GIGGING IN 2009 - SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBER

11th – MAMMAL/Chasinjade/Lifescreen/Theory One – Rio’s, Leeds
14th – STEEL PANTHER – Academy, Manchester
22nd – INME/Zeroscape/Symphony Cult – Academy 3, Manchester
25th – IT BITES/Mostly Autumn – Picturedrome, Holmfirth
26th – 27th – METALFEST - JB’s Dudley
26th - PRIMAL FEAR/Northland/E-Force/Xandria/Power Quest/Circus Maximus/Marshall Law/Brainstorm/Swallow The Sun/Primordial
27th - KALMAH/Hanging Doll/Fairyland/Pathosray/Vision Divine/Omnium Gatherum/Elvenking/Dragonland
29th – ASIWYFA/ Elohymn – MOHO, Manchester

After almost three weeks ‘off’, it was time to get gigging again. Australian band MAMMAL were in the UK in support of their excellent ‘The Majority’ album- the Manchester date was at the dreadful Moho so I opted for the hundred mile round trip to see them the following night in Leeds. Considering their low profile over here, a huge crowd greeted them in Rio’s. For the next 80 minutes, they produced a spine tingling performance that saw the singer spend more time dancing in the crowd, climbing tables, climbing on the bar..even standing on my shoulders at one point.. and I was a good 40 feet from the stage!! Without doubt, a gig of the year contender and left me wanting more. Sadly, within a couple of weeks of this really successful UK tour, they’d announced they were splitting up.
After STEEL PANTHER’s performance at Download, a small UK tour was quickly arranged. The tickets for every venue sold out in minutes so the venues were upgraded, then upgraded again. In Manchester, the original venue got bumped up 3 times- from Club Academy (capacity around 300) to the main room there (2000 capacity) and on the night that was full to bursting! A really fun night – lots of joking around, virtually every song off their ‘Feel The Steel’ album got an airing along with a couple of covers.
INME were out touring with a man down after one of the guitarists had broken an arm. I’d only recently become familiar with their music, but the new material I was familiar with sounded just fine despite being a man down.
IT BITES were touring again, though this time, it was something a bit special, with the band playing their classic ‘Once Around The World’ album in it’s entirety. As they were missing Manchester this time, it meant a short hop to the sleepy Yorkshire town of Holmfirth (..famous for being the place where UK TV series ‘Last OF The Summer Wine’ was filmed). It’s the sort of place where, if you took the cars away, it would probably look no different to how it was a hundred years ago. The venue here is the old converted cinema ‘The Picturedrome’. From the outside an old, unassuming building but as soon as you walk in, it quickly becomes one of the best music venues you’ll ever see a gig in. All the original features have been retained, but a three storey balcony has been added down one side and the main floor slopes nicely towards the stage to give even the smallest of us a good view. MOSTLY AUTUMN played a really good hour long support slot that went down well with the It Bites crowd, then main attraction gave us two hours of perfection. Ever since they came back onto the scene 4 years ago, the fans have been asking for this kind of show and tonight it all came together perfectly- great venue with absolutely perfect sound, a big crowd and the band on fire.
As I was at the It Bites gig in Holmfirth, I missed the first night of the 3 day ‘METALFEST’ down at JB’s in Dudley. The line up for this was simply fantastic, yet ticket sales had been really slow, leading many to suggest the whole thing would be in danger of being cancelled. However, good reports of the Friday attendance were filtering through.

Day two highlights - It wasn’t too busy as Spains’s NORTHLAND, French/Canadian E – FORCE and German female-fronted XANDRIA played their (decent) sets, but it started to fill up nicely by the time Anglo/Italian outfit POWER QUEST hit the stage for the very last time with this line up. Enjoyable as ever, but it will be interesting to see the new line up to see if they can find that ‘missing something’ to take them up to the next level. CIRCUS MAXIMUS were one of the main draws for me – both of their albums have spent a lot of time in my ears over the last two or three years but the only other time they were going to play in the UK, the event got cancelled. Though I felt they lacked a bit of stagecraft, they sounded fantastic. Local lads MARSHALL LAW were next up…not for me, I’m afraid- their ‘meat and potatoes’ metal seemed out of kilter with the rest of the line up- maybe that was the idea, and they went down really well, so what do I know!! BRAINSTORM from Germany proved to be the band of the day. By now we were running way behind schedule (Interval entertainment Doc Insane ran over by almost 45 minutes.. they couldn’t get him off stage!!) They hit the stage full of energy firing on all cylinders and didn’t let up for the entire set. I hadn’t heard a note of their before but I was over at the merch table as soon as their set ended. By comparison, SWALLOW THE SUN are the complete opposite- very little movement on stage, instead they inject their own atmosphere through their layered, doomy sound – a bit of a ‘Marmite’ band for sure and the crowd seemed split. I was already a fan and enjoyed every last note- the new stuff in particular sounded great. PRIMORDIAL was a complete shock to me –just not what I was expecting at all- they played a really good set of accessible-celtic tinged metal. The ever growing crowd seemed to enjoy it too. The changeover for headliners PRIMAL SCREAM took an eternity- well, over an hour which meant by the time they hit the stage, they should have just been coming off!! They played a decent set with a lot of new material included, but I was ready for my bed long before they finished
Day three highlights – Problems…Problems… The start of day two was delayed without any announcement, but there seemed to be a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ action. Eventually Birmingham band HANGING DOLL emerged for their half hour set that went on.. and on..and on- eventually they played for over an hour. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very good set- far better than their Britrock performance a couple of months ago- but obviously something wasn’t right. After their set, it was revealed that not only would HOLY MOSES not be playing, headliners EVERGREY were not turning up either, Plenty of rumour and counter rumour which I’ll not go into here, but basically, this meant a complete change to the days line up, and a lot of people who were really only there for Evergrey turned around and went home. This had really put a downer on everything and the attendance was only about half of what had been there on the Saturday - which is a great shame as there were some really fine performances by every single band. FAIRYLAND and PATHOSRAY share a few members – including a vocalist – after the Pathosray set he had to return home to Italy to attend to an urgent family matter leaving their bassist to take over vocal duties on the Fairyland set. DRAGONLAND and VISION DIVINE were incredibly good but the band I enjoyed most was ELVENKING who’s folk metal brought the slumbering crowd to life. With the headliners not showing up, it was down to KALMAH to close the festival- they were good- surprisingly good in fact – but I doubt there were 150 people left watching by the end.
As you may have worked out - I REALLY don’t like Moho in Manchester, but when ASIWYFA and ELOHYMN play there I put that dislike to one side and hand over my cash!! You know what? The sound wasn’t half bad for this one- Elohymn played a gripping set with more new stuff that went down really well with the sizeable crowd and ASIWYFA were, as ever, truly mindblowing