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It's Valentine's night in the sweaty box of rock that is the Dragon Bar, and for a few worrying moments it promised to be a pretty lonely one for me in the audience. Luckily my fears were unfounded, as moments later, Birmingham's dedicated gig-goers started shuffling in from the cold and straight for the bar... |
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Playing a venue as small as the Barfly must be somewhat strange for a band like Shinedown – even if this is only their first headline tour in this country – because back home in the US they are a huge success; albums one and two have been certified gold and platinum respectively, and they are used to playing arenas. And yet, they are still relatively unknown over here, although that does look set to change. |
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A cold, wet, windy Friday night in Birmingham. On arrival upstairs at the Dragon Bar there are around 30 people waiting for tonight’s proceeding to start in a very cold Dragon Bar @ The Barfly. Thankfully that’s all about to change as locals boys Lady Rain take to the stage. It's that cold lead singer Ced keeps his scarf and jacket on - a wise move as even under the stage lighting it must be cold up there for the time being. |
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The last time I was at The Barfly’s basement venue, it was hot. Real hot. Today, my phone was telling me it was 3° in Birmingham. My phone was lying to me. It was way colder... Let’s hope that the bands can warm me up tonight... |
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Here’s what I was expecting - the room filled with 14-year-old Foo Fighters fans trying to get close to their second favourite axe man. Here’s what I got - a small room, three-quarters filled by everyone but 14-year-old Foo Fighters fans. Well... That’s cool... |
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So, after a short stand in the cold, the Barfly is refreshingly warm, although Emily Barker has already by the time I get in, despite being one of the earliest in. So, as the room slowely fills Emily plays her accoustic pleastentry. It's certainly nice on the ears, but it does little to stimulate the audience. Her lyrics are fairly bland while her attitude is inoffensive leading to a harmless set that would not raise eyebrows in an elevator. However her duet with Frank Turner (who causes a far bigger round of applause than anything Emily has done yet) shows her talent off nicely... |
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Your Biggest Fanclub are a trio dealing in quite catchy indie rock who reminded me of The Wombats or a lighter version of We Are Scientists as much as anything, although if you don't like those bands then ignore the comparison. Suffice to say they were decent, hail from Wolverhampton and would be worth your while checking out... |
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A lovely sunny day in Birmingham; this is great for American band The Academy Is as this keeps their fans in high spirits. When everyone enters The Barfly at 7pm, people immediately make their way to the front of the venue, eager to get to the front. First on stage were indie rockers, The Maine, a band that were originally unknown to me. As they were on first I assumed the audience would be quiet and would stand relatively still, however... |
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The Archives hail from the Black Country, and the vocalist looked much like he wished he hadn't left the area as he spent the entire set looking either at the ceiling or his bandmates. Whilst the guitars were strong, each song merged into the next with barely a breath to differentiate between their largely generic indie-rock. The only real breaks in formation came with Never Gonna Be and, more notably, Rehabilitation, which instigated the first, barest ripple of movement in the crowd. |
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A humid night in Birmingham, and a sold out crowd, means The Barfly is going to be a sweat-box - and I wasn’t wrong... Due to a last minute reviewer switcheroo, I turn up at the venue after Taint’s set. But having seen them before in this venue, again supporting Clutch, I seem to remember that this sludgy three-piece from Swansea were loud - maybe a little too loud for the acoustic randomness that is The Barfly. They obviously impressed last time to be back supporting Clutch again. The beauty of a Clutch gig is the diversity of the crowd. All styles of music are represented here tonight - scenesters, metal heads, hip hoppers, hippies and the odd person obviously moving on to Broad Street when the show ends. Pretty much all of them enjoying Clutch’s amalgamation of stoner, funk and blues rock. |
