Event Reviews

Tonight’s gig kicked off with support act Snow White’s Poison Bite.  Even before they start to play, they seem like an obvious choice to support Wednesday 13 as they take to the stage with the faces painted as skulls, so they fit the night’s horror theme.  Once they start to …

First up tonight was Laurence Jones, a very young (21 years old) blues guitarist.  I saw him support Joanne Shaw Taylor at her album launch last year and was impressed by his short acoustic set.  Tonight was a ful eletric set and he was accompanied by his producer, Roger Inniss …

I last saw the Quireboys in November last year which was a plugged in gig. It was a high energy show as always but their latest UK tour is an acoustic affair minus Dave Mc’ Cluskey on drums and Nick Mailing on bass guitar but the Live Rooms gig last …

Friday night in Glasgow was miserable, wet, raining and freezing cold, but none of the almost 2000 people who turned up to see Halestorm even noticed with some of them already forming a queue when I arrived at 5pm, two hours before the doors opened.  I was there to interview …

A sunny Wednesday in March sees me heading to Glasgow for my annual pilgrimage to witness Hawkwind playing in the O2 ABC, only this one was slightly more special as I was scheduled first to interview the band which can be heard here and also shoot them live. To say …

The second heat of the inaugural Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses competition to be held in this little corner of the planet we call Mosh promised to be a diverse affair, reflecting the broad church of the local metal scene – and, so it proved to be! Openers Cavehill seem …

Back in December when The Cadillac Three were last in the UK I was most upset when I didn’t get the chance to see them, so I was really excited when I got the chance to go along to the Cathouse in Glasgow on Thursday night to finally catch up …

First up were Starset.  The centre of the stage was taken up by a large glass touchscreen with various audio controls that the singer used.  The band are very striking visually – apart from the singer the rest of the band were in black outfits that looked like lightweight versions …

Hometown gigs, for any band – but especially those who have reached a certain international standing – are always a mixture of anticipation, excitement and nervousness for all concerned, for both the artist and their audience.  Especially more so when the band in question is premiering new material – most …

Some things come awaited but still unexpectedly. That was happened to me with the Covenant gig in The Classic Grand, Glasgow. With the last minute confirmation I managed to miss the first opening act – Advance but was lucky enough to catch Glaswegian synth pop band Analog Angel and Swedish …

Sometimes you walk into a gig not really knowing what to expect – and tonight was just one of those occasions.  Mainly because, if I’m honest, I’m not a big fan of bands which could be perceived as “superstar vehicles”, especially as many of them are just that – vanity …

On Saturday last we roared into the second half of the six heats that would determine this year’s semi –finalists for the Irish chapter of the Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses franchise. So far this year I have been met with very varied styles of rock and metal and performances …

Tonight was the second night of Within Temptation’s Hydra Theatre tour which started a few nights earlier in Almere.  As with previous theatre tours, the only dates are in the Netherlands – partly due to the fact the tours require a proper theatre rather than standard music venue. Why? Well …

Arriving shortly before the doors open on this cold Friday night, there were already a handful of folks waiting outside in the patio area beside the Nottingham Rescue Rooms main entrance. As the door time came and went, accompanied by the rumblings of a sound-check from deep within the venue, …

First up tonight were SHVPES (who were formerly known as Cytota).  They kicked off as they meant to go on, with a fast heavy set (basically hardcore).  The shouting style vocals and lack of any noticeable melody meant I wasnt over-impressed by them, and clearly the crowd thought the same …

The freight train that is Bloodstock’s annual ‘Metal 2 The Masses’ battle of the bands rolled into Northern Ireland for the first time this past weekend, with four bands with distinctly differing styles engaged in mortal combat for a place in the semi-finals later in the Spring. With the running …

School night gigs in Belfast – possibly in common with most other locales – are notoriously difficult to fill, unless of course they involve a “big name” touring band.  But, increasingly, Thursday nights seem to be becoming the “new Friday” and so a healthy crowd of 70 or so grinders …

Enter Shikari (9) have always loved doing stuff their way. Tonight sees them play a venue that, whilst not being the smallest place they ever done, is tiny when you compare it to the venues they could be filling out instead, like the 3,000 capacity Roundhouse they’ve sold out twice over later …

Heartbreak Remedy Due to a bit of a logistical cock-up I managed to dash into the Brickyard just in time to miss the first couple of songs of Hearbreak Remedy’s set. This hacked me off a little as I have seen their full set before and liked them a lot …

Rockmantic is becoming an annual event hosted around Valentine’s Day (hence the name) by Raz White. I went to Rockmantic 1 but couldn’t make last year. This year Valentine’s Day fell on on a Saturday so I was looking forward to a bit of Lurve as I braved the Friday …