Category: Reviews: Gigs
REVIEW: 3 DOORS DOWN AT BRISTOL O2 ACADEMY (14/03/12)
3 Doors Down are that kind of band that are still capable of packing venues like the Academy in Bristol without most people really knowing who they are. It’s been a good few years now since 3DD topped the American billboard charts with the hits that made them popular with a generation of Kerrang! album [...]
REVIEW: WILD BEASTS AT FALMOUTH PRINCESS PAVILION (15/03/12)
Following critically acclaimed ‘Two Dancers’, which was nominated for the 2010 Mercury Prize, May 2011 saw the release of third album ‘Smother’ from Wild Beasts. For their fifth gig, in as many days, Wild Beasts came to a very excited Falmouth as part of their seven-date March tour. Alt-J, who are actually called ∆, because [...]
REVIEW: FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE AT CARDIFF MOTORPOINT ARENA (10/03/12)
Tonight’s gig is a night of conflicting emotions and a collection of what you might call NME darlings. Florence and the Machine are riding the wave of a terrific “difficult” second album but riding it well with a string of UK arena dates. Opening tonight’s proceedings is Spector, a well formed indie pop band from [...]
REVIEW: THE DUBLINERS AT PLYMOUTH PAVILIONS (08/03/12)
Appearing in Plymouth celebrating 50 years in the folk n roll business one of Ireland’s finest outfits The Dubliners dragged the eager, generally older generation, South West folkies to the pavilions with a glorious ease. The first of the two sets for the evening was started off with “Seven Drunken Nights”, their number one from [...]
REVIEW: THE JOY FORMIDABLE SECRET GIG IN BRISTOL
The thing that really bugs me about fashion-sponsored gigs like this (Clarks Originals being the sponsor here) is that the atmosphere at most of the shows just doesn’t feel right. That aside, I have been a big fan of The Joy Formidable for some time now. They are a shining example of how to make [...]
REVIEW: DECAPITATED AT BRISTOL FLEECE (02/03/12)
In the last few years, all has been relatively quiet on the Welsh death metal front known as Desecration – and with such bog standard performances as tonight, it’s easy to see why. Playing brutal death metal in a room rammed full of riff-hungry metal heads should have been like shooting fish in a barrel [...]
REVIEW: LABRINTH AT CARDIFF SOLUS (02/03/12)
Last time Labrinth performed in Cardiff he was performing a small PA set in a nightclub, now the singer-songwriter from is back in Cardiff at the sold out Solus. Since his last stint in Cardiff the Hackney born singer has received astonishing chart success with both his singles ‘Sunshine’ and ‘Earthquake’. Now Labrinth is touring [...]
REVIEW: BEN HOWARD + DAUGHTER AT BRISTOL O2 ACADEMY (29/02/12)
Tonight, Bristol’s O2 Academy welcomes Daughter and Ben Howard to the stage for a sold out show. Having received critical acclaim for his debut album ‘Every Kingdom’ and gaining plenty of radio airplay with bucket loads of marketing, it’s no wonder that the academy is full to the brim. That’s the problem with this venue. [...]
REVIEW: ALLO DARLIN’ AT BRISTOL FLEECE (28/02/12)
People say a lot about the ‘difficult second album’. How do you follow on from a commercially successful or critically acclaimed debut? Do you go back to the drawing board and reinvent yourself or do you resist tampering too much with a proven formula and end up blowing your recording budget on what’s essentially a [...]
REVIEW: INME AT EXETER CAVERN (27/02/12)
Everything about tonight’s headliners yells Hardcore. Their Hardcore mentality when it comes to touring (this is the sixth date of thirty) and their die-hard, ‘stand by them through it all’ fan base that are in attendance tonight show how much dedication and love there is for this band. InMe’s live performance shows the rest. The [...]
REVIEW: DODGY AT BUSH HALL, LONDON (22/02/12)
Talk about Dodgy to anyone under the age of 25 and they’d probably go ‘who?’. Head to the older camp and you’ll find opinion completely divided. There’s the people who quite liked Dodgy back in their Britpop days and despite having more than one hit, would dub them one hit wonders. Then there’s the folk [...]
REVIEW: ORIGIN + PSYCHOTROPIC AT THE CROFT, BRISTOL (21/02/12)
Whilst Austrailian tech metallers Psycroptic are no strangers to opening a gig in support of the death metal omicron that is Origin, tonight it appears that they still have something to prove. Hot on the heels of their fifth studio release, Psycroptic thrash their way through neat and tidy riffs with a sound that’s too [...]
REVIEW: GOAN DOGS AT BRISTOL CROFT (18/02/12)
We first caught Bristol’s Goan Dogs at their debut gig at The Croft about a year ago and here we are, back again for another set by the increasingly hyped five-piece…so what has changed. Well, in that time, not only have they played a series of packed headline gigs across the city (including this here [...]
REVIEW: FIELD MUSIC AT BRISTOL FLEECE (23/02/12)
There’s a sea of bobbing heads at tonight’s packed out Fleece and riding the waves are Sunderland four-piece Field Music. The genre-defying band move through their set, sounding at times melancholy and downbeat while at others almost like Led Zeppelin put through the funk machine – the result of which is a mixed bag of [...]
REVIEW: PULLED APART BY HORSES + THE COMPUTERS AT BRISTOL FLEECE (18/02/12)
At last, The Fleece has wised up to the awkward layout of the venue and shifted the entrance to the back door – instead of the side one. It comes as no surprise that they chose this sold out gig to do that cos the crowd was fuckin mental. From the moment the suited and [...]
REVIEW: TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB + METRONOMY + TRIBES AT CARDIFF UNIVERSITY (19/02/12)
Tribes are hyped for success this year. The lead singer of the Camden based band Johnny Lloyd looks every bit the lovechild of Pete Doherty and Razorlight’s Johnny Borrell. Luckily, his impressive live vocal talents are more comparable to the latter and with anthem styled sing-alongs such as Sappho and We Were Children in their [...]
REVIEW: BRAND NEW + I AM THE AVALANCHE + THE XCERTS AT CARDIFF UNIVERSITY (17/02/12)
A small state of chaos has broken out in Cardiff Student Union’s Great Hall tonight. It’s the last night of Brand New’s largely sold out UK tour and for a change it’s not the crowd conducting this sort of behaviour but rather the band and crew. The Xcerts are playing to a fairly full room [...]
REVIEW: TOTALLY ENORMOUS EXTINCT DINOSAURS AT BRISTOL THEKLA (15/02/12)
Warming up the crew tonight is Seye, or as he cleverly markets himself, “eyes backwards”. I first discovered Seye when he supported Lana Del Rey at Scala a few months back, so I did wonder how he would go down with his genre being different from the electronic, bass ridden beats of Totally Enormous Extinct [...]
REVIEW: KERRANG! TOUR AT CARDIFF GREAT HALL FT. NEW FOUND GLORY + THE BLACKOUT (11/02/12)
The sold out Kerrang! relentless energy drink tour rolled into Cardiff’s sold out Great Hall for yet another year. Crowds came out and queued from as early as 10am to guarantee the best spot to watch American pop punk headliners New Found Glory play the Welsh capital. This is the seventh Kerrang! Tour and the [...]
REVIEW: TINY RUINS AT BRISTOL LOUISIANA (12/02/12)
You could be forgiven for thinking that seeing three of the leading lights in the New Zealand folk scene in an eggy cellar is a scene out of Flight of the Conchords. But Sunday night’s gig was actually a beautifully quiet and warm-hearted evening. You won’t go to many gigs where the bands take the [...]
