Category Gig/Festival Reviews

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Tonight’s gig is a co-headlining one with both bands playing for an hour. First up was Crimson sky, a female fronted prog rock band from Bristol. I did enjoy their set but there was certainly room for improvement – the keyboards were way too high in the mix and at times drowned out the vocals. The guitar work was good and heavy. The singer moved around and used the space well and her voice seemed pretty good, but during one of the old songs that was written when the band had a different singer then she did seem to struggle, which isnt unusualy when singing somethign written for someone elses voice. The band failed to get much engagement with the crowd unfortunately with most people standing well back, but there was still plenty of applause between songs.

Winter in Eden are a band I’v...

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As far as my experience goes in Netherlands or with Dutch people, I can use the word ’practical’ when it comes to describing them. And that is also applied to the Fortarock festival which has the biggest advantage of being a one day festival. A young and growing festival, located in the Brakkenstein park in the city of Nijmegen, walking distance from train or bus stations and starting at noon, its duration makes for such an enjoyable Saturday afternoon. I’ve been to three or four days festivals and while there’s plenty of fun parts in that, I consider that we’re way over the days when people hardly had access to live concerts, hence their desperate need for once a year event where they could see all the big bands during three to seven days...

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Tonight’s entertainment at the Garage was ”Spinefarm night” – a gig by three bands signed to Spinefarm records, Amaranthe, Soen and Dynazty. The gig was advertised as an Amaranthe show with the other two bands not being announced till a few weeks before the gig, so inevitably the majority of the crowd were Amaranthe fans, with plenty of their T-shirts being worn.

The night kicked off with Swedish band Dynazty. By the time they came on stage at 8pm the venue was already busy and the temperatures inside were climbing rapidly (well that’s what happens when you have a busy venue on one of our few hot sunny summer days). Right from the start they made a great impression with the crowd and really impressed a lot of people with their brand of rock...

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Pardise Lost på KB – Malmö, är ett efterlängtat återbesök sedan deras senaste vända två och ett halvt år sedan. Vad har hänt under den tiden då? Förutom att de precis släppt en ny platta – Tragic Idol, så är allt precis likadant! Förvänta man sig något mer än några nya Paradise Lost-typiska låtar så skulle man bli besviken.

Det visuella är enkelt och Nick Holmes är prydligt klädd och överlåter scenframträdandet till sina musiker som levererar.

Malmöiten Adrian Erlandsson är ett energiknippe utav dess like! Han pumpar bandet fullt med energi och röjer stenhårt bakom trummorna. Nick Holmes röst lämnar däremot mycket att önska och ibland undrar man om micken är för lågt mixad eller om han inte alls tar i...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

The night kicks off with a young band, Exit state. Despite the audience consisting mainly of more mature fans, they go down very well and get plenty of applause from the large crowd (the venue was almost full even before they came on). I really enjoyed the band’s set and songs like ”Check out the crazy” were impressive – definitely a band worth checking out if you get chance.

No matter how good Exit State were though, the man people really wanted to see was tonights headliner, Michael Schenker. Tonight he has an all-star band, and what a lineup we have – as well as Michael Schenker, we have two more former members of the Scorpions – Herman Rarebell, and Francis Buchholz, Wayne Findlay (MSG) and former Rainbow and Yngwie Malmsteen singer Doogie White...

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Allsång på The Tivoli!

Tysk powermetal av lättaste slag besökte The Tivoli. Freedom call kan beskrivas som världens gladaste powermetal band med viss konkurrens från självaste Edguy!

Bara att tänka på Freedom Call gör en glad och att man möts upp av ett stort neonblinkande tivoli utanför TheTivoli gör att man inte kan vara på annat än toppenhumör.

Den ständigt glada Chris Bay studsar ut på scenen och drar direkt iväg i raketfart med The Eyes Of The World.

Tears Of Babylon är kraftfull och inlevelserik och världens, enligt Chris Bay gladaste låt – Farewell får publiken med sig på noterna. Freedom Call är ett bevis på att allt inte behöver vara aggressivt eller på blodigt allvar...

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Pyrotekniken lämnas hemma när In Flames drar ut på klubbturné. Gitarristen Björn Gelotte uppskattar att både kunna genomföra klubbspelningar och arenaspelningar.

– Klubbgig skapar en mer intim känsla. Det är fräckt med ett spektakel men när du står där på ett klubbgig och kan känna lukten av de sura scenkläderna så är det rätt fräckt också, säger Björn Gelotte.

Förra klubbturnén var enligt Björn Gelotte riktigt kul att genomföra så planer för en ny turné har funnits i bakhuvudet en lång tid. Bomberna lämnas hemma och spelningarna blir mer avskalade för att musiken ska stå i fokus.

– Vi har självklart mycket ljus, det kan vi inte hålla oss ifrån, säger Björn Gelotte med ett leende. Tanken är att det inte ska vara som arenagig utan vara klubbgig...

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The night starts with Skam – a local three-piece band. Despite them going on stage a mere ten minutes after the doors opened, there is already a decent sized crowd. They have a classic heavy rock sound which clearly went down well and certainly impressed me. They’re fun to watch too – their bass player is very animated and moves around like ACDC guitarist Angus Young.

Next up was The Union. Their intro tape is The Strawbs song – ”Part of the Union” and as it plays the fans are clearly getting excited. I last saw the band at the High Voltage festival in 2010 and hadnt been very impressed, so didnt have very high expectations...

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Tonight was a gig I’d been looking forward to since it was announced – Anthrax playing a small venue like the Oxford Academy. Judging by the fact that tickets sold out quickly then plenty of other people were looking forward to tonight as well. There were large queues outside the venue before the doors opened with people wanting to get a good spot near the front.

By the time the first band came on the venue was probably two-thirds full – almost unheard of at such an early time. The first band were Manchester band Obsesssive Compulsive who have been opening for Anthrax on the whole of the tour and who seem totally unfazed by the large crowd. Obsessive Compulsive have a heavy grunge rock/metal sound and seem to go down very well with the crowd here tonight...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

The night started with Rival Sons who had a very impressive turnout – often here people stay in the pub till the headliner but Rival sons had the place packed out for their set and the huge amount of applause proved people were here early to see them not just to get a good spot for Black Stone Cherry’s set. 

The band are in good form tonight and their 70s influenced sound goes down very well with the crowd. As well as playing plenty of stuff from their debut album (Pressure and time) during their 45 minute set, we are also treated to some new songs as well (I’d love to be able to tell you what they were called but if they said then I missed that, but they certainly sounded damn good).

Despite the venue being packed, they announced towards the end of their set that they’d be coming out to...