This gig was unusual on a few counts, but particularly for having the dubious honour of being the first gig I’ve attended downsized (i.e. moved to a smaller venue) in a long, long time. It would be easy to blame it on the recession, but this was the first turnout I’ve seen this poor in […]
In something of a downsizing from the various gigs I’ve been to of late, this was the most intimate show I’ve seen in a long, long time – and remarkably the first time I have ever attended a gig at this famous old basement venue. The pub appears to have been somewhat gentrified from it’s […]
I think it took me a little while to come around to Bitter Ruin in the first place, but to be fair, the first time around I only saw a couple of songs as we got there late. The second time around, again supporting Amanda Palmer, there was no such mistake, and for their short […]
Of the many, many bands I’ve seen over the past seventeen years, one of the earliest I saw was Garbage way back in the spring of 1996. As, frankly, the quality of their albums dipped a bit, and they became less and less interesting in touring, I chose not to see them live again…until now.
Of all of the various nostalgic gigs I’ve attended in recent years – and I’m beginning to worry that I seem to be doing more of these than I see new bands – this was one that I never really thought I’d get the chance to see.
Here are ten more songs and artists you should hear about, that have been rocking my world over the past month.
Having missed Concrete Lung’s support slot with Combichrist the previous night, I was tipped off that the band were playing under the name of FLESH WASTER at The Unicorn. So, post-work booze session completed, and on the way to a birthday bash in Walthamstow, I diverted via Camden to catch the show.
Amanda Palmer has been big news of late, not for being dicked over by a record label, or for controversy over a video, or happening to be married to Neil Gaiman, but instead she is famous right now for the fact that she has mobilised her fans to a quite extraordinary degree. No musical kickstarter […]
Thanks to everyone who turned up on Friday – it really was a brilliant night, despite the odd technical glitch here and there. We hope you all had a wonderful time, and enjoyed yourselves immensely. We’re just making plans for making the next one even better, and will be back soon with news!
Being dicked around by venue staff before even getting through the door is never a great start, but the annoyance it caused resulted in me being in just the right mood to watch Cold In Berlin. And then, to have me question exactly how I hadn’t caught them before.
I mused for a while over whether to leave the elephant in the corner of the room here, or whether to get it out of the way first. So obviously it is going to be the latter. The Strand are, or have been at least, lumped in as a “Steampunk” band in the past. I’ve […]
I have to confess that I was somewhat nervous about this gig. Were my earplugs up to the job, would I make it through the whole thing, etc. And this isn’t something I say lightly. Over seventeen years of gig-going, and hundreds and hundreds of bands I’ve seen, there are few that I’ve seen, I […]
Another month – so it’s time for a quick rundown of the ten tracks I think you should all hear. It’s a rather wider range of music than I’ve been posting of late, too, I think.
The gig the night before this was a late addition to the roster, so this, in some respects, was the gig that was the planned beginning of a long summer of shows. Ten gigs between 03-June and 22-July, before I get a break in the run-up to Infest. Like last year, I’m going to have […]
The first night of two consecutive (again!) nights of gigs over this extra-long bank-holiday weekend, and this first one took me back to Electrowerkz for a live show a second time in six months. Ostensibly the gig was headlined by The Danse Society, but we had no great desire to see them so left after […]
A couple of years ago, I posted the best of the 90s, and the best of the 00s, from my point of view.
Over the past few years, Sami’s electro project Faderhead have been difficult to ignore. Be it through ubiquitous dancefloor hits like Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois or TZDV, or be it through the odd bit of internet controversy (mouthing off about other artists or coming across as a bit of an over-inflated rockstar), where it is frankly rather hard […]
Getting to see some of my favourite bands over the years really has been a trial. Either I’ve missed shows, been in the wrong place at the wrong time, or said bands simply don’t play the UK very often. The latter is the case with Primordial, who according to their gig history have only played […]
It isn’t often that it takes a band nearly ten years to reappear after a first album, without completely disappearing from view and/or being forgotten. But somehow, that is what has happened with Sulpher. Well, I say disappear, but what actually happened was that Rob and Monti in particular ended up working with other bands. […]
Just once in a while, a reissue is genuinely of something that somehow missed a time in the spotlight the first time around, and the reissue is no naked attempt at getting the first buyers to put hands in pockets again, but instead the work of someone else trying to get the audience it should […]
