deaf Havana’s biggest headline show to date. Selling out five days before the show, this was shaping up to be quite spectacular, and in no means did the night disappoint.

There for Tomorrow, forming in 2003, have established themselves as a major act on the rock circuit in the US, playing all the dates on the 2011 Vans Warped tour and releasing two full-length studio albums. Having headlined the Garage in London in November 2010 with support coming from Deaf Havana, it was clear from the start that the quartet had some fans around the venue with various screams and dancing, an overall solid performance.

Next up were main support Canterbury. After gaining a major fan base after releasing their debut album, ‘Thank You’ as a free download in 2009, they returned in 2012 with their much anticipated follow up studio album ‘Heavy in the Day’. Playing songs from both albums, including ‘Wrapped in Rainbows’, ‘Survivor’ & ‘Gloria’, at the end of which front man Mike Sparks thanked the crowd for their constant support of both themselves and more importantly the British Rock scene, which he then went onto say was booming which was apparent from tonight’s British acts. Finishing off their set with ‘Friends? We’re More Like A Gang’, Canterbury continue to show why their ones to watch in 2013.

A year on from releasing their album ‘Fools and Worthless Liars’, Deaf Havana are playing their biggest headline show since forming in 2005. Albeit with some technical issues early on, and starting their set with an alternative, slower version of ‘Youth In Retrospect’, it wasn’t long before they sent the sold out crowd into frenzy. Having the option to play material off both their original and deluxe edition, it was anyone’s guess as to which versions of the songs they were going to be played. A song that stood out to me on both versions of the albums was ‘Anemophobia’, tonight they showed how diverse they were as a band both live and recorded as they started the song off on a piano like that of the alternative version and then kicked in as the whole band to finish it off.

During their set it was clear to see how overwhelming the night was to James Veck Gilodi and his fellow bandmates. They used the platform to announce that they will be supporting fellow Brits You me at Six at their Wembley show that was met by a lot of screams from the crowd. Coming on for an encore, they were joined by eight members of the London Youth Gospel Choir to do renditions of their three songs ‘The World or Nothing’, ‘Fifty Four’ and Finished off with ‘Hunstanton Pier’.

This show will stick in the minds of the band and fans alike for quite sometime, and tonight has been a clear reminder that Great Britain have got one of the finest rock scenes, which Deaf Havana will keep climbing.

Words & Photos: Tim Easton

There For Tomorrow
There For Tomorrow
There For Tomorrow
Canterbury
Canterbury
Deaf Havana
Deaf Havana
Deaf Havana
Deaf Havana
Deaf Havana
Deaf Havana
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Live Reviews Music

Parkway Drive Live at The Roundhouse, London

PARKWAY DRIVE
w/ Emmure, The Words Alive, Structures
The Roundhouse, London
17/11/12

Parkway Drive are the headliners at tonight’s show at a packed out London Roundhouse, and judging from the expectant air looming about the venue, it’s going to be a great night.

Up first are the techiest band tonight; Structures. They sound great and manage to get the crowd pumped up early in the night. Definitely one to watch live, as they sound a great deal more powerful on a stage than a CD.

Next on are The Word Alive, who blend melody and heaviness superbly. They manage to cram loads of songs into their relatively short set and the crowd seem to be warming to them by the middle of the performance. Pleasingly, the band seem utterly grateful to be able to play to so many people, and thank the crowd over and over, which is good to see!

Emmure are probably the ultimate marmite band. Yes, lots of people will turn their noses up at them, but they manage to pull off one of the best live performances of the year tonight. They sound monumentally heavy, and the crowd react to all of frontman Frankie’s commands without thought. They too sound better live than on a cd, thanks to massive tone and drums, along with Frankie’s unique vocal delivery. Grand.

Parkway Drive however, will ALWAYS steal the show when it comes to a live performance. Packing 2 projectors and all the lights you’d ever want onto the stage tonight, PWD are on perfect form, sounding monstrous as usual. They are deliver their set like it was their last ever show, with the crowd response matching as they go mental throughout the entire performance. With a lengthy setlist comprising of all their best songs from previous records and some huge new tracks from new release ‘Atlas’, their show is pretty much spot on, and they remain THE live band to beat. Very, very impressive indeed.

Structures
The Word Alive
Emmure
Parkway Drive
Parkway Drive
Parkway Drive

Words & Photos: Jake Owens

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Music Music News

Jägermeister Music Tour 2013 Line-Up Revealed


Earlier this year the Jägermeister Music Tour tour saw Skindred, Therapy? & Black Spiders play to over 12,500 music fans on a successful UK run. Arguably 2013’s tour will top that…

The illusive yet infamous Ghost are set to headline the tour with talented French metallers GOJIRA and British newcomers The Defiled to follow in support. With Jägermeister subsidising the ticket prince to a tiny £5 there really is no excuse not to attend and miss out on Ghost’s first major headliner run in this country.

The dates are as follows:
MARCH 2013
18 – SHEFFIELD Academy
19 – GLASGOW Academy
20 – BRISTOL Academy
22 – BOURNEMOUTH Academy
23 – BIRMINGHAM Academy
24 – BRIXTON Academy

Categories
Live Reviews

Monster Magnet play ‘Spine of God’ live in London

Monster Magnet,
23rd November
Electric Ballroom
Camden, London.

It’s extremely rare these days to discover an album of this magnitude. Monster Magnet‘s ‘Spine of God‘ was, and still is, one of the very best stoner rock records ever made. When this dropped back in 1991, it blew everything else out of the water. This album, made up of the most potent, acid-tinged, psychedelic rock, is so strong, and so deep, that it will forever live in the top 5 albums ever made in my book. No other album released since could push it down the pecking order. Not even QOTSA. You can argue amongst yourselves on this one, but i’m sticking to my guns. This album is fucking blazing and the OG since Sabbath.

davewyndorf_monstermagnet

Tonight, singer/guitarist Dave Wyndorf and his current band mates have traveled to London to drop an atomic bomb on a sold out Electric Ballroom. Now 56 years of age and looking the best he has done for years, he takes to the stage to unleash Monster Magnet’s debut album ‘Spine of God’ in its entirety and tells the crowd that he has come only to give all to the “emotional”. As a result, his worshippers give him everything as the band leap into the awesome, spiralling drum roll of ‘Pill Shovel’, one of the truly great album intro’s of all time.

The riffs that follow make a sea of heads nod as the deep, dark crunch of sludge is served up like a tsunami. This is hotknife material that you are fucking with here. The very best airplane toke you ever rose for. This show is for the microdot you lost under your fridge in 1992, the lump of hash you dropped at a festival that was never found. The first ever line of coke you blew onto the carpet in front of a room full of drug dealing Hells Angels. None of this is fiction. This is reality, and this, is the soundtrack of our lives.

Wyndorf’s voice is spot on. As he delivers the intro to ‘Medicine’ with the lyrics “Place the stones in the circle of twelve” we could feel the pre-empted anxiety from everybody around us, all ready to explode from the atomic pounding that was unleashed from the opening riff of this beast of a tune. His evil screams sent shivers down every spine in the house before the epic crescendo burst its banks and made way for that one and only “whoooooooooooooooooshhhhhhh, ……..” as the head rush from the needle point of ‘Nod Scene’ slowmo’d through veins and crashed gently into a mulch of psychedelic bliss. By this point, minds had gone all over the venue. This is the best fucking experience EVER! “Screw you if you think I care!”.

The evil riffs of ‘Black Mastermind’ bring the zodiac levels up to full capacity once again. Air guitar strings are snapping all over the fucking venue as people lose their minds from an overdose of space rock. After a nine-minute jam of frenzied guitar solo’s, Zodiac Lung sees Wyndorf turn from jamming into the drums to fronting classic lyrics: “When I die, It will be cos of you:. “It’s fuck up’s like you, that never seem to die.” I guess he seems pretty thankful he is still alive at all, after a lifetime of drug fueled touring, breakdowns, prescription drugs overdoses and personal trauma, Wyndorf has lived to tell the tale. At the end of set following ‘Spine Of God’, ‘Snake Dance’, ‘Sin’s a Good man’s Brother’ and ‘Ozium’, he apologises to the audience for not writing a longer album. Just like on record, the only way to get over ending this masterpiece is to press play on the first track again, but sadly, this is not possible live. So once the band have a well earnt breather, they return for an insanely good version of ‘Lord 13’ from ‘Tab’. This is where everything changed.

As ‘Traktor’ delivered its laughing pill, Wyndorf moved away from the mic by 4 feet but the vocals rang out through the PA perfectly. I had to ask my buddy next to me for re-assurance, who to my surprise, saw the exact same thing. We looked at each other with jaws open-mouthed. Is Dave Wyndorf fucking actually singing or what?! Is a tape of his vocals playing throughout the entire show? Is it just some helpful backing track for certain parts he can no longer reach? It turns out that the sound man controls a lot of the reverb on his vocals, so that’s that cleared up.

monstermagnet_electricballroom

I came here to melt, to indulge, to reminisce, to appraise, to be electrified, and thankfully, I was rewarded with all of the above. So thank you Monster Magnet, for delivering the best gig you have played since we saw you at the Windsor Old Trout on the 4th of September back in ’92, and the Underworld show a day later. It’s a Satanic drug thing…..you wouldn’t understand.

Zac

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Album Reviews Buzz Chart Music Reviews

Bring Me The Horizon & Draper

BRING ME THE HORIZON & DRAPER
‘The Chill Out Sessions’

With their third studio album ‘There Is a Hell, Believe Me, I’ve Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let’s Keep It A Secret’, Bring Me The Horizon began to experiment with the atmospherics of their sound. Now collaborating with producer/chillstep artist Draper, the Sheffield based metallers have embraced this element and dropped an exquisite EP, ‘The Chill Out Sessions’.

As the name and artwork suggests this EP is a beautiful sound scape, the perfect backing track to relaxation yet it maintains elements of Bring Me’s emotional charged music.

Although Bring Me The Horizon will always remain attached to the metal scene, the direction of this EP isn’t a surprise as vocalist Oli Sykes is publicly fixated on post-rock band Worship, likewise guitarist Jona Weinhofen equally adores Scandinavian experimentalists immanu el. With immanu el reported to feature on Bring Me The Horizon’s next full length ‘Sempiternal’, the band’s development will be an exciting prospect to witness.

Download ‘The Chill Out Sessions’ for free here.

Words: Emma Wallace

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Features

Vans Warped Tour UK 2012


10,000 music fans, 28 bands from 6 countries performing across 4 stages with 4,065 cans of Monster Energy Drink consumed, sums up the triumphant success that was 2012’s sold out Vans Warped Tour UK.

After soaking up the brilliant atmosphere for the early part of the event at London’s iconic Alexandra Palace, team Crossfire situated themselves in the main room to bring you back the info on performances from the Monster stages.

First off, we caught Breathe Carolina [3/5]. Now obviously this sort of electro/screamo vibe is not normally the kind of thing you would hear us raving about, but fair play to the duo, they really know how to work a crowd. The music maybe takes itself a little too seriously considering it is essentially just pop, but nonetheless, Breathe Carolina are widely adored by hyper-active fans.

Breathe Carolina

Following Breathe Carolina comes a completely different monster, UK born and bred metalcore titans, Architects [5/5]. Their thunderous blast beats and sub drops destroy the ear drums of a riff hungry crowd who respond with the biggest pits of the event so far. ‘Follow The Water’ and ‘These Colours Don’t Run’ are particular highlights of Architects’ set which ends with a union of voices screaming ‘You Fucking Pigs’ and the whole band surfing across the crowd.

Architects
On Stage With Architects
On Stage With Architects

3oh!3 [4/5] introduce themselves as a pop band, realistically that’s what they are, not typically a traditional Warped Tour artist. However, when you perform with such stage presence it doesn’t matter what genre you are tied to. ‘Don’t Trust Me’, ‘Starstrukk’ and ‘Punkbitch’ are all guilty pleasures to a crowd usually fed on punk and metal, but there really is no shame in enjoying these pop tarts when the bass is cranked up to such a dirty level.

Bringing the music back to the classic sound of Warped Tour, New Found Glory [3/5] bounce through an energetic set featuring all their hits with ‘My Friends Over You’ and a cover of Sixpence None The Richer’s ‘Kiss Me’ highlighting a charismatic performance. Showing professional brilliance, the band fought through technical difficulties to produce some of the most fun filled pits of the day. Even without being the biggest pop-punk fan, the infectious and uplifting sense of nostalgia was enough to get anyone involved.

After having been away from consciousness for a while, The Used [4/5] return to the UK with a commanding presence. ‘All That I’ve Got’ and ‘The Taste Of Ink’ are captivating and allow fans to reminisce the days when The Used were undoubtedly the king of emo. But it’s ‘Pretty Handsome Awkward’ that stands out of a polished set due to the punishing pit it creates.

Although known for being a bit hit and miss when it comes to live performances, Bring Me The Horizon [5/5] stole the show this time around at Warped. If the sound of screaming was deafening when the band walked on to the stage, words cannot describe the intensity when front man Oli Sykes appeared. It seems this generation’s metal poster boy left his demons behind for Bring Me’s set, as his presence was nothing short of iconic. Technically brilliant, impeccably tight, energetic across the stage and featuring surprisingly impressive clean vocals from Jona Weinhofen, this performance cements Bring Me The Horizon as the ones to beat in metal with new material from forthcoming album ‘Sempiternal’ sounding equally as brilliant as previous work.

Oli Sykes - Bring Me The Horizon
Oli Sykes
Bring Me The Horizon

Oddly enough, Lostprophets [3/5] appear a little out of place as headliners. Although their extensive and impressive history earns them this slot, they aren’t quite the buzz band they used to be. But ‘Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja’ brings utter destruction whilst ‘Rooftops’ holds the crowd firmly in the palm of Ian Watkin’s hand. When a set list is filled with classics such as ‘Can’t Catch Tomorrow’ and ‘Last Train Home’ you wonder why we ever doubted their dominance.

Ian Watkins - Lostprophets
Lostprophets
Vans Warped Tour UK Crowd

Words: Emma Wallace
Photos: Emma Wallace