Category: Gig Reviews
Blackbird Festival – Cardiff Castle – 27 June 2026
Cardiff Castle rarely felt as alive as it did for the inaugural Blackbird Festival, a day that balanced hometown pride with heavyweight rock pedigree, capped by Alter Bridge’s long-overdue Cardiff return.
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Jera On Air – Ysselsteyn – 27 June 2026
The third and final day of this year’s Jera On Air arrived last Saturday, and despite all the trials and tribulations of the extreme heat experienced over the weekend, Jase W and his fellow festival goers still persisted in their pursuit of world-class performances…
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American Football – Amsterdam, Paradiso 24 June 2026
The inferno that recently raged across Europe was continuing and Jase W once again was praying for some decent level of air conditioning tonight because he wasn’t keen on another trip home looking like he’d just completed an Iron Man challenge. Anyway, that’s besides the point, tonight he was ticking off a massive bucket list band for himself, American Football! Not just that but it was at one of his favourite venues in the country too, Paradiso.
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A Perfect Circle – Tilburg, 013 – 23 June 2026
The recent European blast furnace of heat continued while Jase W in Tilburg for a night at the 013. While the mercury outside peaked at 32c, our man could only hope for a venue that has turned its air conditioning up to 110 per cent because he was absolutely roasting. But what better way to deal with this than to reject the sun, stand in a dark room and listen to a prog band sing about how dire this all is? A wonderful accompaniment to his dystopian reality and need to get the hell away from the burning hellscape outside.
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Graspop – A Fan’s View
One thing above all, we are music fans, and occasionally we like to be that, going to a gig or a festival without our critics hats on… Jase W did just that last weekend, when he hot-trained it down to the annual Graspop Metal Meeting… but, he was also closely observing how things were organized to make the experience the best it could be for the thousands in attendance…
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Sisters Doll – Ahoghill, Diamond – 13 June 2026
Life is all about riding the waves and seizing the opportunities that present themselves to you, and it was doing the former that promoter Derwin McFarland found himself also doing the other as it was on a ‘Monsters Of Rock’ cruise that he introduced himself to a band of four Australian brothers and casually invited them to play his little club in the backside of nowhere in the wilds of Norn Iron… it was an invitation the four young lads gladly accepted and so here we are, back in Antrim hills for another night of sold out rawk ‘n’f’n’ roll action \m/
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BILLY TALENT – AMSTERDAM, MELKWEG – 13 JUNE 2026
With the seemingly higher frequency of bands doing album tours, it still absolutely shocked Jase W that Billy Talent decided to choose Amsterdam as one of their stops to smash out one of the era defining albums of his late teens… but there he was… Billy Talent were going to absolutely ruin his vocal chords playing every song from start to finish of their ‘II’ album and our man couldn’t be more excited to do this, especially on a Saturday night!
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Don Broco – Amsterdam, Melkweg – 9 June 2026
Festival season is here but there’s still time for a few shows to really kick things off before going off to a random field to have a few too many beers and see more bands than he’ll probably remember. As for now? It was time for Jase W to see Don Broco blow the roof off Melkweg in their Oude Zaal room along with Slay Squad.
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Plini – Haarlem, Patronaat – 29 May 2026
Neither hell or high water, quite literally, could stop Jase W from getting over to Haarlem to catch one of his favourite two jazz ( and then some) bands on the same bill. Plini and Sungazer, two bands that our hep cat genuinely never thought would ever end up touring together but here we at the very end of a tour that he had seen several friends across Europe get their fill before it finished in the Netherlands.
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Acid Reign – Belfast, Voodoo – 28 May 2026
Seven years is a long time on anyone’s calendar but in the music business it can feel and seem like fucking forever… Careers can come and go, fads zoom in and out of fashion – and bands can undergo a complete and total overhaul. Which is exactly what has happened in the period since the “godfather of applecore”, the singer known as H and the then line-up of Acid Reign addressed #TheAgeOfEntitlement on this very same stage and this reinvented and reinvigorated line-up of the band inviting us to try and remember what fucking day of the week it is… well, it’s Thrashday (sic) and it’s the first night of the tour, so let’s get down the front and stuck into the action shall we? OK, seeing as you asked nicely…
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Tonight Alive – Haarlem, Patronaat – 27 May 2026
Keeping the swift plethora of shows this week, Jase W took himself off to Haarlem to catch Tonight Alive make their return after a fairly lengthy bit of radio silence. Taking up the main stage in Patronaat, which is easily one of his favourite spots when it comes to shows in the Netherlands, it was time to grab his usual balcony perch. And along for the ride were Greywind to complete the set. There may have been only be two bands but both were easily worth the time to get stuck into for a midweek show.
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Paledusk – Utrecht, De Helling – 26 May 2026
According to Jase W, it was “warm as fuck” the other night! It was absolutely bloody boiling but thank God for a venue with decent air conditioning that at least kept him at a reasonable temperature until the inevitable slew of pits warmed the venue right back up again. It was the return of Paledusk, one of Japan’s fiercest metal acts, back after their run supporting One Ok Rock and going right for the throat with their latest pop-infused riffery…
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