GIGGING IN 2009 - MAY

MAY

3^rd - ILIKETRAINS/Spokes/Last Of The Kiskadees/Sycamore – Night & Day Café, Manchester

6^th – GALLOWS/Every Time I Die/The Ghost Of A Thousand – Academy. Manchester

7^th – FIGHTSTAR/In Case Of Fire/Laruso – Academy 2, Manchester

8^th – THRESHOLD/Beckonsale/Crimes Of Passion/Haze - Montgomery Hall, Wath

13^th – ASIWYFA/MAYBESHEWILL/Beyond This Point Are Monsters/Brown Paper Aeroplane – Royal Park Cellars, Leeds

19^th – STRATOVARIUS/Firewind/Eden’ Curse – Jilly’s, Manchester

20^th – DANANANANAYKROYD/Elohymn/Chaotix/Mr & Mrs -Mad Ferret, Preston

21^st – DEMON – Hark To Towler, Tottington

22^nd – LOGAN/Icon/Rolling Thunder – Club Academy, Manchester

28^th – IN CASE OF FIRE/Telegraphs/The Assassination Of.. – Barfly, Liverpool

31^st – ‘ALL DAYER- - Mad Ferret Preston - ASIWYFA/Apes Fight Back/Boy Genius/Mountains Became Machines/Exit State/Freakjesus/Pencil In/Telekinetic.

A busy old month with the gigs coming thick and fast.

ILIKETRAINS and SPOKES kicked things off nicely –GALLOWS managed to translate all the hate and bile form their ‘Grey Britain’ album into their live performance really well. FIGHTSTAR shows seem to come by on pretty regular basis- this was another good one though not at their best by any means – support bands IN CASE OF FIRE and LARUSO stole the show for me.

The CRS’s annual 2 day ‘ROTHERHAM ROCKS’ bash was up next. Only day one looked interesting to my tastes and was unusually ‘metal’ for them! BECKONSALE and CRIMES OF PASSION put in good, hard rocking sets before old Proggers HAZE changed the style of the evening completely with an hour of really nice retro-Prog. Headliners THRESHOLD played an absolute blinder- this line up seems to have gelled together really well now and Damian Wilson looks to be enjoying his second stint with them more every time I see them. The only downer on the night was the really poor turnout. This event used to pack the old CRS base at Rotherham, tonight there were only just over 100 people in the building..for this line up –for Theshold alone - that is nothing short of criminal.

Back over the hills to Yorkshire for a night with two of my new favourites, ASIWYFA and MAYBESHEWILL, who were on a joint headlining tour. I was a little surprised with Maybeshewill when I saw no keyboard on stage- their music has tons of it, but it seems they sample it all –always feel a bit cheated when that happens, but they were still a good watch. As for ASIWYFA, I could watch them play every night and never get bored. Sound wasn’t the greatest tonight but they put their usual energetic stint in- one of the guitarists decided hanging off the air conditioning ducts while continuing to play would be a good idea…..and it was!!

With so many great gigs already this year, I suppose it had to happen…I was in two minds about going to see STRATOVARIUS.. Eighteen quid to see them was a bit of joke, but with the excellent FIREWIND in support, along with EDEN'S CURSE who sounded good on disc, I figured it was worth it. To start with, the doors opened over an hour late- rumours were flying up and down the queue that it was about to be cancelled but eventually we filed in and Eden’s Curse were already playing ..well, they were on stage, but what was coming out of the PA was just overloaded feedback. Now we know why this was close to being cancelled!! The PA was just abysmal. Firewind actually managed to get it to an almost listenable state but it went completely for Stratovarius who sounded awful. Although none of it was down to their performance, people were streaming out of the building way before the end. Immediately afterwards, the venue cancelled all live shows ‘until further notice’ – shame they didn’t do that a day earlier.

I’d been hearing rave reviews of DANANANANAYKROYD’s live shows so popped over to Preston to take a look- not bad at all, very energetic edgy stuff, and ‘The Wall Of Hugs’ where both vocalists go into the crowd and hug every single person is different –though it does tend to leave you bathing in their sweat! Good to catch up with ELOHYMN too who were playing some really good sounding new material- great band who deserve much wider recognition.

DEMON have been a favourite of mine since their debut came out way back in the days of NWOBHM (anyone under 30, ask your Dad, he’ll tell you about it!) but I’d only ever seen them once before so when they announced a date just a few miles away at a cracking little venue, I couldn’t believe it. They crammed their set full of their 80’s classics with a few new ones sprinkled in too. Midway through the night ‘Madman’ vocalist Dave Hill nearly busted his arm on the low hanging lighting rig!!

A busy old week was rounded out in the company of Scottish rockers LOGAN – I’d seen them a couple of times supporting Alter Bridge and had been well impressed. A pretty poor turn out for this one and even though they seem to lack a bit of stagecraft at times they played a decent-but way too short- headline set.

After seeing them play several support and festival shows, it was good to see IN CASE OF FIRE play a headline show on their nationwide tour in support of their (Excellent) ‘Align The Planets’ album. They played their nuts off even though there were only about 30 people in the room.

To end the month, Preston’s Mad Ferret was hosting a Bank Holiday ‘All Dayer’. MOUNTAINS BECAME MACHINES opened it with an epic set of post metal goodness and ASIWYFA closed it with their customary set of excellence, even if 90% of the crowd was too drunk to appreciate it! In between there was some distinctly average stuff, though I did enjoy CHAOTIX and EXIT STATE and PENCIL IN.