Westwood is in the house! Well he will be but that’s not why I’m here. Tonight it’s all about Departures, Pianos Become The Teeth and Touche Amore as the take over the Institute for the next couple of hours for what promises to be one of the best shows of year. Scottish emotional hardcore types [...]
Tag Archives: review
Enter Shikari + Young Guns + Tek One @ Wolverhampton Civic Hall – 20th March 2012
With their third album “A Flash Flood Of Colour” debuting on the UK Album Chart at number 4 and an extremely busy 2011 Enter Shikari are still writing songs and according to Zane Lowe songs like “Sssnakepit” are “the hottest in the world.” The range of influences from punk metal to electro dub is what [...]
The Spaghetti Western Orchestra @ Birmingham Town Hall – March 16th 2012.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Cowboy Western film-scores define a generation’s cinematic experience – possibly. And, just as you ponder the significance of this – does one notice that niggling doubt as to whether the refrain now going round in your head actually is ‘The Magnificent Seven’ when it could, disconcertingly, easily be [...]
The Civil Wars @ Birmingham HMV Institute – March 13th 2012
So the back story – Jon Paul White & Joy Williams, 2 solo singer/songwriters from opposite sides of the United States, were thrust together at a Nashville songwriters’ workshop in 2008. They clicked, and over the next couple of years put an album together, released it on their own label, and with the help of [...]
Lianne La Havas + Marques Toliver @ Birmingham Glee Club – 12th March 2012
Tonight looks like yet another coup for Birmingham’s Glee Club as a packed house gathers to see the extremely hotly tipped Lianne La Havas do her thing on the tiny Glee stage. After appearing on Jools Holland’s TV show long before any album is even released (it comes out this summer), the buzz surrounding the [...]
Mark Lanegan @ Birmingham HMV Institute – 12th March 2012
Tonight’s show has been moved from the smaller venue of the Library in to the Main Room at the Institute which shows the publicity that the Mark Lanegan Band’s latest offering, Blues Funeral, has received since its release in February. As you enter the room, the lighting has been kept at a subdued level, which [...]
3 Doors Down + Seether @ Birmingham O2 Academy – 12th March 2012
Being brutally honest, when I agreed to cover this gig I had no idea who 3 Doors Down were and didn’t know who was supporting. Purely from the name alone I was expecting some fairly bland, slightly twiddly pop (2 Door Cinema Club), however upon arriving at the Birmingham 02 Academy, I was pleasantly surprised [...]
CANNIBAL CORPSE + Triptykon + Enslaved + Job for a Cowboy @ HMV Institute, Birmingham, 11th March 2012
Cannibal Corpse perform in front of a packed and sweaty crowd at HMV Institute in Birmingham. Support from Triptykon, Enslaved and Job for a Cowboy. Photos – Katja Ogrin Tweet
The Stranglers + The Popes + Mike Marlin @ Birmingham 02 Academy – 10th March 2012
If you place a reminder in your diary every year, then put these guys on the list, you can pretty much be guaranteed they’ll be around for you to see live. One of the UK’s most enduring bands, The Stranglers‘ unique style has lead to 23 UK top 40 singles and 17 UK top 40 [...]
Laura Marling @ Birmingham Symphony Hall – 2nd March 2012
The glorious panorama of the Green Man Festival stages (2010/11) basking in the setting sun with Sugar Loaf mountain as a backdrop must have nearly turned the beamingly bemused, ludicrously talented, young Laura Marling giddy with disbelief at the sheer scale of her rise to deserved acclamation. An album or two later, she does it [...]
