GIGGING IN 2009 - NOVEMBER

NOVEMBER
1st – BRAINWASH FESTIVAL, Leeds University
EFTERKLANG/Grammatics/Oceansize/Blk Jks/Vessels/These Monsters/Jonquil/Maybeshewill/Her Name Is Calla
2nd – Paradise Lost/Katatonia/Engel
8th- 9th – HELLFIRE FESTIVAL – NEC, BIRMINGHAM
8th – SAXON/Scar My Eyes/The More I See/Gama Bomb/Ted Maul/The Rotted/Marya Roxx/Fury UK/Imicus/The Casino Brawl/The Arusha Accord/Rise To Remain/Exit Ten/Benediction/Anvil/
9th – My Dying Bride/Huron/Lost Souls Club/Blakfish/Painted Smiles/The Morning After/Xerath/No Made Sense/Tesseract/Katatonia/Anathema
18th – FALL OF TROY/Twin Atlantic/Chickenhawk - Academy 3, Manchester
23rd – THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT/Slaves To Gravity – Academy 3, Manchester
24th – EXIT TEN + 3 supports– 02 Academy, Liverpool
25th – EXIT TEN/Hiatus/The Cape Race– MOHO Manchester
29th – DRAGONFORCE/Sabaton/Sylosis/Glamour Of The Kill – 53 Degrees, Preston

BRAINWASH is (this year) a 4 - day festival based in various venues around Leeds. As well as putting on a whole host of great music, the promoters also use the event to raise money for several charities. This year (It’s 4th year) the final day took place in Leeds University-using two stages that ran opposite each other, allowing us to see every single band play their full set. A change to the running order meant I only just arrived just in time to catch HER NAME IS CALLA. Glad I didn’t miss this one, a fine set of noisy post (ish) rock that included a new song. In fact, the songs I was familiar with sounded completely different from their recorded versions. After a quick butty from the SU shop while someone was strumming an acoustic guitar (I mentioned earlier in this blog I don’t ‘Do’ acoustic!!), it was time for MAYBESHEWILL. They kept apologising for their set being crap, but they really had no need to as it was fine from where I was standing, except it was bloody loud- even with my good ear plugs firmly in place! I do wish they’d play the keyboard parts live, though. JONQUIL weren’t really up to much, but THESE MONSTERS were simply epic- huge riffs split open by some superb sax. Sometimes everything appears to disappearing into an untidy mess before somehow breaking out into neat melody. See these guys if you get a chance. With that still ringing in my head, it was time for VESSELS. I have their album and really like it, but I’ve been told so many times they are better live… and they are. They do the ‘quiet-to-loud-and-back-again’ as good as anyone else out there. I suppose you can label it post rock, but really it’s just very intense instrumental music played with feeling. Really looking forward to seeing them on the forthcoming Oceansize dates now. South Africa’s BLK JKS were one of the main draws for me today. Their debut album ‘After Robots’ is really neat mix of rock and some of the more traditional sounds and rhythms of their homeland and was one of my top 20 albums of 2009. The 40 minute set simply flew by –everything on the album was perfectly reproduced here and they managed to get this crowd of blessed out indie fans and post rockers DANCING! Watch out for this name in 2010, they’ve re-located to North America and they have some pretty powerful music bods backing them. OCEANSIZE were next up… they’d had big problems even getting to the venue for their set, having been delayed after playing in Germany the night before. They were only just starting a sound check at the time they were due on-and that was clearly something they’d rather not have been doing. The set itself? Well, for once, I’ll be a bit critical of a band a have an almost unnatural love of. I felt there was too much ‘New’ for a festival show. Sure, they are out promoting a new EP and have some really good sounding material ready for their (as yet unrecorded) new album, but the crowd reaction seemed a little more stunted than it normally is at a ‘size gig. The second stage was being closed by Leeds band GRAMMATICS who were fresh off a support tour opening for BLOC PARTY, and it showed. They were incredibly tight tonight and of the three times I’ve seen them, this was the best. I very nearly called it a night there as I’d not been too impressed with the bits of EFTERKLANG I’d heard before, but am I glad I stayed…oh my word, why haven’t I seen this band before? The core of Efterklang are three people- but they are surrounded (On this VERY small stage) by another 6 or 7 musicians and the sound they create is just magical. Think Sigur Ros but not as Twee, think The Arcade Fire but with more ideas. The hour just flew by and I just had to go and buy their latest live album/DVD before I left… A magical climax to a fantastic day.

No rest for the wicked.. the very next night support act KATATONIA played a fine 45 minute set to a very receptive crowd,but with surprisingly little material from their new album… unlike PARADISE LOST who chose to play plenty of their latest release. They were decent enough but I felt there was ‘something’ missing from their performance.

It was a late decision to go down to HELLFIRE FESTIVAL at the NEC near Birmingham- a decision made when a pair of free tickets came our way!! Originally, this was going to be a 3 day festival, but sales had been slow, so a week or so before the event, it was slimmed down to just two days, but with an extended line up on each.
Day one highlights – Things didn’t start well- the early bands on the Big Cheese/Scuzz stage suffered from really awful sound and equipment issues, not to mention small crowds. I was quite looking forward to seeing TED MAUL in particular but it was just 30 minutes of feedback. During THE ROTTED set, things finally improved- didn’t catch all their set but from what I heard of their punk infused metal, they were pretty good. IMICUS, who were really good at Hammerfest, played another excellent set here but the same couldn’t be said of MARYA ROXX who were truly dreadful. The main arena and Metal Hammer stages were now opening, FURY UK only had a 20 minute set but played a blinder- local band for me too and it made me wonder why I’d not checked them out before. First trip into the very impressive main arena for BENEDICTION showed just how badly this event had sold- it was barely a quarter full. Shame really because the state of the art sound and lighting rig was as good as anything I’ve ever encountered. ANVIL followed them and it’s clear Lips is still enjoying the resurgence in interest in his band that the movie has created. They are both awesome and awful in equal measures, but it just works for them and the crowd lapped it up! Quick run over to the Metal Hammer stage to catch headliners EXIT TEN- as ever, they put on great show and treated us to a couple of new songs, then back to the main arena to catch SAXON-Biff worked the crowd like the old pro he is and the set was crammed with all their classics. After their set at Sonisphere I was worried this band was just treading water, but with this and their BOA performances, it’s clear there is plenty of life in them yet.

Day two highlights – If yesterday’s crowd on the smaller stage was bad, today it was even worse as many preferred to catch the tribute bands playing as part of the ‘Music Live’ exhibition. Shame really as they were some fine performances from XERATH, BLAKFISH, NO MADE SENSE and THE MORNING AFTER especially. I was really looking forward to seeing how TESSERACT performed with their new singer Dan Tompkins, who was playing his first live show with the band. His predecessor had left huge shoes to fill but Dan did a pretty good job- a completely different style both in terms of performance and vocal style, but it worked ok. Over on the main stage ANATHEMA put on the set of the entire weekend, capping it off with their old vocalist Darren White joining them onstage for ‘Sleepless’. I missed most of KATATONIA’s set, but did catch all of MY DYING BRIDE- not my thing at all- before calling it day and heading home before Fields Of The Nephilim played.
An enjoyable couple of days but the lack of numbers must have been a major concern for the organisers.
I’d never seen FALL OF TROY before but their new album is a good ‘un and with the excellent TWIN ATLANTIC and CHICKENHAWK supporting this was a great nights entertainment.
Australian band THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT were out on tour with rising UK outfit SLAVES TO GRAVITY a. I wasn’t quite as impressed with the headliners as I thought I would be on the strength of their recorded work, but the new STG line up seems to be gelling well, and the new material (all bar one song was completely new) sounds good- the shame was there were so few people there to see it.
EXIT TEN were on a headline tour around the UK. The Liverpool show was the better one of the two that I managed to catch. Plenty of new stuff was played on both nights.. shame the support bands were so weak though- they normally have good touring partners!!
Last gig of the month and it was the one with arguably the best line up of the year. I’d pay to see all four bands on their own, so this was great value. GLAMOUR OF THE KILL were playing as we got in the building- they are a much more confident band than they were at Download 08 and they went down well with the ever growing crowd. SYLOSIS have become a firm favourite of mine with their sets at various festivals over the year, and tonight they absolutely nailed it . The reception that SABATON got made you wonder if they were the headliners tonight. The band seemed really humbled by the crowd’s reaction to them and they treated us to 35 minutes of their finest anthems. That was tough for DRAGONFORCE to follow, but they were on fine form tonight. The previous shows of theirs that I’ve seen had been blighted by really awful sound –not tonight, it was perfect (and was being recorded for a live album). Great gig, and one I look forward to seeing all over again soon!