Category Gig/Festival Reviews

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First on the bill tonight is a new Norwich band, Shrapnel, who only formed in April 2009. They take to the stage in front of a small crowd which grows steadily during thier set as more people arrive, with the room being around two-thirds full by the end of their set. Shrapnel play fast powerful thrash metal and headbang furiously as they play. The singer is often a blur of hair as he headbangs. A band that cites Exodus as one of their influences, they are clearly thrilled to be opening for Exodus tonight (and on the rest of this UK tour). The crowd clearly enjoy Shrapnel tonight with plenty of headbanging going on in the audience. A good solid performance from this young band, who will have made some new fans here tonight.

Next up are Glasgow band Man Must Die...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Testosteronet väller emot som en mur när dörrarna öppnas till KB den här småtrista söndagen. Ikväll är det dags för Adept, Suicide Silence, Heaven Shall Burn och till sist huvudaktören As I Lay Dying och det verkar som om hela södra Skånes surfmetallelit är på plats. Förbarme den i publiken som inte hade snedlugg, töjning i örat och surfarlinne! Det manliga könet är överrepresenterat den här kvällen, till de få tjejer som är på plats förtjustning. Var är de snygga As I Lay Dying-tjejerna frågar sig någon i publiken. Inte på KB ikväll i alla fall.

Med största delen killar i publiken och energifrisk musik ifrån de tre förbanden blir det en hel del moshande och många händer i luften. Publiken crowdsurfar även glatt och en och annan wall of death dyker även upp...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Jag gick hemifrån med avlägsna förhoppningar om en mysig och stämningsfull spelning. Jag hade inte hört en enda låt innan jag gick till Babel och trots mina förhoppningar hade jag absolut inte förväntat mig att stå där i en timme och femton minuter med tårar i ögonen medan Anna Stadling vände ut och in på sitt hjärta och blottade dess innehåll.
För dig som, liksom jag, aldrig hade varit på Babel förut kan jag berätta att lokalen är en gammal kyrka. Den här kvällen var bord utställda på golvet. Där det satt ett drygt tjugotal personer. Nästan samtliga med varsitt glas vitt vin. På den lilla avsatsen ovanför stod ytterligare fem personer. Till sin hjälp hade Stadling Pecka Hammarstedt och Ola Gustavsson. Den sistnämnda känner du igen från Lars Winnerbäcks kompband Hovet...

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The Defiance festival was held at the Asylum venue in Birmingham. A few minutes walk from the city centre, the venue is located in a run-down industrial estate, and doesnt look much from the outside. Once inside however the venue’s appeal becomes obvious. The venue is a decent size, has good sound and lighting, cheap beer and barmaids dressed in sexy nurses uniforms (a fact that many of the guys in the audience seemed to appreciate for some reason). There is also a sheltered smoking area where smokers are able to sit in the dry and out of the wind – a rarity these days.
The festival was organised by tonights headliner, Lahannya, and she has chosen all the bands on the bill herself...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

A first edition of a very successful festival took place on the days of 12th and 13th of November, 2010 in Helsinki at the venue called Dante’s Highlight. It is a venue that regularly hosts smaller sized concerts, having a capacity of about 650 people (including top floor/balcony) as far as I understood. Plus, downstairs there is a separate bar that opens before the venue hours and where eventually you can grab some food or maybe some of the drinks that are not available at the venue. But the most important ingredient for the success of the event was the crowd in my opinion. It totally rocked. Almost every band had at least few enthusiasts in front of the stage, while the headliners had half of the audience singing along and screaming their name...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

The first band we caught on the Main Stage was John & Jehn, a French duo (lead singer and bass player, accompanied by two other band members). They reminded us of Joy Division, Interpol, White Lies and everything in between, but they were a nice appearance nonetheless.

In fact, they were the complete opposite of the next band, Pulled Apart by Horses, an energetic mixture of alternative rock, punk and power pop – with garage influences – from Leeds. They went crazy up on the stage – banging their heads, running all over the place – like they were playing a manic intro for Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, that was coming up later.

Before that, though, we can’t not speak of the nutty appearance that was Chrome Hoof (apparently, an equine fetish is this fall’s latest trend), a ten peop...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

One of this summer’s last festivals, Offset (set in Hainault Forest, a beautiful location in North London) came and went with no rain and lots of good music from all over the world – New York, Canada, Israel and, of course, UK.

On both days the gigs started early, at about 12, but on day one it wasn’t until 6-7 pm that people started gathering in front of the Main Stage, after having finished setting up their tents. They were right on time for Good Shoes and their funky groves that got everybody to start dancing in a split second.

But it wasn’t until the next band – Art Brut – got up on the stage that the party really started...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Since a weekend in Oslo is pretty much equivalent of a bus trip to Western Sweden and some food drinks there, plus my current favorite band played at this festival in Gothenburg, plus I don’t mind a change in the concerts locations, I found myself in a bus towards the Swedish city on Saturday morning. The 4 websites I previously checked announced rain, so I picked some boots to help me keep my feet dry which turned out to be quite useless for the warm day. With some instructions from locals and the nice tram driver, I ended up at Villa Belaparc, the location of the free event. I was worried when I stepped off the tram since all I could see were trees and a highway. But then I heard the music and found the place rather close to the stop.

The place is something like a big restaurant by the s...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Efter att ha lyssnat på några klipp på nätet från olika spelningar ett år tillbaka ställde man sig framför Black Stage med ett inte så taggat humör. Kommer Vince låta lika krasslig som han gjort på ett flertal spelningar den sista tiden och kommer Mars ramla av scenen? De negativa frågorna var många och snabb fick vi svar på dem. Med en rejäl örfil på köpet! Det visade sig att jag hade helt fel. Vince lät ju riktigt bra för att vara 2010.

Med en rejäl kickstart med inledande Kickstart My Heart och kaxiga Wild Side fortsatte det i högt tempo. Smällare och granater backas upp med en scen designad som ett americans getto med höghus. Tommy lee sitter ganska lågt och syns väldigt dåligt...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Ankkarock, held in Finland’s capital region in Korso, about half an hour train ride from the Helsinki central railway station, is your typical Finnish festival: They try hard to brand themselves as a local festival, and are hoping to pull in people living nearby with safe bookings. In fact, at least 75% of the bands are exactly the same as on basically every other Finnish festival, and the rest of the bill is there to attract people from a little further away. The festival has a camping area, but since Ankkarock is basically a city festival, most people sleep the night in their own bed.

Two days of Ankkarock saw a total of thirty bands on three stages, and a bunch of local bands per day on the fourth mini stage...