Category: Gig Reviews
Popa Chubby/The Ron Sayer Jr Trio/The Blues Against Youth – London, The 100 Club – 22 January 2020
A three-act bill is the prize for the latest of our travelling gigaholic’s long trips down to the capital in search of gigs. After the rather less melodic Petrol Girls a few days previously, it’s time for the legendary 100 Club’s January Blues festival, with New York City’s finest Popa Chubby taking the baton as the evening’s headliner. Would he and his support be worth the 24-hour round trip? It was time to find out…
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Darkest Hour/Fallujah/Bloodlet/Une Misère/Lowest Creature – Manchester, Rebellion – 20 January 2020
Twenty-five years is a bloody long time for a band to be together but that’s what Darkest Hour are celebrating in this latest tour, and with them they bring four other bands in support of this including a favourite of Jase Walker’s, Fallujah. Manchester is one of two dates they’re playing in the Über Kingdom as part of a European tour throughout multiple countries, as part of this review our man also got to have a sit down with Mike Schleibaum from Darkest Hour and a chat with him about how the tour’s going, what sort of challenges a band goes through spanning 25 years, and any possible future plans.
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Petrol Girls/Glove/Mollusca Vita – Manchester, Deaf Institute – 18 January 2020
In a time of growing social consciousness, it’s still rare to find a gig where the emphasis is on actual female empowerment and promoting both that and unity amongst people in general. Tonight is an evening dedicated to just that, as a pro-feminist q+a session prior to our first act shines as a clear example of the the Petrol Girls’ fundamental beliefs and attitude to things thay harm society and those in need. The q+a over, it’s time for the music…
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Incite/Sworn Amongst/Death Remains/Deified – Manchester, Star And Garter – 17 January 2020
Four bands, each with a decent set length, playing some heavy, heavy shit is quite the contrast from our resident gigaholic’s previous acoustic-based gig with Mark Morton but just as welcome. After catching Richie Cavalera for a chat about the band’s schedule, music videos, empowering women and risking their lives driving to a gig through a blizzard in the mountains, a brief wait ensued for the big lad before the bands got underway in the latest of Tapestry Promotions shows.
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Nekrogoblikon/Harbinger/For I Am King – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms – 10 January 2019
What better way for Jonny B to start his gigging year than with a trip to a city that he’s not been to for a good few years, and also a visit to a new venue? So, he made his way across the country to Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms in search of goblins… and boy did he find a few!
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Nekrogoblikon/Harbinger/For I Am King/Footprints In The Custard – Manchester, Rebellion – 12 January 2020
Few bands can claim to be as self-deprecating and silly as Nekrogoblikon while still churning out some of the tightest and most frantic riffage around. A band known for having a literal Goblin run around on stage and messing with the crowd in some sort of demonic version of Happy Mondays’ Bez, Jase Walker had no doubt he’d probably end up getting messed with at some point during the show.
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Wage War/DED/Thornhill – Manchester, Rebellion – 10 January 2020
His first gig of the year in 2020 sees Jase Walker returning to one of hisregular haunts in Manchester, Rebellion. To say he was a bit excited about this gig is a complete understatement as both Wage War and Thornhill released two of his favourite albums of 2019 and he’d been itching to hear more stuff from both of them. Bringing along a band he wasn’t previously familiar with, DED, this will definitely be a show that promised to blow the Christmas cobwebs off our resident Mancunian in spectacular fashion.
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Mark Morton/Dave McPherson – Manchester, Academy 3 – 9 January 2020
So, a few people out there may have heard of Lamb of God? Yeah, so has our resident gigaholic. However, guitarist Mark Morton’s debut solo album, with star studded guests, somehow passed us by, so to catch him playing some of it live, acoustically, and to grab a chat with him about it and new EP ‘Ether’ was not an opportunity to pass up. Time for the big man’s first gig of the year, then.
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Pat McManus Band – Ahoghill, Diamond Rock Club – 21 December 2019
The Christmas bash at the Diamond Rock Club has been an annual event for the venue for more than ten years now, though this being only my third year – and, to be honest, it is one except for death, destruction and impending doom, guest contributor David Stewart would personally not miss, regardless of pretty much who else might be playing at other venues on the night (and there was some pretty stiff competition in the form of former Motley Crüe/Dead Daisies singer John Corabi – Ed)…
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At The Gates/Nifelheim/Deserted Fear – Manchester, Club Academy – 18 December 2019
Going a touch heavier than he has been for a bit, a three-band death metal gig for our travelling gigaholic, headlined by Swedish melodeath progenitors At The Gates, in one of only two UK shows on this particular tour. It’s back to the same building as the big lad’s previous gig in Mark Lanegan, albeit in a different room of the venue, for an evening of whiplash inducing headbanging and some pretty heavy fucking metal!
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Clutch/Graveyard/Kamchatka – Southampton, O2 Guildhall – 17 December 2019
Clutch are a band that Phil C got hooked on when he first saw them supporting Motörhead back in 2006. Since then it feels as if everything has conspired to stop him from seeing them again. When he was informed that they would be playing just across the water from his home and, crucially, he was in the area, he was not going to be thwarted. This being the first of a four date UK run promises to be a night of big riffs and stamping rhythms with support from Graveyard and Kamchatka.
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Motionless In White/Sköld/Defying Decay – Glasgow, SWG3 – 10 December 2019
Attending this show, Jess R wasn’t sure of what to expect from Motionless In White’s stage show this time around, although it was bound to be impressive. Many people within the line waiting to get in spoke of what they thought the support bands would be like and said they hadn’t heard of either of them before. When the line got moving and people were finally allowed into the venue, people scurried to get as close to the barrier as they could…
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