Madina Lake After getting into the gig late I ended up missing the whole of Mayday Parade. Apparently they were very good, according to the people standing around me at the back by the sound desk in the Birmingham Academy 2. I caught the last 3 songs from We Are The Ocean’s set and they seemed to be doing their usually good job of winding the tightly packed and very sweaty crowd into an even more sweaty state of excitement prior to the headline act coming on.


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Motion City Soundtrack Spring has officially arrived and to celebrate I think a sold out show at the Academy 2 is in order; that’s if I could even get in!


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Just Jack Isn’t it strange how the nights you’re not overly excited about are always the ones that knock you sideways and imprint strong memories that you know will stay with you forever. Well that is exactly what happened at this gig and god I love it when that happens.


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Puressence The fifth night of the Sharpen Up The Knives UK tour proved to be a taxing one for Puressence in more ways than one.


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Steel Panther I had an inkling that Steel Panther would be fun, no holds barred hair metal. I turned out to be bang right on that. What I didn't know previously was just how far their derivative concept stretched..


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Reverend & The Makers Arriving at the O2 Academy 2 and looking around to get my bearings I am struck by two rather surprising sights. Firstly, the average age of this motley crew of an audience being at least 35; and secondly the fact that no one is going absolutely bloody mental for the amazing support act, Cosmo Jarvis.


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That Petrol Emotion “We're not doing this for the money – we're doing it because we love playing for you guys” - a good job too because it takes dedication to put in a blistering performance on one of the hottest days of the year. The Academy 2 is like a reverse TARDIS; it always seems smaller on the inside and gets hot and sweaty very quickly and tonight was no exception.


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Silversun Pickups It was a bloody hot evening, and when Silversun Pickups came onstage in the small Academy 2 bar the temperature went up just a fraction more. I think that LA bands really sound like heat and concrete, so they were the perfect soundtrack to the two-day sweltering British summer.


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Metronomy There is one thing that puzzles about Metronomy, it’s one of those questions that doesn’t necessarily keep me awake at night but I would dearly love to know – Did Pip Payne ever pay back the £5000 to the Totnes car wrecker?


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Patrick Wolf Touring forthcoming album See Mystery Lights, YACHT are an American performance duo who explain at length where Oregon is (it's on the left, up a bit form California) and spend their set in full occupation of the stage, backed by an elaborate powerpoint...


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Florence and The Machine If I was going to be in a band – I have decided it would definitely be Florence and the Machine They blew the Academy 2 away on Friday (April 22) with their mix of Indie, hippy Soul, fashionable flair and fun- lovin’ stage frolics.


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Breed 77 Opening tonight’s Insects and Attitude Tour was Sworn Amongst, a Yorkshire 4-piece with lots of hair. It was a heavy set of fast paced guitars, drums and a husky screaming vocal. The song ‘Exploited’ displayed a fast guitar solo that got a few nods of approval from the rather sparse crowd. ‘Severance’ slowed the pace down a little, but the hair swinging remained.


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