Category Gig/Festival Reviews

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Frontiers/BAM

TEN formed about 20 years ago, as vocalist GARY HUGHES was preparing a new solo album and had a big song surplus. 1996 saw their album debut with “X” and now they also have 10 albums to celebrate. There has been a lot of member changes, as celebrities like Don Airey, Vinny Burns, Ged Rylands and Mark Zoner (of FATES WARNING) have come and gone. Apart from ubiquitous band leader, vocalist, programmer and guitarist Gary the line-up consists of guitarists Dan Mitchel and John Halliwell, bassist Steve McKenna, keyboardist Darrel Treece-Birch and drummer Max Yates.

The album is more mixed and uneven than I wished for. They know their RAINBOW tendencies and they have lots of melody but “The Gates of Jerusalem is only ok. But the restrained feeling is omnipresent on the disc...

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The night started with Chimp Spanner, a band who are fast making a name for themselves and who I was looking forward to hearing. The first surprise for many people is that they are an instrumental band. The second surprise is just how good they really are. Musically tonight they were superb – some really impressive music, but the lack of vocals meant that after three or four songs I was starting to get a little bored. It’s not that the music is boring – far from it, I just find instrumentals less enjoyable normally than music with vocals. It was great but it just didnt feel right on a tour like tonights...

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Love at first bite – Vampire Weekend
The charismatic American four piece bought their effortless charm and indie rock appeal to Sydney’s Big Day Out Festival this month, attracting a huge crowd of excited fans.
So excited in fact, that when in the crowd strangers took to biting mine and others necks – perhaps hoping to spread the Vampire love?
And maybe it worked, as a first time crowd-goer for this band it was love at first bite for me.
Angular, fast paced time signature manipulating songs like “California English” and “Cousins” are so intricately recorded that to see them performed live just as perfectly against 47 degree heat, with band members still smiling, dancing and chatting to the crowd, indeed deserves respect from anyone enjoying the show.
The impeccable drumming of ...

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Den gamla dansbanan Björksäter i Hässleholm har väckt liv igen i sin hårdrockssatsning – Club Metallic. Corroded och Bonafide delade scenen (i dubbel bemärkelse) tillsammans denna kyliga lördag kväll.

Först ut var Bonafide mot min förvåning då jag trodde dem skulle avsluta kvällen! Men vad gör det. Lika bra att börja med det bästa direkt. Med nya Ultimate Rebel i ryggen, ytterligare en ny kritikerrosad platta så bjuds det givetvis friskt på nytt material från denna. Startskottet är energifyllda Doing It Pretty och löper vidare med To Fire Up, The Mess och Rebel Machine. Däremellan hinner dem med att bränna av rökare som Dirt Bound, Butter You Up och odödliga Down.

Niklas på trummor har fått låna Corrodeds trumset och leker ständigt med klockspelet...

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UDR/EMI

When both Steve Dawson (1986) and Graham Oliver (1994) had been erased from the band pictures I sort of left the fold too. From late 1982 onwards SAXON were my heroes, but I thought I´d bought my last album after the uneven “Metalhead” in 1999. When former members started SON OF A BITCH, Later OLIVER/DAWSON SAXON around 1994 I followed closely as they were faithful to the old songs.

Fast forward to 2013, and the release of yet another SAXON album, their 20th studio outing I believe. The cover is just about the same as the previous three or so, but the music. At long last Biff has lead his cohorts back in time, 25 years or so, and created an album almost filled with modern sounding NWOBHM...

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Stället är en sportbar i Gamla Stan och jag blir osäker på om jag kommit rätt så jag frågar vakterna om det är här banden ska spela. Och det ska dem, nere i källaren där klubben Pussy A Go Go huserar och jag känner mig genast mer hemma i de nedre regionerna där det är mörkt och mysigt än bland de fjantiga sportfånarna
När Styggelse från Göteborg gör entré ökar mysfaktorn ordentligt och deras punkiga black gör sig finfint från den här lilla scenen. Det känns exklusivt. Det hörs att Styggelse hämtat näring från den riktigt tidiga blacken och det råa, opolerade angreppet tilltalar mig mycket. Bandet har funnits sedan 2003 och under dessa tio år färdigställt några demos, en EP och fullängdaren ”Heir Today-God Tomorrow”...

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For a band that had a 50 person crowd and a keyboardist with a broken left hand, the Hurricane Kids were surprisingly relaxed for their first ever show. Friends in the crowd were given waves and smiles were exchanged between the band. The vibes onstage were calm and carefree as they prepared their equipment before their set, suggesting that the members are all experienced and natural performers.

And what performers they were. After leaving Jared and Willy to settle onstage for some time, the speakers erupted with thunderous bass. The band walked over to their instruments one­-by-­one to a beautiful and ambient version of a familiar tune that’s eventually recognized as their debut single Tonight­ and by some miracle of fantastically rehearsed timing ­ they burst straight into the song...

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Refused

Jag har aldrig varit så förtjust i punk eller hardcore. Visst, låtsaspunkare var jag ju en tid på 80-talet eller kanske skinhead? För några månader sen mötte jag ett nytt gammalt band och blev störtförälskad. Jag såg ett youtubeklipp där REFUSED spelade New Noice och jag var fast. En hemlig spelning på Umeås kultförklarade scen Scharinska villa i vårvintras var tydligen fenomenal. Jag visst när det skulle var men hade tyvärr förhinder. Scharinska var fullsmockad med folk. Människor klättrade på ytterväggarna för att komma in och en projektor spelade upp konserten på husväggen.

Under året har rapporter strömmat in om Refuseds enorma framgångar från alla kontinenter. Det var bestämt att bandets sista gig skulle vara i Umeå...

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Folkkära Sabaton bjuder på humor, spelglädje och en sjuhelsikes show.

Sabaton är ute på sin gigantiska Swedish Empire Tour som tar dem runt hela världen. Hur de orkar hålla igång som duracell-kaniner kväll efter kväll är ett mysterium.

Efter två intron varav ena var den fantastiska covern på Status Quos Into The Army Now, som likväl hade kunnat framföras live, klättrar publiken nästan på väggarna i all sin iver! När såväl dalmasarna for ut på scenen och smäller av med Ghost Division tänds det en gnista mellan bandet och publik som inte kommer släckas under hela kvällen. Mejeriet i Lund är slutsålt och visar verkligen varför scenen är populär bland artisterna med sina olika avsatser och balkonger.
Sabaton får en helt annan kontakt med publiken än de är vana ...

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This was a gig I’d been looking forward to for a while – three great bands on one bill. These days it’s quite normal for the venue to be half empty for the support bands with lots of people staying in pubs and only arriving for the headliner, but that certainly wasnt the case tonight – even before The Treatment came on, the venue was probably 90% full and people kept on coming in. This meant that when The Treatment took to the stage at 7.30pm they were playing to a capacity crowd.

The Treatment have been going from strength to strength lately with some great tours, most recently supporting KISS and Motley Crue on their US tour – an impressive tour for any band to be on, let alone a band who’s members are so young (I’m not sure any of the band are actually old enough to drink alcohol in the...