Category: Gig Reviews
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets/Eosine – Utrecht, Tivoli Vredenburg 3 June 2025
It probably doesn’t help his case when friends say he listens to potentially made-up bands when he gives them names like Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. Ultimately, they’re the ones missing out on outrageously good shows like the one Jase W had the pleasure of witnessing last year at Paradiso – so there’s no chance he would let himself miss out on them when they popped up again at Utrecht’s Tivoli.
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Wayside/Blanket – Haarlem, Patronaat – 28 May 2025
Every now and then the stars align and something drops onto Jase W’s radar which takes him by surprise seemingly out of nowhere and tonight’s show at Patronaat in Haarlem wass one of those moments. Since moving away from the ÜK he had had to accept that there was probably going to be a fair amount of bands he loved to see when he was in Manchester that may never appear near him again and one of those was blanket. So, imagine his surprise when the initial other half of this tour, Post-Profit, decided to throw in the towel and was replaced by none other than one of his shoegazey post-rock favourites from Blackpool. Taking up the other half of this endeavour were headliners Wayside, who thankfully didn’t have to pack in their journey all the way from Australia. Jase is admittedly very new to Wayside so he was quite excited to see what they smashed out tonight in Patronaat’s gezellig Stage 3.
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MCLUSKY/KLÄMP – MANCHESTER, GORILLA – 23 MAY 2025
A brief jaunt with a few canned cocktails across to Manchester saw DJ Astrocreep take in mclusky with support from KLÄMP in Manchester’s Gorilla venue. Having previously seen Hot Snakes and Thurston Moore in the same venue, the big lad was all too aware of just how good distorted music can sound in the venue.
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Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses NI Grand Final – Belfast, Voodoo – 9 May 2025
“If we don’t support this scene, Live Nation sure as fuck won’t” declared Bloodstock booker Simon Hall as he stood proudly (and humbly) before this sold out Belfast crowd at the finale of this year’s tenth iteration of the franchise that does more than any other to encourage and promote the underground rock and metal scene, not only in this little corner of the Überverse but much further afield (as proven when, just two weeks previously, the big lad had to endure sipping cocktails on a beach in Cyprus in the cause of this very mission).
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Make Them Suffer/Resolve/Conjurer/If Not For Me – Amsterdam, Melkweg – 23 May 2025
It’s Friday in Amsterdam and it’s the end of the stomp around the ÜK and Europe for Make Them Suffer on their triumphant return following their support slot of Bury Tomorrow last year. Melkweg’s OZ room wasn’t going to know what fucking hit it.Even more so because of the outrageous package that is rolling with them for this in the form of French synthy metalcore outfit, Resolve, the lovely lot in British tech-death heavyweights, Conjurer and ÜS metalcore group If Not For Me. A veritable mixture of metal from around the world and here to finish off the tour in the incredible city of Amsterdam.
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Movements/Sweet Pill – Utrecht, Tivoli Vredenburg – 21 May 2025
It’s almost time for festival season to kick off around the ÜK and Europe so Jase W is getting his fill of nice standalone shows before he disappears into his bubble of existing in various large crowds with a beer on hand at all times. And tonight’s show is a good dose of some lovely emo courtesy of Movements and their support for this tour, Sweet Pill.
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Strangle Wire – Belfast, Voodoo – 9 May 2025
This is something of a slightly strange aside for us, as this set actually saw the Belfast death metallers playing a rare hometown show as guest headliners at the final of this year’s iteration of the Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses finale. But, Monk want to keep his observations on the competition to a deserved solo commentary, so decided to pen these few words as a separate piece.
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Ketos/Delusional Silence – Belfast, Voodoo – 26 April 2025
We’re not sure how many people realized how special this billing was, marking as it did a reunion of sorts… Not only were melodic thrashers Ketos returning to the stage for their first headline show in what seemed like donkey’s years, but they were sharing it with a band whom their vocalist also fronted for several years.
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Walter Trout/Cam Cole – Cardiff, Tramsheds – 7 May 2025
Having had the pleasure of interviewing Walter Trout on our #SmallStagesBigSounds podcast recently, this was too good an opportunity for David O to miss. When he told his brother, (a longtime Trout fan), he was in too… so much so, when he picked him up, he was wearing a Walter Trout T shirt from the 1995 tour in Birmingham!
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Black Spiders/The Cartoon Cartel – Crumlin, The Patriot – 26 April 2025
Another Saturday night trip to The Patriot Home of Rock in Crumlin saw a meeting of seasoned riff merchants and fresh-faced upstarts, as Black Spiders returned for their third local appearance in under a year, this time joined by the nascent but already formidable The Cartoon Cartel.
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Joe Bonamassa – Cardiff – Utilita Arena – 23 April 2025
In the opinion of our man David O, Joe Bonamassa’s performance at the Utilita Arena Cardiff exemplified blues-rock virtuosity, blending fiery guitar work with soulful vocals and a meticulously curated setlist that spanned his career and paid homage to blues and rock legends. Read on to find out why…
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Dark Tranquillity/Moonspell/Hiraes – Haarlem, Patronaat – 11 May 2025
Much to bewilderment of his friends, Jase W opted to eschew a nice sit in the sun on probably one of the hottest days he’d ever seen in May in favour of standing in a dark room and having one of Gothenburg’s original melo-death scene stars blow his head off with some riffs. In this case he’s referring to Dark Tranquillity who have certainly been ramping their activity up a ton recently and were preparing to rip Haarlem a new one…
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