Nick Oliveri / Prosperina / Welcome The Howling Tones / Yeti Love [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 3/6/14]

Last night, I left this show in an ambulance. Now, given Nick Oliveri’s reputation as a hellraising rock demon, you’d be forgiven for jumping to conclusions here – but the truth is a lot less rock ‘n’ roll than whatever you’re thinking right now. More on that later. Before we get into why my exit was so dramatic, and of course how immense this show was, you need to know a little bit about the state of grassroots live music in the UK today. Read more…

Posted on 04 June 2014

ACODA / Wicked Snakes / CITIES [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 2/6/14]

When two of the bands on a three-band bill spell their names in full caps, you know – or, at least, hope – that it’s going to be a) LOUD, and b) EPIC.

Last night was both loud and epic. I’ve seen some great bands over the last few nights, but this show topped the lot. A range of rock styles were unleashed, and between-set conversations were had about honey badgers, Morgan Freeman on helium, housemates sharing their homemade porn (this was a conversation topic, not something that happened at the show), and a band that don’t exist called Sex Rambo. At the end of this review, I’ll try to sum up how epic this all was in mere words. But for now… Read more…

Posted on 03 June 2014

A Plastic Rose / In Dynamics / The Cottonettes [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 1/6/14]

Read more…

Posted on 02 June 2014

Natives / A.J. Ellis / Distal Keys / Faux [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 31/5/14]

Regular readers will know how much I love the Boileroom. TMMP’s list of live reviews offers many, many examples of how gigs should be – and most of the standout shows in there took place at the Boileroom. So this review is very rare, because I’ll say this upfront: This gig was ok. Read more…

Posted on 01 June 2014

Hool-A-Palooza 2014 [Festival Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 25/5/14]

Hool-a-Palooza is a punk festival crammed with bands whose speciality is keeping things short and to the point. So, in that spirit, we’ll do the same here. Read more…

Posted on 26 May 2014

Palm Reader / Flesh Trench / Yearbook / We Never Learned To Live / Eschar [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 24/5/14]

Genrebomb and the Boileroom are always a great combination if you’re looking for an epic night out. Throw in local promoters GU1 PUNX, and you’ve got something really special; an eclectic evening of varied and exciting bands. Read more…

Posted on 25 May 2014

Bob Log III / Thomas Truax [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 1/5/14]

Although it’s great that alternative culture exists, you have to ask how much it differs from the mainstream sometimes.

Standard-model society promotes segregation on increasingly arbitrary lines (watch an episode of Come Dine With Me for evidence) and “alternative” subcultures do much the same thing – think rock and metal subgenres and the constant bickering between them all. Infighting is frequently justified on the basis of appearance (“just look at him!“) by both mainstream and alternative groups. Competitive snobbery thrives in both worlds, based as they are on stereotypical male values – and yes, despite some progress both the mainstream and alternative worlds are still male-dominated. For instance, “alt girls” have been relegated to the status of fetishised objects featured in magazines that copy the topless-babes-and-articles-which-their-readers-will-say-are-the-real-reason-they-buy-the-magazine-in-the-first-place-but-for-some-reason-nobody-ever-seems-to-believe-them model adopted by their equally standardised shelfmates. For more evidence of objectification, go see a heavy female-fronted band play live, and pay attention to how the men in the audience behave. And the online side of things is, naturally, not much different. Overall, it can be argued that “alt” culture is definable today as “more or less the same as the mainstream at a fundamental level, only with different haircuts, a different soundtrack, different clothes, and more imaginative and visible tattoos”.

So let’s say we want to find something that really deserves to be called “alternative”. Where could we start? Read more…

Posted on 03 May 2014

Hannah Dorman / Following Foxes / Martha Paton [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 29/4/14]

I’ve said this many times before, I’ll tell anyone who’ll listen, and I’ll say it again: The Boileroom is my favourite independent live music venue. The same statements apply to this sentence too: Genrebomb know how to put on a show. Read more…

Posted on 30 April 2014

By The Rivers / The Brompton Mix / Birdsworth [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 17/4/14]

After several weeks of heart-op-enforced inactivity, I needed a good night out to celebrate my return to the real world. This gig provided everything I required within a few short hours. Read more…

Posted on 18 April 2014