Into the Pit: 125: Helmet – Live at Electric Ballroom – 02-April 2012
For the first of seven nights of gigs in the thirteen days, it was to a regular haunt once again, the Electric Ballroom, for a night of alternative rock.
Category: /Reviews
I’ve written a lot of reviews over the years. This is the home of pretty much all of them since about 2003.
Into the Pit: 124: Rebekah Delgado – Live at the Lexington – 23-March 2012
My horizons continue to expand to new venues, for me, anyway. In the past couple of years, since I returned to London, I’ve been to most of the smaller venues on the northern side now, and this gig took me to The Lexington, an Islington venue that is rather better than I thought it might […]
Into the Pit: 123: Atari Teenage Riot – Live at the Garage – 29-February 2012
It can hardly have escaped any gig goers attention nowadays just how eye-watering the price of gig tickets has got of late. I’m not talking about arena gigs, which have always attracted a premium, but even mid-sized shows. When it has got to the point that it is rare for a signed band to be […]
Into the Pit: 122: Rammstein – Live at The O2 – 24-February 2012
There aren’t many bands I’ll shell out silly amounts of money for to see them live, but Rammstein are one of them. I’ve seen them five times previously over the past ten years, never been disappointed, always amazed and entertained, so when the “greatest hits” tour got announced there was no was I was missing […]
Into the Pit: 121: HOLD KISS KILL + Blindness – Live at Old Queen’s Head – 21-February 2012
One of the joys of going to smaller gigs again, and indeed seeing bands from a “scene” that I’ve not generally been involved in for some time, is that I am going to venues I never even knew were gig venues – and this gig was one of those. A pleasantly restored pub on Essex […]
Into the Pit: 120: The Twilight Sad – Live at Cargo – 14-February 2012
For my first gig of a busy few weeks (five gigs between now and the end of February, and quite a few in the month or two after that), it was time to revisit a band who I only saw about three months ago. Call it a case of making up for lost time, perhaps, […]
Into the Pit: 119: The DDR of R’n’B club – The Half Moon – 16-February 2012
If nothing else, I couldn’t suggest that this night didn’t offer some variety in terms of the bands onstage. Going from garage rock, to political polemics, to deeply emotional, electro-rock. Kind of.
But Listen: 120: Mind.In.A.Box – Revelations
In these times of demands for instant musical gratification, and single track downloads apparently supplanting the album, success sometimes comes to those bands that demand more than just a fleeting listen. Austria’s Mind.In.A.Box are one such band.
Into the Pit: 118: Blindness – Live at Buffalo Bar – 14-January 2012
I’ve been following Blindness for a while now, and having picked up their debut EP a long while ago now (and promptly putting it in my best of 2010), seen them live once last year, I’m now making more of a concerted effort to see them live again – and this was the first opportunity […]
Into the Pit: 117: Front 242 – Live at KOKO – 11-December 2011
There are times when I wonder exactly how and why the support bands are picked for a live show, and this was most certainly one of those. On occasions, an eclectic bill can work, surprise and enthrall a crowd, other times it just becomes a real frustration. We missed Global Citizen this time around (mainly […]
Memory of a Festival: 014: BIMFest 2011
So for one final flourish this year, in a year where I have attended more gigs and seen more bands than I have done in a long, long time, I headed outside of the UK once again, this time for a weekend visit to Antwerp for the two-day, tenth-anniversary of BIMFest. Despite a grim and […]
Into the Pit: 116: Front 242 – Live in Glasgow – 10-December 2011
It has been a while since I travelled this far for a gig in the UK. Let me explain: I love Front 242. And given the news that old friends of mine in Je$us Loves Amerika were announced as the support act for this Glasgow show, it was not a difficult decision to head north […]
Into the Pit: 115: Aesthetic Perfection – Electrowerkz – 26-November 2011
I’m all for an interesting multi-band line-up when it comes to going to a gig. I love discovering a new band in a support slot, and then going and tracking down their recorded material. It is, after all, what support slots are there for – to give newer, or up-and-coming bands, a push. But when […]
Into the Pit: 114: The Twilight Sad – Live at the Borderline – 21-November 2011
I got into The Twilight Sad thanks to a chance link from my girlfriend, who having read about them suggested they might be “up my street”. She wasn’t wrong, either, and a couple of years later, I finally got my chance on Monday night to see whether they lived up to their live reputation, and […]
Into the Pit: 113: KMFDM – Live at Islington – 19-November 2011
A bit of a late start for me on this one – my third gig attended in a week – and as a result I missed the first two support bands, and indeed only just got into the venue in time to see most of the Global Citizen set. I’ve heard a few positive things […]
Into the Pit: 112: Senser – Live at Purple Turtle – 16-November 2011
Another week, another gig. I’m currently in the middle of a long run of shows to attend, that lasts until somewhere in mid-December. Indeed this year (2011) I’ve seen more bands in one year than I have in a long time. I’ve seen some poor shows, some OK shows, and some very good ones – […]
Into the Pit: 111: Will Haven – Live at Islington – 11-November 2011
So, the looking backward in 2011 continues. I’ve said enough about that already, right? Let us talk about the headline band instead then, eh? Well, I also have to confess that I totally missed support band RSJ – but then, apparently they’ve been around for a while, and I’ve never come across them before. Maybe […]
But Listen: 119: W.A.S.T.E. – Liquor, Drugs and Hate
After their first two albums and an EP, and seeing a live show that was so loud and intense that it felt like the back wall was going to be blown at points, W.A.S.T.E. are back to sear your eardrums once again. And you have to wonder exactly what they can do next: almost like […]
But Listen: 118: Alter der Ruine – Son Of A Bitch
It has been a while since the last ADR album – I reviewed the gloriously chaotic mash-up of styles that was The Giants From Far Away a couple of months short of three years ago now, and have been looking forward to new material for some time.
But Listen: 117: Skinny Puppy – hanDover
In quite fabulous timing for this review, there was an intriguing article in the Guardian’s music section yesterday entitled When Bands Fall Off Cliffs. Ostensibly about how some bands find massive success and then the next release sees their fanbase simply fall away – and there were some pretty sobering and unexpected examples in the […]