Tag Archives: limelight belfast

Birthdays and anniversaries are important milestones, often forgotten at peril (which probably partly explains why my ex-wife is just that!), and so Belfast hardcore heroes By Any Means decided to mark five years together with a suitably celebratory bash at the city’s most famous rock venue. Chosen to open proceedings …

And so the metallians gathered once more on the evening of the sabbath to worship at the church of RocKD and hear the gospel according to the lords of the riff… and, verily, I say unto you it was a mighty evening of monstrous metal mayhem, as we shall now …

‘Twas a the week before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring… but ’round the corner in the Limelight all manner of mayhem was taking place, as the holiday season turned into a right ol’ Thrashmess… With the ambient, grungy pop of Goodbye Nola entertaining but …

Slightly more than a year ago, the curtain came down on the long and storied career of the mighty Thin Lizzy, when the band played their penultimate gig on Irish soil as they bade farewell to touring and prepared to launch a new identity through which to progress the Lizzy …

Opening the bill for two bands of the quality of tonight’s ‘co-headliners’ was never going to be an easy task, but LA veteran newcomers Venrez did their task with aplomb and confidence – perhaps buoyed by vocalist Stephen Berez’s earlier sampling of the finest whiskey ever distilled, Black Bush. Despite …

The love of music, in the purest sense of both the emotion and the form, is about opening your heart and soul to both, and especially opening yourself to new experiences of the art in order to fully appreciate why it lends itself to your undying devotion.  This evening was …

The latest instalment of the weekly RocKD’s epic 13-year odyssey brought together another damn fine trio of bands who once again demonstrated the extremely rude state of health which the Northern Ireland metal scene is enjoying at the moment (as anyone who attended the recent Highway To Hell event in …

A little month to go before their official return to the UK, Aussie hellraisers Airbourne picked the best possible place outside their homeland to do what they do best, and that is raise the aforesaid hell… with plenty of merriment thrown in, as they stopped off for almost a full …

Tonight’s gig – unbeknownst in advance – turned out to be something of a victory for live music here in Belfast.  Despite its history as the premier rock venue in the city, the Limelight (now with the suffix ‘2’ to signify the fact that it is the smaller of the …

It takes dedication and commitment to do what we do – especially as we do it on a voluntary basis and for the love of the music we write about – and so it is with these two qualities in mind that your humble reviewer finds himself reviewer finds himself …

There’s a saying about a week being a long time in politics, but in the music business a year can be very short – and that can certainly be said of Belfast upstarts Maverick, for whom this return to the legendary Limelight for their second headline slot in as many …

Belfast has become something of a favourite stopping off point for US bands either going to or from the European festival circuit…  In recent years the path to this little corner of planet metal has been trodden by acts as diverse as Tesla and Metallica, Machine Head and Black Stone …

When is a tribute band not a tribute band?  One answer would be when the band is question is not only in itself a tribute to the great music which it performs but also contains within its ranks the majority of the supremely talented musicians which created that music – …

Launch gigs can be weird affairs… all too often, the band doing the launch, be it an EP or whatever, deliberately pull together a rather lame supporting cast, so as not to expose their own weaknesses.  The alternative, and much more preferable option, is to invite along support acts which …

While those with a lot less sense were out ‘drowning the shamrock’ and “celebrating” what laughingly passes for the ‘national saint’s day’ in this corner of the world, by getting as hammered as possible as quickly possible and then hammering the living daylights out of each other in an unprecedented …

If there is ever something which can be honestly described as an institution on the Belfast metal scene, then it truly is RocKD.  Started up almost a decade and a half ago by James ‘The Nicest Man In Metal’ Loveday as a Saturday afternoon showcase for the best in local …

The song ‘Cat’s In The Cradle’ carries a particular resonance for Northern Ireland rock fans.  While, almost exactly 20 years ago, our counterparts in the rest of the world were propelling Ugly Kid Joe’s cover of the Harry Chapin ballad back into the upper reaches of the charts, the government …

What is the collective noun for a group of guitarists? In this case, may we proffer forth the description ‘an audience’ – as nearly every other person assembled for this Belfast stop-off on Firewind’s ten date UK and Ireland tour appeared to be a six-string slinger from one local metal …

This evening’s weekly dose of Saturday metal gave two out of the four local bands attending next month’s Highway To Hell III a chance to run through their paces, albeit in front of a much more partisan crowd than they undoubtedly will face in Glasgow… Opening proceedings for the duo …

Despite summer trying, vainly, to make a last ditch attempt to make its disappointing presence felt inside, and the counter-attraction of equally disappointing live football in the adjoining bar, an extremely healthy crowd sequestered itself in the darkened environs of metal’s spiritual Belfast home for this weekly early-evening triple header. …