Review – Page 22 – Mosher'sUnimaginativelyEntitledBlog

Ginger (Wildhearts) – Glasgow Garage

[For the full slew of pictures, please see this Flickr set]

And time for the annual Ginger gig. Well, bi-annual seeing as he did an acoustic set in Glasgow about 6 months ago that I missed. This year’s shindig was moved from the Garage to the smaller G2 which is a shame, but it’s still not bad and meant the crowd could definitely be described as “intimate”.

We caught the tail end of one of the support bands and they weren’t much cop. A lot of effort, but just nothing that great. Sorry to whoever they were.

Last December, the gig was pure Wildhearts numbers. I knew every one and it was fantastic. This year… I didn’t even recognise the first couple of songs at all. I assume they’re from Ginger’s current band, though I’m not sure if the musicians on stage with him were part of that. Let’s face it – historically he’s not had the greatest records at keeping a band together! I think I recognised the bassist from last year though.

Eventually, Ginger wiped off some rather obscure facepaint and the band launched into “I Wanna Go Where The People Go“, a nice bouncy number that I could finally get into. The set was a mix of predominantly older material with a few more recent tracks. I overheard a couple of guys after the gig. One was telling his mate that he had the recent albums and had listened to them a couple of times, that they weren’t bad but that they weren’t a patch on the old stuff which he’d enjoyed the most. Pretty much what I was thinking.

Ginger, however, is such a good entertainer because his between-song banter is so good. He’s very much “one of the lads”. Rather than preaching about record executives and how the government shouldn’t be involved in US foreign policy like some bands, he just informs everyone that the “hurricane” they braved to get the the venue was “well, a bit **** really”. Then launching into a song about Hurricane Bawbag that the band had written than afternoon.

He spent a large portion of the show singing into a microphone adorned with a pair of y-fronts thrown from the audience, which apparently had a phone number written on them. Such is the nature of a Ginger gig!

The rest of the band were pretty good apart from the rather strange woman who took up one of the microphones. The sound wasn’t great, so it’s hard to tell if she was there for harmonies or what. Regardless, she looked pretty and everything, but also looked ridiculously out of place. You know the way someone looks when they’re just not really sure what to do? Like a competition winner dragged out of a crowd to stand next to one of their heroes? That’s the impression she gave. Strange.

The gig finished a little earlier than I think the band had expected as they were informed of the Garage’s early curfew after they went on stage. A shame as it obviously meant missing a good number of classic tracks out. Amongst them “Geordie in Wonderland”. I’m gutted that my favourite – and a regular int he set – had to be skipped just so flipping students could get a couple more cheap drinks in.

Life goes on. As does Ginger. And I’m sure he’ll be back next year – hurricane or not!

Trivium / In Flames / Ghost (and more) – Glasgow Academy

[For a bunch of other pictures on my Flickr account, check out the following: Trivium / In Flames / Ghost]

: Image by Iain Purdie via Flickr

A huge bill at this gig – seemingly a promotional tour for four or five acts with two larger acts topping the bill. Unfortunately, someone had selfishly organised a parents’ evening at the school I teach at (I mean, seriously?) so Gillian and I couldn’t get there until after 7pm.

We arrived as Ghost were finishing their set. And wondered what the hell we were watching. Neither of us had heard of them before and it took a while t figure out which of the support acts we were watching. Ghost are weird. Musically, they were OK. Nothing special, nothing bad. What makes them stand out is their stage show.

All the band members except for the lead singer wear dark robes with hoods which obscure their identities. The singer himself goes by the name Papa Emeritus and wears a cardinal’s robes with a skull mask covering his face. All very pomp and ceremony. However, their melodic style just doesn’t go with their appearance. Something heavier and slower would probably fit better.

Either way, they were… different. Not somebody I’d go and see again but I’d consider turning up early to catch a full set if they’re supporting another band I’m going to see.

Next up was Sweden‘s In Flames, someone I think I’ve seen once at a festival. A quality act by all respects, but one that I’ve never really got into. Their set is far simpler than Ghost’s, relying on heavy music rather than showmanship and costumes. Again, not material I’m familiar with, but a solid performance from a band that on another day could be headlining this same lineup. Gillian’s band of the night, too.

The act I’d paid the money for, though, was Trivium. I’d actually decided to get the ticket based purely on the tracks I’d heard from their latest album, In Waves, the title track of which opened their 90-minute set.

The first time I caught Trivium was on a similar, promotionally-geared tour for new bands. That was maybe seven or eight years ago at The Arches in Leeds with Three Inches of Blood and someone else supporting. Since then, the band have become much bigger in a short space of time and matured with it. In WavesÂ is – in my opinion – not just their best album to date but an excellent one all round.

Their show is tight and song-packed with little else other than some good lights to keep the audience engaged. I don’t know a tremendous amount of their material, but the crowd were well into all of it with barely a minute going by without them jumping, moshing or punching the air. For once, the sound at the Academy didn’t let a band down.

Oh, talking of lights, we were stood just in front of the mixing/lighting desks for the performance. Watching the lighting techs do their job was interesting. I did it myself once or twice at Rios in Bradford many years ago for bands I didn’t know. To see someone who knows the material doing their job is something else. The guy controlling the strobes for Trivium was at it like a mad orchestra conductor – flourishes, head swooshes, sharp nods… almost in a world of his own. I’m not taking the piss – he did a great job! It’s just not something you often get a chance to see and, like so many of the other people involved in putting on a show, their work is often taken for granted.

Trivium bowed out with just under 10 minutes to go before the curfew and – amazingly – were booed by a small number for not doing a second encore. Pretty pathetic, frankly, as the preceding ninety minutes had been an excellent performance.

For such a young band (agewise), they really do know how to put on a show. The band have been going for maybe 12 years – the lead singer/guitarist is only 25. Matt Heefy is one of those “handful in a generation” musicians and front-men. Old beyond his years and capable of writing and performing with a great deal of charisma in front of a crowd. Here’s to another five albums.

Machine Head / Bring Me The Horizon / DevilDriver

[For more photos from this gig, check out the following two Flickr sets: Machine Head / DevilDriver]

We’d been waiting for this gig for a while, but unfortunately Gillian hasn’t reacted well to the whole pregnancy thing and was exhausted on the night with a huge pile of work to catch up on as well. As a result, I drove over to the SECC myself where I found that I couldn’t even pass my ticket off to a tout. Apparently sales hadn’t been that great. Mind you, last year’s gig was at the much smaller Academy and I do recall thinking it was quite a jump in scale.

I got there in time to catch the last three or four songs by DevilDriver who were pretty good. Unless I’ve seen them at a festival somewhere, the last (and first) time I saw them was in Brisbane in 2006 (details on the travel blog). What little I saw tonight impressed. High tempo, a good front man in Dez Fafara and the crowd on their side made for a good 15 minutes.

Frankly, I was amazed they were opening. Given the style of music, they’re a natural warm-up band for Machine Head. Certainly better than Bring Me The Horizon who had the longer second slot.

Now I’ve not heard much in the way of positive press about BmtH. In fact, I’ve pretty much heard nothing but detrimental comments, to put it kindly. When they came on stage at Sonisphere last year, the Slayer fans were walking back towards the campsite after a 60-minute set. The majority actually took the time to stop at the stage and boo for a considerable length of time.

After tonight’s 45 minutes, or however long it was, I can see why. Bring Me The Horizon are – simply – ****. Watching them reminded me of Daphne and Celeste being shoved on stage at Leeds Festival back in 2000. Completely out of place, incapable of realising it and blundering on regardless. Car crash stage performers of the worst ilk.

While they certainly have their fans, the vast majority seemed to be girls aged around 14. Though there were a couple of hundred of them, they were easily outnumbered by the majority of the crowd who boo’d them between each track. The singer’s cry of “Boo louder if you love us” simply resulted in the crowd chanting “****! ****! ****!” instead.

I simply cannot fathom why the promoters put them on the same bill as Machine Head and DevilDriver, and certainly why they were given the more prominent support slot.

Ah, well. It’s all in the past and – despite my ears wanting to crawl up my arse to spare me the torment – I survived. Which is a good thing because Machine Head were on next.

Regular tourers, they’d hit the Academy last year with Hatebreed in support and put on a moderately OK show. Not their fault, it was one of those nights where the sound at the Academy left a lot to be desired. Here at the SECC, though, you do get your moneysworth from the sound system and Robb Flynn and co. really put it through its paces. Arriving on the back of a great new album, they let rip with a great variety of new and classic material.

Taking time to talk to the audience, it’s obvious that Flynn loves his job. A huge smile on his face between songs, all the posing you could wish for,

awesome riffage and skin-bashing… there are few metal bands today that are on a par with Machine Head for sheer live power. Despite the fact that their newer songs does tend to run for a bit too long, they don’t seem to drag the way recent Iron Maiden material does. There’s no huge stomping Eddie, but on the other hand the music is better. A fair swap, in my opinion.

I honestly think the pit was the largest I’ve seen outside of a festival setting and it was well used by a huge number of people. There isn’t a song that you

can’t mosh to in their catalogue: new titler “Suffer Unto The Locust”, Dimebag Darrell-inspired “Aesthetics of Hate“, Xbox owner favourite “Halo”, surprise inclusion “Bulldozer”, classic “Ten Ton Hammer“, compulsory “Davidian”… the list goes on. Not a duff song all night.

Great crowd, great sound, great light show, great venue. Only a shame that a ticket went to waste.

Alter Bridge / Black Stone Cherry / Theory of a Deadman – Glasgow SECC

What a line-up. Three cracking bands on one ticket, only a shame that it meant an early door-time and that we missed the first half of Theory of a Deadman. What little we caught – about five or six songs – was good stuff. I enjoyed it enough to want to get tickets for their upcoming headlining show in February anyway.

After a very brief set change, Black Stone Cherry arrived to huge applause and played their way through an excellent set. Their blues-influenced rock works well on CD and is just as catchy and enjoyable live, especially coming from a band with so much charisma. I’ve never even seen pictures of the band, and they really weren’t what any of us were expecting. The guitarist and bassist look like they walked right out of recording the next Status Quo album, the drummer could pass for The Muppets‘ Animal and lead singer Chris Roberston looks like a chunky sociology teacher.

Appearances are nothing to go by and Robertson has an incredible, and fairly unique, voice. You hear him sing and you know it’s BSC you’re listening to. For a band in a support slot they owned the stage as well as any headliner, playing tracks from all three of their albums. I would say there was a toal of about one-and-a-half songs which involved the crowd taking over vocal duties. Again, not something any old support act could get away with.

For a second time that night, I found myself looking forward to seeing an act live again – this time on their March tour.

A credit to the engineers and crew saw Alter Bridge themselves take to the stage after another remarkably short delay to begin their hour-and-45-minute set. They ploughed through the opening four songs without so much as a pause for breath, covering both old and new material. The band is very much Myles Kennedy‘s baby, but the rest of the band put in every bit as much as the lead.

It was, however, Myles’ birthday and he got the rousing chorus you’d expect from the crowd.

The set covered all aspects of the band’s three albums, from the heavier rock to the solo, acoustic ballads. Note perfect for the duration, there’s no doubting their abilities as performers but I would have to give them one piece of advice – drop the wanky alternating guitar solo crap. It went on for far too long and we could have had at least one, possibly two more songs in the time it ran on for.

Alter Bridge — Image by Iain Purdie via Flickr

Whinge over, anotherÂ exhilaratingÂ performance from a top notch quartet which rounded off a superb evening of music. The three bands fit together well musically, in my ears. If you like one of the groups then the others are definitely at least worth having a listen to.

As I said earlier, the two supports have sold themselves a few more gig tickets by virtue of their performances. I can’t wait!

Alter Bridge Live Cardiff Motorpoint Arena 23/11/11 (liveandloudrock.wordpress.com)

Rum Diary / In Time

Two films for the first time in a while. It should have been three, but despite battling traffic (and a slightly dodgy sat-nav) to get to the cinema in time I arrived to find out that the performance of Tintin I had aimed for wasn’t on. Not for the first time has Cineworld’s web site lied to me. Boo. So, McDonald’s for dinner and then back across the car park for the first of two films.

The Rum Diary

“We’re out of rum.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Alcoholic writer arrives in Puerto Rico, gets involved in local (dodgy) politics. Weirdness and mild amusement ensues.

See it if you like: Slightly weird, off-kilter dramas and/or Johnny Depp.

If you know of Hunter S. Thomson then you’ll know what to expect. Slightly off-centre characters, a touch of illegal drugs and a vat of alcohol form the basis of this entertaining story. Set in 1950’s Puerto Rico, Depp plays Kemp – a reporter brought in from the US to work for the slowly dying local rag.

Disillusioned and drunk, Kemp wants to write about what’s wrong with Puerto Rico. His editor, on the other hand, wants fluffy pieces about bowling alleys and sandy beaches. Unwittingly, Kemp ends up embroiled in one of the very corrupt escapades he despises.

Buddied up with a completely brain-fried Swede (Moburg played by Giovanni Ribisi) and a burnt-out photographer (Sala – Michael Rispoli), he soaks up the island, gets arrested, meets the girl of his dreams, annoys an underworld boss and rails against the bringing-down of the newspaper he was brought in to work for.

There are a handful of genuinely laugh-out-loud moments, and sadly the funniest of these is in the trailer. Other than that, it’s just continually amusing. Largely this is due to the performances from the cast as a whole. The dialogue is poetic and insightful in places, while quick-witted in others. A genuinely nice mix.

It is also, however, a little slow going and the last act does feel a bit “cludged together” just to get the story done.

I did enjoy it, but I don’t think it’s the rolloer-coaster ride of hilarity the trailer made it out to be.

In Time

“Don’t waste my time”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Time is now currency. Run out and you die. Have loads and you’re effectively immortal.

See it if you like: Sci fi thrillers with a twist, and not having to use your brain too much

I love the premise for this film. When you reach 25 years of age, a little clock kicks in on your arm giving you a year to live. Every second on that clock is currency which can be used to buy things. On the downside when it hits zero, your heart stops. In the meantime, your body doesn’t age.

But how is this currency controlled? What happens when people realise they’re running low, or if they manage to amass a fortune? In TimeÂ gives its answers to these questions along with a story of what happens if one man, Will Salas (Justin Timberlake), tries to level the playing field a little.

This isn’t a brain-bender along the lines of Total RecallÂ or Inception. It’s a far simpler and the premise isn’t explored beyond the fact that the world simply is like that. No history, no major twists. The overall theme would likely appeal to all those 99%Â protestersÂ – isn’t it a little unfair that so many people struggle and suffer while a small percentage have the vast majority of the wealth?

Salas, living in the ghetto just getting by day to day as his job tops up his time, finds himself the beneficiary of a windfall. A hundred years. He decides to use it to get into the more exclusive districts and find out who’s controlling all this time. After all, someone’s making a profit from people “timing out”.

He ends up paired up with excessively-skinny waif Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried – seriously, could get legs be any thinner and still carry her weight?) while being chased by Time Keeper Leon (Cillian Murphy) as he fights to expose the high-end corruption that’s costing ordinary people their lives.

It’s a nice enough popcorn movie with some decent action sequences and, as I said, a great premise. It’ll never be a classic but I don’t think it’s trying to be.

Certainly not Â waste of time.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Related articles

Share this:

Share this: