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The headline act are the Supersuckers, the self-proclaimed “Greatest Rock'n'Roll Band in the World”, who have been making music for the past twenty one years, and, therefore, have a vast back catalogue. The set list consists of twenty six songs with additional question marks, suggesting that there is room for expansion. Supersuckers commence with That is Rock'n'Roll and the first thing that registers is the volume; they are bloody loud... |
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I really love it when I turn up to a gig with few expectations and come away later buzzing with a new found respect for a set of bands I have barely even heard of prior to the night – which is exactly the sensation that tonight’s line-up at the Barfly have left me with. |
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Tonight’s night of Metal comes from the “best of a bad bunch of Birmingham venues”, the basement of The Barfly. Conditions seem to differ at The Barfly from gig to gig, so let’s see what’s in store... |
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It is Sunday night and we are in the Barfly, officially Birmingham's coldest venue. No no, I kid you not. Following on from Friday night's shivery start to the weekend at the 444 Club up the road, Sunday night is positively arctic. Surely this means the only solution is dancing? En masse dancing? Possibly with synchronised arm-waving? No? I live in hope... |
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Ahhh nearly the weekend, which means the week's already on its downward slope to Friday and things can sometimes get a bit sleepy. Fortunately I have the perfect antidote - Fight Like Apes at the Barfly, with a set of supporting bands who were, to say the very least, a little bit good... |
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It’s the first time in a while that the barfly has been sold out so the room is absolutely rammed. It makes a nice change to be warm in there, but the long wait for Azriel gets rather tedious. However their tactics clearly paid off, with a big 2-step pit opening up as soon as the boys walk on stage... |
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After legging-it up the stairs and bursting through the door to catch the end of the first song of the Kids in Cars set, 'Lord of the Land', the first thing that struck me was just how young these guys look. The second thing that struck me was just how warm the Dragon Bar was – after braving the sleet and snow that seems never-ending at the moment I couldn't decide whether I was glad to see the electric bar heater on full-blast at the back of the room or not... |
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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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It's rare that I queue for a gig, but with a Line-up this good, I didn’t want to miss a thing. While I'm not the only one, the queue is very short, and the moving of the gig to the main barfly room meant the lack of people was very noticeable... |
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London indie pop band Data.Select.Party opened up the stage with their upbeat party style riffs, which although seemed a tad out of place at an Anberlin gig still had a few toes tapping in the crowd. Despite the music having an energetic mood to it, the band were a tad static in comparison, however they made up for it with good interaction with the crowd – a rarity in most opening support bands... |
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The room is cold and a little lacking in atmosphere. Two lacklustre support acts have come and gone and my enthusiasm for the main act has been dampened somewhat. The largely apathetic, yet not large crowd shift around awkwardly. I can't see this going well. I am very, very wrong... |
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BirdPen opened the evening by flitting between gentle vocals and ominous noise with heavy beats. They were reasonable opening-act fare, but I'm not sure cranking the volume up to distortion levels will have improved their sound. Whatever, they didn't deserve the hand signals waved at them by one guy leaning against the barrier.... |
