Live From Manchester!

[Fez]

rise against / the bronx / cancer bats
manchester academy
10/05/07

it was always going to be a loud evening so there were no surprises when i woke up slightly deaf in one ear this morning, but for some reason the gig wasn't as explosive as i had hoped which i think was oddly due to a poor choice of where to stand in the audience. at other venues being down front to one side allows you get the full force of being so close to the bands in action without being sucked into the moshing / fighting, yet at the academy 2 [the one inside-upstairs at the student uni] it felt like being on the fringes but one step further forward and i'd have been pummelled to death in the pit.

cancer bats regardless of the weird name i've been listening to this band for a while and love the mix of metal meets punk, but unfortunately it seemed the rest of the audience are still ignorant of this canadian four-piece - give another year and they should be big news...at least in rock.

the bronx my favourite band, i've seen them twice before as this thread attests to, but despite their usual powerhouse performance i've decided to hold back on the last star purely because i couldn't get involved in the action because of where i was standing. not their fault and i would still say their gig at the roadhouse i went to last year is the best i've ever been to.

rise against i only recognised one song they played and having to fight off the bouncing masses in front of me meant it was difficult to appreciate what otherwise would have been a stella performance. maybe next time when i know more of the tunes i'll be a bit more generous with the rating.

i'm still perplexed as to why the bronx aren't much more popular with the rock crowds in this country. for every gig the band erupt on stage like a five man riot, matt caughtran is a superb frontman whose not afraid to jump into the crowd and bring the music straight to people's faces, and quite frankly their music is a damn sight more interesting than the headliners they've supported. it's nice being one of the select diehards, but surely this cult should be bigger!

[Fez]

wishbone ash
lowry centre
12/05/07

although this is the first review i've written of this band, it is in fact the sixth time i've been to see them in the last five years owing to the fact wishbone ash are my dad's favourite group. originally the archetypal 70s prog-rock act, the years have brought many changes in line up [one founding member left], and musical sound from the blues to some experimental dance albums though the latter sensibly don't feature in the live sets. as ever, the bulk of songs comes from their most popular album 'argos' which to me does have a fantasy inspiration with titles like 'throw down the sword', 'the king will come' and 'warrior', though with 32 records to choose from there is always fresh gems from the past thrown in as well. techincally fantastic players [even the new drummer who only joined a few months ago] the band can go off on mid-song jams and guitar solos of five minutes which are captivating rather than coma inducing. a solid act

[a snippet of the stage announcement before the band came on] 'in the beginning god created the light and it was good, he separated it from the dark and gave it to the world - then he invented lasers because they looked really cool.'

[Mike]

I am impressed by the sheer number of gigs that you manage to attend. Kudos!

[Mike]

Karen Louise / Team UK / Jamie Pearce / Simon Webbe (ex blue)

Karen Louise
Good songs, tight trousers sort of 80's chic. Her MySpace Profile


Team UK
A sort of cross between Akon and the Streets. I don't think you will be interested to hear their sound. I was not too impressed.


Jamie Pearce
This guy can sing but has nothing worthwhile singing about. He also loved himself just a little bit too much. MySpace Profile


Simon Webbe
This was the concert that just would not end. He had finale after finale built into his routine but just carried on. I get the impression he was keen to give as much to the crowd as possible rather than thinking about the quality. SW definitely seemed to enjoy himself on stage and had a really surprisingly good singing voice.

The problem with his time on stage was really the quality of his own material. For the first 45 mins or so he sang his own tracks and it sounded very Lighthouse Family. Slightly drony airport / lift music - the songs did not seem that very different either.

The material in his first stint was really shown up by his later covers of Oasis's Wonderwall, Muse, The Killers and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers which were fantastic and provisionally for this section.

Unfortunately he ended on his new single which was obviously poor compared with the hits just covered.
All in all a overall with moments of goodness. A nice surprise as I had poor expectations. Not bad for a free concert!

[Fez]

the living end / beat union / i say marvin
manchester academy 3
23.08.07

the first time i saw the living end was last year with the dropkick murphys at the apollo, a different band headlined but they were so awful i don't even want to name them, and the aussies were probably the best band on that night so i was chuffed to be seeing them again even if i had to drive into manchester twice because the first gig on monday night had to be cancelled due to illness. the venue is ranked third in terms of size for the academy's stage sizes, hence its name, but i've always preffered these smaller places because of the atmosphere that's generated, deffinitly lacking from men arena, and all the better when you get to be right at the front! yay for me!

i say marvin - another indie band with a stupid name but a decent group if you like keyboards and laptops thrown into the mix; personally i don't though there was no denying their enthusiasm even if it was impossible to make out what any of the words were.

beat union - i have seen the future of british punk; its from birmingham, it looks suspiciously like the clash, and its called beat union. the kind of band i have been struggling and failing to find for sometime, these guys deserve to be lauded throughout the land as having more attitude and style in one song than an entire tours' worth of any pop-punk american import. awesome, i need to see them again soon.

the living end - three unbelieveably talented muscians kept the venue rocking from the first note to last with the best kickass rock n' roll you'll find in manchester all year; maybe even better than the eagles of death metal gig from march. that glow in the dark doublebass has to be seen to be believed but it was hard to concentrate on what i was looking at when my ears had been hardwired to my feet and it became impossible to stand still and not bounce to the music.

[Mike]

Where is the Nottingham gig review? I am curious to know who you saw and how good they were! :D

[Fez]

misfits / drongos of europe / resistence 77
nottingham rock city
22/09/07

it had been a long day by the time we arrived at the venue, the train had been cancelled and a detour through sheffield was needed before finally arriving in nottingham late, tired but determined to see as much of the gig that was left as possible.

resistence 77 - er, we were too late to see this lot because the gig had started early than normal to allow under 14s in who couldn't stay when the venue changed later in the night to an over 21 only rock disco.

drongos of europe - only got to see the end of their set but i was impressed enough to do some digging into who this lot were. they formed in 1979 but didn't record their first album until 2004 - so they're old but new punk...and from birmingham. in 2006 they toured with rancid and ill try to see them again if possible.

misfits - totally biased, i would have given them a top rating even if jerry only had appeared on stage just to blow rasberries at the audience. thankfully, we got a lot more than that; over an hour of almost constant horror punk with little let up in the break-neck pace before the final curtain. it was odd for the gig to end at such an early time [the under 14s again] and the sound level was so loud the songs lost definition halfway through as i started going deaf, but it was a really fun night even if i couldn't get near the front because of our late arrival. maybe next time

desolution - the after gig disco was brilliant; pvc bikini clads dancing girls in cages! i nearly went blind

fez on the pull 'no stars' - bugger. the 'i like your tee shirt' line passed me by so i didn't realise what she was doing until she got up and left. she was drunk too - i could have been in there dammit!

[mr_e]

Oh, we did miss a band. I was wondering. Drongos Of Europe I wasn't tremendously enthralled by, but the sound quality wasn't too great for them. Worth another look for fairness's sake (one album in 25 years!? not too commercially-minded then?).

The Misfits were great, and you just have to love "Die, die my darling" as an encore. I'm getting earplugs if I see them at that venue again.

Weirdly enough, it was actually pretty well ventilated at the after-gig club night. And that girl was indeed drunk.

[Andy]

Note to Fez:

DOH!!!!

[Mike]

Note to Fez two - Double DOH!

[Fez]

stereophonics / the enemy
men arena
07.11.07

the enemy for those of you even more out of touch with modern indie rock than me, the enemy came roaring out of wolverhampton earlier in the year and are now laying seize to every halfway decent music show on the idiot box, most of these to be found on channel 4 in the middle of the night. unfortunately the sound mix in the cavernous arena wasn’t too kind to the trio and opening with their only real hit song, away from here, left the rest of the set as a bit of an anonymous attack of guitar and drums. the bassist can’t play and tries to strum the strings at half the tempo of the songs, reducing the bottom end of the band’s sound to a pointless background growl everyone could do without. i don’t care if they have been friends from childhood, this lot wont improve beyond rock pretenders until that bassist is shot and replaced with someone who knows how to play a four-string and not just abuse one.

stereophonics rejuvenated into a proper rock band after the drab floor gazing ballads of the mr writer era, stereophonics have returned with avengence to the high-strung anthems of performance and cocktails, and unsurprising a lot of tonight’s set comes from that very record. the new brooding material works well but its not until old fashioned-new song dakota closes the night that the band grab a hold of the fire they had in the beginning. if kelly can concentrate on writing songs with the same passion of living then the future for the stereophonics will be worth listening to.

[Fez]

jello biafra
manchester comedy store
12.11.07

i had no idea what to expect from this spoken word performance by the hardcore punk icon and frontman of the dead kennedys, but the three hour set of political anger and comedy made the ticket price seem like a steal. jello is a man on a mission which started back in the 80s to rid the world of social bullshit, and some of things i heard about the american and world political state were pretty terrifying. its not just the usual corruption and back-dealing leaked to the press, but the corporate influences, the shocking human rights abuses that not only is britain and america supporting but commiting in the name of democracy. it would be easy for a doubting thomas to put it down to paranoia – at least until the evidence was supplied. that’s one thing you should bear in mind; jello once ran for mayor of san francisco, he knows how the system works and how to pull the paper trail out to prove what he was saying.

by degrees funny, scary and inspiring – why the hell don’t more people pay attention to what's happening in the world?

[Fez]

adicts / dbd / middle finger salute
manchester academy 3
16/11/07

middle finger salute – ready and waiting on stage when most of the first wave of punters were still drifting through the door, id heard distance talk of this blackburn band on the grapevine though didn’t know what to expect. despite a subdued crowd response, the quartet blazed through a half hour set of quite catchy songs though whether their brand of blink 182-ish jock-rock will ever make an impact on the meaner punk crowd is unlikely. i did fork out a fiver on two cds when the guitarist came round trying to flog the stuff after the set, but i prefer punk with a bit more venom.

dbd [death by decibels] – hmm, well they started off and finished well but the middle block of songs were instantly forgettable and apparently structured completely at random. the frontman made something of an impact with the still lukewarm audience though attention by the end was firmly set on who would be on stage next…

adicts – a band with all its original members after nearly thirty years and even though their british haven’t played manchester since 1983. misfits fans [mentioning no names though he was asked to come] would have loved this high energy, sing-a-long chorus extravaganza, with constant explosions of streamers, glitter and inflatable balls being launched into the crowd by a harlequin singer who danced like a madman.

[Fez]

joan jett and the blackhearts / motorhead / alice cooper
men arena
18/11/07

joan jett and the blackhearts arguably the first lady of punk n’roll though mysteriously forgotten by the misogynistic music press, ms jett has been showing the world girls know how to rock before many people in the audience had learned how to walk. while her contemporaries are hailed as heroes, possibly because they are for the most part men and generally dead, joan has continued to produce great three minute anthems regardless of the lack of praise such work receives and it was a treat to finally get to hear the blackhearts live. extra marks for also not shattering a boyhood crush by still being damn sexy.

motorhead on your list of things to do before you die, experiencing motorhead live should be somewhere in the top ten along with pouring salt on slugs and punching a donkey. however, being what i might call a devotee of this musical behemoth, this wasn’t quite what i had hoped for even if the novice would have been suitably impressed. pretty much the same set list for the third year in a row, slightly truncated to give decent stage time to the other notable bands on offer during the night, with the predicatble one-two closing punch of the ace of spades and overkill. it’s a small gripe you could argue, but for the diehards like me its become somewhat predicable and with twenty albums to call on surely there should be more variety.

alice cooper the original showman of rock returned with another dazzling set of anthems and this year a gallows to hang himself mid-set before the start of the jubilant encore. once again i would encourage everyone to check this legend out whenever the opportunity next arises…and yet to my mind there was something missing tonight like there had been during motorhead. it wasn’t the full two hour onslaught i had previously enjoyed a few years back, again due to the fact so many top bands were vying for position on the same bill, and i did have a pretty crap seat so cant give alice the full five stars, though he really couldn’t have put in a better performance for those in the crowd with a better view.

[Fez]

uk subs / dbd / guilty pleasures
manchester club academy
01/12/07

guilty pleasures a trio of young punks who’ve done their homework on the early style of politics and a decent tune from the late 70s, and certainly worth listening to even if a cynic might say they don’t add anything new to the sex pistols formula. still, others would say punk reached its creative height in 1979 so anything that harks back to the days of safety-pins and spit cant be a bad thing. as for me, im tempted to see them again at a benefit show the band are playing at in late december…

dbd i wasn’t expecting to see this hardcore act again so soon after my first exposure to them supporting the addicts not three weeks ago, but im glad i did because tonight they made more of an impression with a cleaner sound set up. for those of you not sure what the difference between punk and hardcore is, it generally boils down to the latter being more aggressive and faster; something ive always been drawn to in music. a socially minded band recently home from a successful american tour – they’ve been asked to go back again later next year so catch them while you can – and i have high hopes for their first record i put an order in for once i got home.

uk subs while everybody has heard of the clash and sex pistols, those with a little more knowledge of what british punk was about in the 70s will also be able to tell you the uk subs were just as much at the forefront of the movement as the more familiar names. tonight was the first night of the original line up getting back together to tour the country, and despite not being quite so lean and mean anymore with the onset of middle age, they still know how to entertain an audience. the return of a class act with a great show.