Event Reviews

Judging by ticket sales tonight Stone Sour have reached that difficult point in a touring band’s career. They’re way too big for a tour of Academy venues, but arent big enough to sell out arenas, so with the venue tonight in full arena configuration it feels a bit empty when …

Brutai kicked things off tonight. I last saw them opening the Dogtooth stage at Download festival earlier this year and their set there was good enough that I was looking forward to seeing them again. Their music is nice and heavy but still has plenty of melody. It’s great progressive …

Tonight was my first time at the NIA since they changed it to the “Arena Birmingham” name – an obvious wasy of saying “We couldnt find a new sponsor so we left their name blank”. Like many fans I think they should have just reverted to its original name – …

So it’s early doors tonight and I get there just in time for The Wild!. The Wild! aren’t a band I had heard of before, but am glad I made the effort to get there early for them. The Canadian rockers (NOT American as lead singer Dylan Villain was keen …

The first band tonight was deathcore band Nycosia. They’re very heavy with growly vocals but sadly their songs just aren’t good enough to impress anyone tonight – they relly did fall flat tonight I’m afraid. a fact clear not just from the lack of cheering or applause between songs but …

‘It’s hard to hold a candle in the cold November Rain’ sang Axl Rose on arguably the best song Guns N’ Roses ever did, but whilst his words from 1991 are more poetically inclined, it’s certainly true in Bristol tonight with winter doing its best to make everything as miserable …

Things didn’t get off to a great start tonight as the auditorium doors remained closed even a few minutes before the scheduled start time of 8pm. Finally an announcement was made – tonight’s support act, The Rainbreakers, would not be playing. That was a disappointment, but on the plus side, …

In contrast to Jonny Lang’s last visit to the Empire, this was a more sedate affair with floor seating rather than the standing he had on his last visit, which creates a noticeably different atmosphere. I prefer standing myself for blues rock gigs like this and given that we could …

When I arrived at the venue for tonight’s gig things didn’t look good. With just 20 minutes before Toseland were due on stage the venue was almost empty. Happily in the last ten minutes before they came on, the place quickly started to fill up, and by the end of …

Tonight’s Helloween gig was due to be something special. It’s part of their Pumpkins reunited tour which sees the current Helloween lineup joined by former members Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske. For many fans this was their first chance to see Helloween with these two members. There was certainly a …

First up tonight was Hanowar. As the name suggests, they’re a Manowar tribute act. Sadly they were a bit of a disaster. They did explain that they were short of one member that night and said “he’s the one with the talent”, and presumably they weren’t joking. They started the …

Tonight’s gig is sold out, and fans are there early – as I arrived the queue stretched off way into the distance, and it’s no surprise. Delain are growing in popularity and have steadily moved up to bigger venues, and after selling out Koko twice recently I think it’s likely …

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 …

Tonight was the first of two London shows as part of the Fireball tour. Sponsored by Fireball, they had people handing out free shots to the audience, which certainly went down well – free booze vs O2 academy bar prices is always a winner. It’s a packed bill with 5 …

The night started with Sons of Texas. Taking to the stage quite early on at 7.30, the venue was only half full but it did fill up steadily during their set. The Texas based band played material from their 2015 debut album (Baptised in the Rio Grande) and their new …

Gypsy Heart were unexpectedly good, singer Heather has a good, gutsy rock voice with a hint of knocking on the door of Lzzy Hale. The songs ‘Vultures’ and ‘I Don’t Know You’ the latter of which was written with Inglorious’ guitarist Andreas, show the contrast in their song writing and …

After selling out shows in Dublin and Belfast back in June, such was the demand for tickets from local rockers, Alter Bridge returned to Belfast on Sunday night to play a welcome second show as part of The Last Hero Tour.     In contrast, it was opening act As …

After a hearty cooked breakfast, we wobbled over the road to the Elizabethan Suite for day two of Grimm Up North Fest. Even at 13.00pm a dedicated number of rockers had assembled for opening act SYZ. Formed in 1981 and fronted by the perpetually entertaining Roy Hinson, they rocked out …

With The Kentucky Headhunters’ Richard Young having combatted his fear of flying when he came to see and open for his son’s band Black Stone Cherry in summer 2016; 2017 sees the band return to the UK and being reunited with the same support band, the UK’s Bad Touch, for …

Yes, that is spelt correctly. Not grim up North, but Grimm Up North! So called as it was a two day heavy metal festival in Bury, Manchester, organised by Kevin Wynn to raise funds for ongoing medical bills for Steve Grimmett, lead vocalist with Grim Reaper. On a South American …