Misstallica @ Birmingham Academy 3, May 26th 2010
I still can’t get over how long it’s taken me to go to a gig at the new Academy 3. I hated the old venue mainly due to the fact that the stage was so low you could only see the band if you were right at the front, but this seems like a great venue – a decent stage and a bar at the back. What else do you need?
I arrive just as support act Martyr De Mona hit the stage, and another improvement over the last venue hits me straight away – the sound in here is amazing.
Martyr De Mona should be really happy as I doubt they’ve ever sounded this good! Hailing from Dudley, this four-piece class themselves as playing Rock / Progressive / Metal, but I think they have a very Silverchair type of sound, with lead vocalist Louis Hale even sounding like Silverchair’s Daniel Johns. For a bunch of “young adults”, they are very confident on stage, and as a band they are amazingly tight, not dropping a beat or a note in their six song set, which includes a cover of “Lifer” by Down. A nice sentiment was that bassist Neil Haynes dedicated their track “Eva” to recently deceased Slipknot bassist Paul Gray.
After a quick change over Misstallica come out, quite predictably, to Ennio Morrocone’s “The Ecstasy Of Gold”, otherwise known as that tune from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, and the same tune that Metallica walk out to.
Misstallica, hailing from Philadelphia, USA, are an all female tribute to early Metallica that have been together since the summer of 2008, and feature Kaleen Reading as Cliff, Teddi Tarnoff as Lars, Gigi Gleason as James and Courtney Cox as Kirk. Yes. Courtney Cox. I have to admit that I was a little unsure when I first heard about this show, but the girls are a great bunch of musicians. Cox is the stand-out star of the band – this woman can shred! After seeing her live, I’m unsurprised to find out that’s she’s previously worked with Jon Anderson, Adrian Belew and Perry Farrell.
Misstallica start their opening track “Hit The Lights” and the first thing I notice is the sound is bad. Awful. I wonder how the support act could have such good sound, yet the headliners such a mess. I hope it clears up during the set. I then notice that the crowd of 100 or so punters don’t seem to be that interested. I don’t understand, as they look like a typical Metallica crowd, but with a few more female members.
The crowd start to warm up during “Ride The Lightning”, as do the band. They too are a tight unit and are note perfect. Even the guitar solos are note perfect when compared to the album versions. But there’s something strange going on with the sound – a strange feedback that just seems to be there throughout the whole track. Please let it get better!
“The Four Horsemen” arrives and the crowd are suitably warmed up, with the odd headbanger and air guitarist making themselves known in the crowd. The thing that I can’t figure out is that if Metallica can sell out the LG Arena, why can’t more than 100 people come out to catch a band that are playing the band’s highlights? Metallica’s early albums are arguably the best albums that they’ve released to date, and these girls are only playing tracks from the first four albums!
I applaud Misstallica for playing “Orion” – an amazing instrumental built around a Cliff Burton bass solo that Metallica only started playing live in its entirety in 2006. I was all ready to clap and cheer their amazing effort when they segued into “Creeping Death” without a gap to let me show my appreciation.
They finish their set with crowd favourites “Seek And Destroy” and “Master Of Puppets”, walk off stage to massive cheers, and then re-appear in the crowd to sell some t-shirts. How rock ‘n’ roll!
Setlist:
Hit the Lights
Ride the Lightning
Leper Messiah
The Four Horsemen
Trapped Under Ice
Motorbreath
Harvester Of Sorrow
Disposable Heroes
Fade to Black
Orion
Creeping Death
Seek and Destroy
Master of Puppets
Review – Tony Hackett
Photos – Katja Ogrin