Category: Gig Reviews
Electric Six/Donkey Kung Fu – Amsterdam, Melkweg – 23 November 2023
The day of this gig had seen Jase W repeatedly listening to Electric Six’s debut album ‘Fire’ in anticipation of the show. This is an album that our man had on repeat for years as a teenager and 20 years on, they’re finally taking the entire album out for a set of live shows (with some other favourites) – and he couldn’t be more excited. These guys have pumped out an album more or less every year since 2003, all starting with ‘Fire’ and its initial raunchy songs which saw it get repeated radio and music TV play for nearly three years since their release. Our resident gigaholic managed to catch them a while back at Manchester’s Club Academy and had a great time bopping away to many songs he knew… and many he didn’t. No wonder he was looking forward to reliving the experience \m/
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Static Dress/World Of Pleasure/Bodyweb/Mercury – Manchester, Rebellion – 11 November 23
It’s quite rare a band make a significant impact in the scene they incorporate themselves in within the span of a year. For Static Dress however, this has come to fruition. Following the release of their debut album, ‘Rouge Carpet Disaster’, the four piece post-hardcore powerhouse have found themselves touring with amazing bands the likes of Sleeping With Sirens and Bring Me The Horizon, visited the ÜS for the first time, and as of most recent, signed to Roadrunner Records releasing a redux of their brilliant LP.
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Death Cult/Lili Refrain – Manchester, Albert Hall – 18 November 2023
Two gigs in successive days meat another jaunt over to Manchester for the big lad known as DJ Astrocreep, this time to the Albert Hall, to catch The Cult, touring as previous incarnation Death Cult and, by and large, playing venues and places they did on their inaugural Death Cult tour in 1983. While quite different musically to the previous night’s shenanigans, a night of rather fantastic post punk and rock was on the cards…
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Written By Wolves/Immerse – Satan’s Hollow, Manchester – 17 November 2023
A jaunt across to a perennial favourite venue in Satan’s Hollow sees DJ Astrocreep catch Written By Wolves in one of their first ever ÜK dates, with able support from Bristol’s Immerse. Early doors meant an earlier trip across, due to the regular club night in the venue afterwards, so it’s not entirely unexpected that not too many were at the venue ahead of doors.
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Robert Plant’s Saving Grace/Taylor McCall – Cardiff, New Theatre – 15 November 2023
The demise of St Davids Hall to the RACC controversy has seen the rapid relocation/cancellation of many planned events. David O has to say that he thought this visit by Robert Plant and his latest project was going to be one of them. Thankfully, the New Theatre stepped into save the day..
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When We Were Young – Las Vegas, Festival Showgrounds – 22 October 2023
Now that the jet lag has subsided and the bitter sting of the return to reality has sunk in, it’s about time that Jonny B tells of his time at the most extravagant day festival he’s ever been to. It’s a festival that has quite possibly ruined certain ÜK festivals for him and there’s plenty of things that could be learned by some of the big dogs in the ÜK that’s for sure! When our man saw the lineup of the 2022 edition of this festival, he remembers thinking that it couldn’t possibly be real, and then when the 2023 event was announced he knew he just had to find out for himself – he felt there had to be some kind of catch to counter the strength of the lineup… he means, having pretty much every band he loved as a teen in one place had to be pretty miraculous: Blink 182, Green Day, Good Charlotte, Sum 41, the list goes on!
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Sigh/Laster – Belfast, The Deer’s Head – 2 November 2023
It may have taken them three long decades to bring their distinctive brand of eastern darkness to the normally Emerald Isle, but there can be no doubt that Japanese avant-garde extremists Sigh more than adequately rewarded the patience of their legions of fans in this small corner of the Überverse with one of the most intense shows it has been Monk’s pleasure to witness in recent years.
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Sasquatch/Skypilot/Red Mountain/Space Shepherds – Belfast, Voodoo – 7 November 2023
For the second time in less than a week, we experienced another first as Californian stoners Sasquatch planted their big feet (sic) on the Emerald Isle for their debut shows in this wee corner of the Überverse. It was a tad disappointing that the brilliant Blind River were unable to make the short trek across the most expensive piece of water in the world, but this nonetheless promised to be an evening which brought the desert to the back streets of Belfast, especially with two other debut performances, at least in our books…
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Samantha Fish & Jesse Dayton/The Commoners – Bristol, SWX – 22 October 2023
Dave O first saw Samantha Fish towards the end of 2022 in Cardiff and boy did she impress him then. A phenomenal guitarist and songwriter. So he knew he’d be taking a trip across the border for another earful of sublime blues guitar mastery when this tour was announced. The only differences were the addition of Jesse Dayton from Austin Texas to promote the ‘Deathwish Blues’ album release and The Commoners a southern blues infused quartet from Ontario…
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Hand of Dimes/Fireroad – Merthyr Tydfil, Scala – 15 October 2023
The recent passing of the legend that is Bernie Marsden has seen a plethora of tributes to the man. These included the recent announcement from Steelhouse Festival of the naming of the Friday night in 2024 as #Berniefest in honour of the great man who was always a big supporter of the festival – so much so that his last album will be released posthumously with a track entitled ‘Steelhouse Mountain’ featured on it. The BM Allstars band who will play that night will include Jim Kirkpatrick of FM and the true “king of the mountain”, in the spritely shape of Nev Macdonald of Skin/Cougar/Hand of Dimes, as well as various special guests. So with this in mind the opportunity to go to a gig of HoD and Fireroad, with another true gent as frontman, Richard Jones, on stage was one not to be missed by our resident Valleys correspondent…
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Amorphis/Sólstafir/Lost Society – Utrecht, Tivoli Vredenburg – 29 October 2023
Jase W figured he was going to run into the infamous Dutch train crowds sooner or later and today was that day as he arrived in Amsterdam Centraal for his train to Utrecht to be greeted by an army of people on the platform. Nevertheless he made it with ten minutes to spare before Lost Society kicks off tonight’s show with Amorphis at the headlining spot with special guests, Sólstafir.
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Thy Art Is Murder/Whitechapel/Fit For An Autospy/Spite – Amsterdam, Melkweg – 27 October 2023
It’s a rainy Friday, it’s early doors, and one of the biggest metal shows Amsterdam has seen this year, it’s the return of Thy Art Is Murder with one of the most stacked tour lineups of 2023. Whitechapel, Fit For An Autopsy and Spite in tow and Jase W has joined one of the longest lines he’s seen at a gig outside of Manchester’s Academy 1… it’s like every metalhead in the Netherlands has arrived for this show.
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