I’ve been writing live reviews as far back as I’ve been writing about music – indeed my very first was covering downset. for ROAR (the King’s College London Student Newspaper) back in Autumn 1996.
The live reviews here go back to about 2003, and while most were first posted here, some others appeared in the (short-lived) Alternative Magazine, others on Black Harvest, Connexion Bizarre and even once on the BBC website. This archive is every live review I’ve written between 2003 and the present day.
The title of this section comes from a track on Testament’s album The New Order.
Ears Always Open. It’s a mantra I’ve kinda tried to stick to when it comes to music, as frankly band recommendations and new things to listen to come to me from all angles sometimes, and also from the most unexpected corners. As in this case. Having returned to Iceland ten years after I first visited, […]
Crikey. Over two years already since the last, breathless Deftones show at Brixton, and here we were again, the Deftones with another exceptional new album to showcase. Unusually for a midweek Brixton show, though, I'd ensured that we got there relatively early, as I wanted to see the first support act, Three Trapped Tigers. Apparently […]
Concluding three gigs within a week of up-and-coming acts, all three of which I’ve been following for a while now, was Bitter Ruin’s return to London for their first show in the city in 2013. 2012 was a good year for the duo, with a new EP (The Rocket Sessions, released late in the year), […]
A new venue on me, this one – I’m not sure if it had previously been under another name? – and heading up York Way for the first time in a while brought home just how quickly the King’s Cross area is changing as regeneration takes hold. What was a grotty, forbidding area with little […]
After a fairly lengthy break from gig-going after a very busy 2012 – aside from the special occasion of Kraftwerk in Germany last month, this show marked my return to attending London gigs, and indeed it is the first of a number in the next few months.
There are your regular gigs, and then there are gigs that feel like something a little more special. Gigs that are worth going out of your way for.
My second visit to Antwerp for BIMFest – I first went last year, which was reviewed here – was once again enormous fun, featuring a city I’m now familiar with, friends old and new (and the usual crazy connections close to home), and of course a whole load of music, of which only a few […]
After quite a few more gigs by reunited bands this year, I’m still in two minds as to whether they are a good thing or not. In some cases, they have undoubtedly resulted in bands getting the dues they should have had in the first place, others have revitalised careers, and frankly some others have […]
Somehow, despite having been a fan of both Carter and Ned’s for many, many years, I never got ’round to seeing either of them back in their 90s heydays, and indeed I’d also managed to miss the various reunion shows in recent years too. So unlike just about all of my friends who also attended […]
It isn’t often that I’m left with a feeling of slight nervousness prior to a gig, but then, Swans aren’t really your average band. One of the most extreme “rock” bands to exist, perhaps – their extremity being being louder, more punishing mentally and physically than just about anyone else – were ended by Michael […]
There are not many bands – particularly after fifteen years in and out of the public eye – that are able to generate the sheer level of mystique and reverence that GY!BE have managed. But then – and yes, it is a cliche nowadays, but one perhaps worth repeating – GY!BE are not your average […]
Amanda Palmer has been in the music news (and beyond) a lot this year, after smashing all kinds of records in terms of raising money by “crowdsourcing”, if you will, for her new album and tour, with all kinds of rewards on offer for those who wanted to offer more money than others, including sumptious […]
My quest to apparently visit every possible London gig venue of appreciable size this year continues (this was my fortieth show this year, at twenty-nine different venues, with at least another ten shows to come during 2012), and this time it was to return to the impressive setting of the Roundhouse for the first time […]
I’ve always been intrigued by gigs that are structured as proper “events”. Not just a normal show given a fancy name (“festivals” that are basically an all-day indoor gig, for example), but the kind of show where the artist in question has really pushed the boat out, with more than just music, and actually attempts […]
It has been a while since I’ve been able to attend a Blindness show – since February pretty much every show they have played I have been committed elsewhere, so once this show was announced, and I realised I had a clear point in my calendar, it was finally time to catch up once more.
The perils of gig venues wanting to run club nights as well as gigs on Friday and Saturday evenings often means that said gigs are pushed forward to start absurdly early. In smaller cities, I could understand this – but in a city like London, opening the doors for a gig at 1800 on a […]
If Yuck are/were the sound of the grunge revival, then side-project Oupa are the sound of it dying, already reduced to sub-Neil youngesque croaks, backed with a wheezing drum machine that never chances pace. Oh yes. Not content with being part of the much-hyped “grunge revival” (which aside from the original bands reforming, and a […]
Probably one of the weekends of the year I most look forward to is the August Bank Holiday Weekend.
Welcome to part whatever of the latest trip down memory lane, to see a live band from the past who are revisiting said past. But here, there are particular reasons for doing this, and I’ll come to those in a moment, but first, there was a support band to see.
For the last of six different gigs during July – and my last for a few weeks – it was back to the Purple Turtle for the first time in a while, to see the return of the band that I believe are now the finest exponents of synthpop/futurepop anywhere. But first, before Seabound, there […]
