This show may have been a hard sell for a Sunday, but a sizeable portion of local music fans still made it down to the Boileroom for this show. Earlycomers were treated to Tusks (aka Emily Underhill), a recent discovery who is fast becoming Read more…
I love seeing musicians progress in leaps and bounds – and Andy Ruddy has done exactly that. The last time I saw him live, Andy Ruddy seemed reserved and nervous – but both qualities have now been completely eliminated, replaced by a confident and strong yet still warm and approachable presence. With a strong stage show, great songs in the singer-songwriter vein, and an album on the way, 2015 is looking very good indeed for Andy Ruddy.
Martin Harley is a local legend, and it’s almost criminal that Read more…
Although I enjoyed Red House Glory‘s Foo Fighters-esque radio-friendly rock songs and decent vocal harmonies, and Bridges deserve recognition for their frontman’s emotive vocals and their unorthodox harmony guitars, I have a few things to get off my chest not only about Cavalier, but bands who come from a music-school background in general.
First off, I should say that I come from that background too – I did four years at ACM, and although when I put it that way it sounds like a prison sentence, it really Read more…
As a music venue embedded into Stamford Bridge (the stadium called home by Chelsea F.C.), Under the Bridge was an appropriately unique venue for this unique show. An industry showcase set up by trade paper Music Week, networking hub MusicConnex, promoters ILUVLIVE, and south coast music school BIMM, it goes without saying that the high-profile nature of this show inevitably brought its own special set of performance pressures. A quality showcase set has the potential to push an act to the next level, while a duff performance can see a band crossed off “Ones To Watch” lists in the blink of an eye.
On top of the potential for mind-freezing attacks of performance anxiety, this was not Read more…
Tuesday was a good day until I got to this show and realised it had started earlier than predicted, and I’d missed not only openers Sutek, but also one of my favourite new bands of math-metal maniacs, Let’s Talk Daggers. Sad face indeed. Still, Swim Good soothed my cravings for complex tunes with a loose but still awesome set. These guys can do no wrong, even when beset by technical issues. They really are that goddamn good. Happy face: restored for the rest of the night.
Yearbook (think a pop-punk Reuben augmented by the occasional bit of fancy guitar work) never fail to Read more…
Although The Tens do possess plenty of heart, balls, and swagger, they’re currently still at the stage where their instruments own them, rather than the other way around. With more practice (as in “Spending more time beating the living crap out of their instruments” rather than “Studiously woodshedding a path to NoSoulVille”), the Tens will eventually become serious hard-rocking badasses. For now, though, they still need more time to develop.
Kagoule started off sounding like Placebo’s musical test-tube baby (a really cool move) before Read more…
LA hardcore band lives double life as a mariachi group. Sounds like sacrilege – until you bear in mind that hardcore pioneers Black Flag were experimenting with spoken word and jazz fusion as far back as 1984. Does purity belong in punk? More to the point, who the fuck Read more…
After the previous evening’s You Me At Six-centric pop-rock extravaganza, Guildford was in need of something a little more low-key this past Saturday night. Fortunately the Boileroom’s booking team had it covered, offering acoustic vibes from two underground talents and one certain legend; a perfect contrast to the full-on mainstream rock angle taken just 24 hours before.
Lee Martin got things off to a quirky and passionate start with Read more…
Some experiences come along just once in a lifetime – and the capacity crowd jammed sardine-like into the Boileroom were keenly aware of that fact. The tickets held by the lucky three hundred had been coveted by thousands of others, with five figures’ worth of rabid rock fans flooding ticket sites and ensuring Read more…
Fuck Suzuki. Their cars are crap. My formerly faithful four-wheeler failed at completing a function even more basic than going forwards, and refused to even start. While Throatpunch City were getting through their set, I was pretty much doing this:
One train journey later, and Parachute For Gordo were, as always, goddamn incredible. Few instrumental post-rock bands infuse their music with Read more…