The Birthday Massacre – Islington academy, London – 24th October 2017

First up were Die kur. When I’ve seen The Birthday Massacre before I’ve thought that some of their support bands were chosen for being weird rather than great musically and that’s the impression I get from Die Kur straight away. As their set goes on they get worse. Part of their set is just weird self indugent stuff, and the other part is straight metal and there’s nothing to make the two sides of their music seem related. Really they need to decide what they want to be – a metal band or a weird prog band and stick to one or the other because as they are at the moment they’re failing to appeal to either group of fans.

Next up were Esprit d’air, a London based Japanese rock band. There’s an electronic element to their music which is clearly on tape as there isnt a keyboard player. After Die Kur this was refreshingly enjoyable and they certainly went down well with the crowd.

Lesbian bed death came next. They are a band I’ve been listening to for a few years but haven’t managed to catch live before so I was looking forward to their set. One surprise was the absence of a bassist, but with the two guitarists and a drummer then the music still sounded good. Sienna Venom has a great voice and has good stage presence. It’s a great set and they’re by far the best of the support acts tonight.

Finally it was time for The Birthday Massacre. There’s no other band around that sounds anything like them, and very few bands are as good live as The Birthday Massacre. There’s an amazingly fun feel to their live performances, largely due to their singer Chibi who is constantly smiling and full of energy. Their blend of rock, metal, industrial, pop and electronica is great on CD but when you hear them play the songs live it’s so much better – they sound better at the sort of volumes you get at gigs and the sheer energy in a live show lifts things up to another level. The Birthday Massacre never disappoint live – another fantastic show from them.

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