Tag Archives: live review

Halloween.  One of the most important nights of the year… the one when the veil between the worlds comes down… or when spidey dickheads get to cross-dress without fear of ridicule from their equally spidey dickhead mates and make even bigger drunken pricks of themselves than usual… or, in the …

The second day of Firefest’s Final Fling promised to be the strongest, in terms of the quality of the names on the line-up, and this was reflected in the fact that breakfast had barely settled in the stomachs of most of the some 1,800 who queued outside the venue to …

A little more than 40 years ago, a movement developed among classically trained musicians who also were fans of rock music which saw them experiment in merging the two disciplines, as well as throwing elements of jazz, folk and other musical forms into the mix:  the result was prog!  Over …

I’m a great believer that when you go to a gig you should make every effort to see and support every band on the bill… but, sometimes circumstances conspire against you. And so it was that, due to a scheduling conflict, as Belfast’s own Overoth (pictured left) took to the …

There’s an old saying that all good things must, eventually, come to an end, and so it is that, after a run of 11 years, Firefest this year (apparently) threw its final fling, with a combination of established favourites who had graced its stage over the past decade or so, …

According to historical records, pirates (at least in their commonly perceived historical incarnation) may have sailed into many ports but they never quite ventured as far north as Britain – and certainly never as far as the shores of what, at that time, would have been Carrickfergus Bay. However, British …

Black metal is a genre which, in many ways, is split straight down the middle – between those who seek to live merely on its past glories and those who desire to drive it forward and re-establish its relevancy in the modern era:  those content to don the antiquated corpse …

Tuesday saw the second night of this tour, and the first ever Scottish date for Aussie rockers Massive, whose feet have yet to touch the ground after a flight from Oz, a drive to Newcastle, a gig and a drive to Glasgow.  A healthy diet of Newcastle Brown Ale and loud …

One complaint which is often articulated about many bands on the Northern Ireland scene is that they over-expose themselves – playing the same venues week in week out, so that the novelty (if there is any) quickly wears off.  This is most certainly a criticism which cannot be levelled in …

For the second time in three days, Belfast’s hardcore fans were treated to a visit by genuine legends of the scene, this time in the shape of NYC stalwarts Madball.  And, for the second time in three days, the honour of setting the scene (sic) fell to Belfast’s very own …

T13 is a massive urban sports arena which takes its name from it’s former use – as one of the huge workshops which once formed part of the industrial powerhouse that was Harland And Wolff:  once the biggest shipyard in the world and famed for building the likes of HMS …

Nestled in an otherwise quiet side street off Dublin’s most famous thoroughfare, Fibber Magee’s is the watering hole of choice for a large proportion of the city’s metal community, as well as those of us from 100 miles or so further north venturing over the border on a frequent basis …

Don’t you just love it when a “name” touring band pull into your town, picking up a local support along the way – most likely based on the philosophy that “well, they seem to have a bit of a following there, so they’ll do nicely”… only for the same opening …

I (just about) remember the first time – and the only one prior to this year’s Bloodstock – that I saw Carcass live… and they not only literally blew my mind: they left it splattered all over the wall behind me… It was a Saturday afternoon – the third day …

Following on from their success in the recent Progressive Music Awards – at which they lifted the ‘Anthem’ gong for the eponymously-titled from their most recent ‘Distant Satellites’ opus magnificus (of which more anon) – Liverpool experimental progsters Anathema were obviously in great mood when they took that short trip across the …

Unlike many “stars” of the late 80s hair metal scene, Mike Tramp is not a singer merely content to rest on the laurels of his past successes and bask in their faded glow, but is an artist who has matured gracefully and easily into someone comfortable with where he has …

Sometimes it is those things that are relatively unplanned – such as that impromptu meet up after work for “a couple of pints” – which turn out to be the most enjoyable.  And so it proved with this evening, which originally was scheduled to headlined by a “tribute” band, only …

When any band is regarded as truly innovative at a certain moment in musical time, the main question which must surely come back to haunt them, nigh on a generation later, is whether or not they are still as relevant and their innovation as impactful as it was ‘back in …

Flying halfway around the world to play to a handful of people on your debut gig in a strange country must be entirely disconcerting and disappointing – to say the least.  But, there is an old showbusiness about the show having to go on, and despite various unexplained (and unexplainable) …

It was William Shakespeare (and how many times would you expect to see The Bard quoted on PlanetMosh?) who penned that immortal line about parting being such sweet sorrow… tonight, marked a parting of the ways for Belfast-based Safe Ships, as half of the band members prepare to return to …