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"We're gonna play you some miserable songs cause your Birmingham and way too happy" observed frontman Tim Booth as James opened with a 40 minute acoustic set, stripped back bare to entertain the masses that had come to the Birmingham Academy tonight for the sold out show. |
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White Lies cascaded into Birmingham for the final night of their UK Five tour before heading out to Europe and sell out shows in the Americas. The three piece from Ealing brought their synth fused indie style to the iconic Institute main room supported by Canada's Boniface, the crowd warmed up pretty quick as they were in for a treat tonight. |
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I love it when you go to a festival and the smaller stages present some absolute crazy out of the world acts that blow you away so you have to see them again, tonight at Birmingham Arena it was time to do that twice fold. Having first seen The Prodigy supporting Oasis back in the day at those legendary Knebworth gigs, you could tell then they were in it for the long haul, both entertaining and infectious beats left a long standing impression and the excitement tonight was immense as they came to my hometown. |
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If you've not heard of Highly Suspect then in 2018 that's all going to change. The trio originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts deal in the sort of rock that fits easily along side day time radio friendly pop yet often nips across the border into harder territory… Think Royal Blood and you won't be far off. |
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Summer arrived in Manchester this week, at long last, and with the humidity came Summer In The City; a series of gigs hosted at outdoor venue Castlefield Bowl. With a line-up including The Charlatans and Noel Gallagher, it's a must-see set of gigs, especially with the first night being headlined by Paolo Nutini. |
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The first time I saw Difranco was probably 1998. I proceeded to see her at least once every year since, and even 3+ times in my especially obsessive years between 2001 - 2004. I feel like I know her face better than many friends, her albums have accompanied me around the world, and she has been the soundtrack to some of my more intimate and lasting friendships. |
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So let’s take ourselves back in time to 1990 as a over 2,000 people head into Birmingham to see veteran (this makes me feel old) rockers as they bring their classic album, 'Pornograffitti' to town. They be performing it from top to bottom in it’s entirety in track order. Get your singing voice ready and be prepared to rock with Extreme. |
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So on a slightly wet January eve we head to the LG Arena and make it with just one minute to spare. Mega-giants of the dark side of electronica are here tonight, and 15,000 loyal devotees are here because they know they are guaranteed one hell of a gig. Andy Fletcher, Martin L. Gore and Dave Gahan, aka Depeche Mode, are here to give us a black celebration... |
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Thanks to the internet it’s seemingly possible these days to record a track in the morning, stick it up online at lunchtime and be the next big thing before Deal Or No Deal. All it takes is for an uploaded video on You Tube to catch the public’s imagination and voila, record labels beating a path to your door and Jools Holland climbing over your fence begging you to tickle his ivories. I’m not entirely sure if this was London Grammar’s sole route to success but they, like a number of other acts recently, do seem to have come from nowhere. Now with a US tour under their belts and debut album that narrowly missed being number one in the UK charts they’re playing a sold out show at the 600 person capacity Academy 2 with a return visit to the main Academy room already booked for next February. Blimey. |
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Although he is known as a solo artist, Toro Y Moi is one of those musical entities with whom you have no earthly idea how many people or what instruments they will bring on stage. A single man on stage with a laptop would not be completely out of the question, nor would a synth and drums duo. Anything short of a full orchestra would probably be viable. This evening however, we are greeted with the man also known as Chaz Bundick and a surprisingly traditional complement of support; bass, guitar, live drums and synths. |
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An extra hundred people or so appear in the main room and a sudden wave of energy fills the room as the five Leeds lads kick off with “Animal” from the new album. No time for talking they get straight into the next song “I Found Out” from their debut album. I was a little worried before the gig that the band would not be playing many songs from their earlier albums but that worry was remedied fairly early. Songs from their first album as common as songs from their more recent and all celebrated equally, based on the amount of beer flying around. |
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The reassuring predictability of any Capsule event (nothing so vulgar or prosaic as just a ‘gig’ about Capsule) will be its...well, unpredictability. And none more so that with this electronica/existential/experimenta triple line-up. Though it did take some getting used to watching congregated punters with pints shuffling politely in to high, wooden box-stall pews surrounded by the austere beauty of St Paul’s neo-classical columns and pediments. A bit like a piss-up watching the courtroom hysteria in Miller’s The Crucible, possibly. |
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The reassuring predictability of any Capsule event (nothing so vulgar or prosaic as just a ‘gig’ about Capsule) will be its...well, unpredictability. And none more so that with this electronica/existential/experimenta triple line-up. Though it did take some getting used to watching congregated punters with pints shuffling politely in to high, wooden box-stall pews surrounded by the austere beauty of St Paul’s neo-classical columns and pediments. A bit like a piss-up watching the courtroom hysteria in Miller’s The Crucible, possibly. |
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Tonight is Emeli Sandé's second night in Birmingham on her sold out tour celebrating the release of ‘Our Version of Events’ - Special Edition. Gig Junkies' very own Katja got to shoot the beautiful songstress' show. We hope that you like what she saw. |
