I didn't go to any gigs in 2017, so its probably been a good 18 months since my last gig. Far too long! If this night made me realise anything, it is how much I love live music, especially when it is done right! Just the 2 bands on the bill tonight - Mewithoutyou and headliners Paramore. I decided to have a listen to Mewithoutyou prior to the gig to see what they were like. What I heard was a solid rock band but I wasn't too sure about the vocals which often felt like they were delivered just by speaking the lyrics rather than actually singing them. Just their style but I wasn't sure if it was for me so didn't listen to that much of them prior to the gig.
Fast forward to 7.30pm on 20th January 2018 and Mewithoutyou took to the stage. What was a bit strange was the way the lead singer Aaron Weiss was sitting down. It just seemed a bit random. The way he was sitting down I was actually wondering if he didn't have any legs. Then I thought how did he get on to the stage in the first place. But during the other songs he did stand up for them. He also did random stuff like walking off the stage for a bit during a song. His bandmates didnt blink an eye though so this must just be the norm. In terms of the music though, I did actually really enjoy it. They are a really tight band which you would expect having 6 albums and having been together since the early noughties. Also special mention to drummer Rickie Mazotta who my gig buddy Campbell and I agreed was so fun to watch.
Having just the 2 bands meant Mewithout you were given a generous 40 minute set and meant Paromore were on a bit earlier compared to usual gigs. It was about 8.45pm when the lights went down and on came a small army on to the stage. Paramore are now singer Hayley, guitarist Taylor and Zac the drummer. But they also come complete with 4 other members on tour as their touring band.
I predicted that they would start with their hit single "Hard times" and I was right. It set the tone for the night and it was clear from the off that everyone in attendence was up for this. What I wasn't right about though was the next song. I remember turning to Campbell and saying "I can't believe they are playing Misery business this early on". I was confused as to why they weren't inviting people up on the stage as per tradition. Only for my brain to switch on a few songs later to realise it was "Ignorance" they played! I would say over the last year I have really got to know Paramore's music well and can't believe I made this mistake, ha.
The set was predominantly focused around their latest album "After laughter" playing 9 of the 12 tracks. If you see my review I rated this album highly and tonight you can see why as I was slightly disappointed they didn't play all the tracks off it! But at the same time then I would say that they weren't playing enough hits from previous albums.
So many memorable moments from the night which include the ballad "Hate to see your hearbreak" when the whole place was totally lit up with phones. Also "Misery Business" everyone really, really got into this one. And when they invited the 4 people up on stage they just went crazy which was fun to watch. Aaron Weiss coming on for some vocals on "No Friend" where I didn't actually realise he did the vocals on this song for the album. Penultimate song "French Class" which was Zac Farro's song which he also did vocals on was a nice surprise and a solid song.
Having 5 albums I don't think anyone will ever agree that this was their best setlist especially when Paramore have so many good songs on each of their albums. But one thing this does show is how a change in direction for the band, musically, worked. Playing most off the stuff off their latest album shows to me they have full faith in it and rightly so as it is superb. But they played for an hour and a half and in my view didn't play a bad song. Can't really ask for much more.
Overall it was an absolutely cracking gig which I thouroughly enjoyed. I can't really go without saying how good a front women Hayley William's is. I don't think I have ever seen someone have so much fun on stage and her interaction in between songs was great too. Hoping to see these guys again in the future.
Set list
Hard Times
Ignorance
Still into you
Forgiveness
Fake Happy
That's what you get
I caught myself
Pool
Hate to see your heart break
Caught in the middle
Told you so
Idle worship
No Friend (with vocals from Aaron Weiss)
Misery Business
Ain't it Fun
Encore
Grow up
French Class
Rose coloured boy
Sunday, 21 January 2018
Saturday, 20 January 2018
Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare
"Nightmare! (Now your nightmare comes to life)". The opening lyric from Avenged Sevenfold's fifth studio album, "Nightmare" released in 2010. And really that lyric sums up exactly what the band was going through during the writing and recording of the album due to drummer "The Rev" passing away in December 2009. This must have been an incredibly difficult album to make but I think it was something the band had to do as part of the healing process. As you can imagine the main theme of the album is around "The Rev's" death, so it is a pretty dark album but at the same time it is such good music. This is Avenged Sevenfold in full flow and I think it is more about them releasing their frustration and anger while doing what they love. But they have always been a metal band so it was not really a change in their musical style.
After their breakthrough 3rd album "City of evil", then their 4th self titled album. "Nightmare" propelled A7X even more in terms of worldwide appeal and even though this album is littered with amazing songs. I think 6th track "So far away" is the reason the album was so successful. Probably the main reason for this is because it is not as heavy as their other songs and is a total anthem. Their is one main moment of this song which will send a shiver down your spine. When M'Shadows sings "Cause as soon as I'm done, I'll be on my way........to live eternally". Then the guitar solo kicks in. It really is just epic. Throughout the album, including this track, you will hear the word "Forever" which they use as clever word play to remember their drummer. You just need to read it as "foREVer".
Another classic track on the album is "Buried alive". The open guitar part lasts 50 seconds before the other instruments including the drums kick in is amazing. Such a gentle, weaving way into a track. One thing which A7X are really good at, and this song is a fine example of it. Is their build up to the choruses and the change of pace in M Shadows singing. It makes the songs more interesting and keeps the listeners attention. This track is 6 minutes and 44 seconds and you honestly wouldn't realise it if you didn't know. This is a characteristic of a lot of their tracks which just shows the strength of their songs. Making 6-10 minute tracks and keeping things flowing enough for listener not to get bored must be hard. But these guys do it effortlessly.
"Victim" is another long track coming in at 7 minutes 30 seconds and is my favourite track off the album. I feel this is one of those tracks that really just display all of AX7's talents. M Shadows vocals are phenomenal and the guitar work is just amazing. Not only that but the compisition of the song, highs and lows, twists and turns. In saying that, with most albums their are weaker songs on the album with the likes of "Natural Born Killer" and "God Hates Us" which don't quite hit the spot for me. But then you've got the likes of "Tonight the world dies" and album closer "Save me" which really do hit the spot. Those particular songs and some of the others, there are certain parts in them where they manage to create these magical moments which I really look forward to and it is not necessarily the chorus.
Overall this is a great album and in my opinion having listened to all the albums by them upto and including 2016's "The Stage". This is A7X's best work and has been in my car for many months now. For something to qualify as a car album, a) it has to be a good enough for me to buy it on CD, b) It has to be be better than all the other CDs I have at the moment! So yeah I rate this highly :-)
After their breakthrough 3rd album "City of evil", then their 4th self titled album. "Nightmare" propelled A7X even more in terms of worldwide appeal and even though this album is littered with amazing songs. I think 6th track "So far away" is the reason the album was so successful. Probably the main reason for this is because it is not as heavy as their other songs and is a total anthem. Their is one main moment of this song which will send a shiver down your spine. When M'Shadows sings "Cause as soon as I'm done, I'll be on my way........to live eternally". Then the guitar solo kicks in. It really is just epic. Throughout the album, including this track, you will hear the word "Forever" which they use as clever word play to remember their drummer. You just need to read it as "foREVer".
Another classic track on the album is "Buried alive". The open guitar part lasts 50 seconds before the other instruments including the drums kick in is amazing. Such a gentle, weaving way into a track. One thing which A7X are really good at, and this song is a fine example of it. Is their build up to the choruses and the change of pace in M Shadows singing. It makes the songs more interesting and keeps the listeners attention. This track is 6 minutes and 44 seconds and you honestly wouldn't realise it if you didn't know. This is a characteristic of a lot of their tracks which just shows the strength of their songs. Making 6-10 minute tracks and keeping things flowing enough for listener not to get bored must be hard. But these guys do it effortlessly.
"Victim" is another long track coming in at 7 minutes 30 seconds and is my favourite track off the album. I feel this is one of those tracks that really just display all of AX7's talents. M Shadows vocals are phenomenal and the guitar work is just amazing. Not only that but the compisition of the song, highs and lows, twists and turns. In saying that, with most albums their are weaker songs on the album with the likes of "Natural Born Killer" and "God Hates Us" which don't quite hit the spot for me. But then you've got the likes of "Tonight the world dies" and album closer "Save me" which really do hit the spot. Those particular songs and some of the others, there are certain parts in them where they manage to create these magical moments which I really look forward to and it is not necessarily the chorus.
Overall this is a great album and in my opinion having listened to all the albums by them upto and including 2016's "The Stage". This is A7X's best work and has been in my car for many months now. For something to qualify as a car album, a) it has to be a good enough for me to buy it on CD, b) It has to be be better than all the other CDs I have at the moment! So yeah I rate this highly :-)
Saturday, 13 January 2018
Black Rebel Motorcycle club - Wrong Creatures
It's hard to believe 2013 was 5 years ago - it doesn't really feel that long ago. But that is the last time BRMC released a record with "Specter at the Feast" which I thought was great. But although they have always been a reasonable sized band they have never really reached the peak of their first 2 albums. Especially the first with monster hits such as "Spread your love" and "Whatever happened to my rock and roll (punk song)". But I think the main reason for this is because they turned into more of an albums band rather than a singles band. But one things for sure is that they have always been a rock band and in "Wrong Creatures" they certainly deliver in all aspects of the genre.
As per the normal strategy with bands these days with bands releasing 3 or 4 tracks off the album before it's out, spreading them out over 2 or 3 months prior to release. Black rebel also adopted this approach. First track to drop was "Little things gone wild". A song which really gets into your head and a really encouraging sign for the album. This showed hints to me that maybe they were heading back to a more "big" sounding singles approach as it is quite catchy. My only critism is that I get that choruses are meant to repeat throughout a song. But the same lyrics seem to repeat a lot throughout the song which is quite short as it is. But the actual musical backdrop behind the singing is really good.
Then "Haunt" came along which I find quite chilling and is a slow paced track. It has got this mesmorising hook which loops round throughout. It works well and once again shows how good BRMC are at different types of song. Then "Question of faith" and "King of Bones" came along and things were looking up for the album. But personally I would prefer bands would just release an album without dropping singles in the build up to releases so you get everything in the oner and are not fed up with songs before they are out which I think which led to my critism of the "Little things gone wild". But at the same time I realise they need to do this to promote the album. Maybe I should just try and avoid listening to singles released before the album is out in future.
The actual album itself still oozes this atmospheric rock and I can almost smell the smokey atmosphere Black Rebel create with their music. And really I would say that apart from "Little things gone wild" most of the tracks fit into the "album track" category rather than being big singles. A particular highlight for me is "Echo". This is such a kick back track which just flows magnificantly and the vocals are just so on point. The nicest surprise on the album is "Circus Bazooka" towards the end of the album. I think it's an organ or something thats predominant throughout this track and its quite a chirpy, different sounding song which adds quite a fun element to the album. It's in the later tracks in the album that sometimes you can get distracted as a listener so it is good to have something like this at that point to pull you back in.
Overall this is a great album which I think is even better than "Specter at the feast". It will always be hard to reach the standard they reached in their early days. But this is such a good attempt. They have clearly thrown everything at this album and really thought about the balance of the different types of tracks and positioned them well throughout the album. More importantly in terms of quality there are not many skipable tracks on here.
As per the normal strategy with bands these days with bands releasing 3 or 4 tracks off the album before it's out, spreading them out over 2 or 3 months prior to release. Black rebel also adopted this approach. First track to drop was "Little things gone wild". A song which really gets into your head and a really encouraging sign for the album. This showed hints to me that maybe they were heading back to a more "big" sounding singles approach as it is quite catchy. My only critism is that I get that choruses are meant to repeat throughout a song. But the same lyrics seem to repeat a lot throughout the song which is quite short as it is. But the actual musical backdrop behind the singing is really good.
Then "Haunt" came along which I find quite chilling and is a slow paced track. It has got this mesmorising hook which loops round throughout. It works well and once again shows how good BRMC are at different types of song. Then "Question of faith" and "King of Bones" came along and things were looking up for the album. But personally I would prefer bands would just release an album without dropping singles in the build up to releases so you get everything in the oner and are not fed up with songs before they are out which I think which led to my critism of the "Little things gone wild". But at the same time I realise they need to do this to promote the album. Maybe I should just try and avoid listening to singles released before the album is out in future.
The actual album itself still oozes this atmospheric rock and I can almost smell the smokey atmosphere Black Rebel create with their music. And really I would say that apart from "Little things gone wild" most of the tracks fit into the "album track" category rather than being big singles. A particular highlight for me is "Echo". This is such a kick back track which just flows magnificantly and the vocals are just so on point. The nicest surprise on the album is "Circus Bazooka" towards the end of the album. I think it's an organ or something thats predominant throughout this track and its quite a chirpy, different sounding song which adds quite a fun element to the album. It's in the later tracks in the album that sometimes you can get distracted as a listener so it is good to have something like this at that point to pull you back in.
Overall this is a great album which I think is even better than "Specter at the feast". It will always be hard to reach the standard they reached in their early days. But this is such a good attempt. They have clearly thrown everything at this album and really thought about the balance of the different types of tracks and positioned them well throughout the album. More importantly in terms of quality there are not many skipable tracks on here.
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