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.
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
Of all of the industrial “legends”, if you will – aside from now deceased bands like Throbbing Gristle, that I’ll never see now of course anyway – Laibach have for a while been the one band that I’ve never seen live. It hasn’t been for the want of trying – there has been at least […]
I’m beginning to like this idea of sponsored gigs. After all, if nothing else, the sponsorship helps to bring down the insane costs of gigging nowadays – noted last night on the gig listings was a Happy Mondays show at Brixton for £37.50, for example – and also benefits from perhaps better promotion and backing […]
From various conversations over the years, it certainly isn’t just me that associates particular bands, songs or albums with particular times of life. Funnily enough, for me mainly it is periods where things were not so good – and during the late 90s, in other words my unhappy time at university in London, Marion were […]
There are constant reminders of an apocalyptic future for indie labels in particular as the stampede towards digital music gains ever more pace, so it is also good to see some labels still thriving. This year is the 10th anniversary of Monotreme Records, and to celebrate they put on a show in London with three […]
From the first time I heard Chelsea Wolfe‘s music, it was pretty clear that she wasn’t like most other singer-songwriters. It isn’t often you hear a Burzum cover, never mind from an artist outside of the usual extreme metal sphere. Digging a little further, Wolfe’s second album, released last year, was a striking howl from […]
Last year, the first Resistanz festival in Sheffield was one of the talking points of the “scene” in the Spring, and due to family commitments that we couldn’t miss, we couldn’t make it. So, an early decision was made this time around to ensure that we would make it north this time, and return to […]
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.
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 […]
