Live Review
Live Review: Eindhoven Psych Lab, Day 1, Effenaar- 05.06.2015
“psyche/ˈsʌɪki/via Latin from Greek psukhē ‘breath, life, soul”… As the fundamental factors for any psychedelic experience are defined by set, setting and dosage – the anticipation enveloping this sophomore, 2015mg Effenaar event, was tangibly palpable. “The nature of the experience depends almost entirely on set and setting. Set denotes the preparation of the individual, including his personality …
Live Review: Run the Jewels – The Forum, London 7.6.15
Kentish Town Forum was packed from front to back come 9.15pm, when Run the Jewels took to the stage. Killer Mike (from Atlanta) and El-P (from New York City) are both accomplished in their respective fields of rapping and producing, and have already made names for themselves over various records. But something new and exciting …
Festival Review: Raw Power 2015
Above: Circle – All photography by the author. You would be forgiven for thinking that a festival with a name like Raw Power would promote a very specific style of music. One pictures a hoard of hard rock bands whose members never really grew out of their Black Sabbath phase, their music a slow variation …
Live Review: Soft Moon – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 26.05.2015
I’d like to start with apologising to my parents in advance, my dad being a hardened Joy Division man to the core, so he’ll inevitably chastise me for making any parallels with the age of post punk and their Manchester roots.Last week Brudenell Social Club put on an entirely different show to anything I’ve seen …
Live Review: Desperate Journalist – Rocking Chair, Sheffield 27.5.15
Tonight we are in the relatively small cellar of The Rocking Chair to bear witness to one of the most adept indie bands to have emerged on to the scene for some time. When we got hold of their debut, self-titled album back in January, we gave them a 9.9, claiming they were ‘almost perfect‘. …
Live: Gigantic Indie All Dayer, Manchester 23.5.15
I don’t suppose I’m the only one that on occasion can be found day dreaming of my ultimate festival line up. How good would it be to get a whole bunch of your favourite bands and get them all to play one after the other. Well, the people behind the Gigantic Indie All Dayer did …
Live Review: Teenage Fanclub – Trades Club, Hebden Bridge 26.05.2015
It’s been a strange couple of days for arguably our nation’s best songwriting team. Tonight they are playing a small socialist club in West Yorkshire to 180 hard core fans, and tomorrow they face 50,000 as they support Foo Fighters at Old Trafford cricket ground thanks to a direct request from Dave Grohl. This might …
Live: Bearded Theory Festival 21-24.5.15
Catton Park, South Derbyshire, last time I was here I spent 24 hours sweating and panting my way around the park on a mountain bike, supposedly for fun. This time we are here for the Bearded Theory Festival and I was swapping the energy drinks, pasta and anti-chaffing cream, for good beer and great music, …
Live: Fearless Vampire Killers + support, Sound Control, Manchester, 12.05.2015
In the basement of Manchester’s Sound Control tonight are four bands- two of which are looking satisfyingly macabre, all four of which are providing an undeniably great soundtrack of alternative rock and metal to this chilly Tuesday eve. Off to a ground-shaking start are local band, the Dead XIII- who literally look like they just …
Live Review: Django Django at Plug, Sheffield, 14th May 2015
Django Django are the kind of band who have been vaguely just outside my radar for the last few years but seem to be compared to every band I really enjoy at the moment. I always assumed they were newcomers to the scene but was surprised to find they’d formed back in 2009 at Edinburgh …