Gig Reviews

Live reviews from the members of The Gig Reviewer Rock Community

The bread and butter of any serious "gig review" website - The Gig Review. It's a good job that we're not a serious gig reveiwing website then isn't it?

• Dillinger Escape Plan @ The Camden Underworld

  How much do you reckon tickets for this would go for - THE mathcore band, playing in a basement that only holds a few hundred people, after releasing an absolute stormer of an album? £30, £40, more? We’ll never know, since they decided to give the tickets away to various competition winners and the total absence of touts (read 'scum') outside the venue demonstrates how much the people who have tickets want to hold on to them

• Babyshambles @ Brixton Academy

  No drugs; Near death… and Nearly Fisticuffs? Yes, it’s Babyshambles at Brixton! You can feel the tension as you walk down the queue, 5,000 people queuing up to see their idol, Pete Doherty, bright-eyed and bush-tailed, straight from rehab, and the early nights his 10pm curfew must enforce.

• Bloc and Roll Bloc Party @ Fez Club, Reading

  Bloc Party have been promised various great things in the year 2005, like Franz Ferdinand last year, they have been granted the coveted torch of hottest new band by a variety of music insiders and magazines.

• Mudheads @ The Bunch of Grapes, Bristol

  Considering that the evening was billed as a showcase for acoustic acts, Mudheads ripped through the audience like a Nun's first curry

• Yourcodenameis:milo, Fightstar, Snow Capped Sunday, Seconds Out @ Coventry Jailhouse

  "'All roads to fault' gets one of the best responses, especially the ‘go very quite and delicate, then build up speed and volume until we’re chugging along nicely and you can actually headbang for a bit, then stop dead’ ending- annoying as hell, but so cool. Basically, if you went home early, your codename is: moron."

• Fightstar & Brigade @ Warwick Uni

  This is not a normal gig. I'm not talking about the rather mundane fact that it's part of of Warwick Uni's indie music club night, I'm talking about the inevitable circus created by Busted's split earlier today (really - get some perspective, people), and Fightstar's first gig outside of London.

• The Dillinger Escape Plan in Northampton

  The thunderous noise is a collection of blastbeats, sledge-hammer heavy guitar riffs, lunatic screaming outbursts, bizarre jazz interludes, and cock-rock solos, all played with the most exacting intricacy.

• Funeral For A Friend, The Haunted, Million Dead and Online Drawing

  It seems Funeral For A Friend decided they could splash out a bit, since they were obviously going up in the world (last time they were next door in the smaller Wulfrun Hall). Gone is the standard big-ass logo on the backdrop. In its place, we have a frenetic, almost epileptic stream of live video feeds and arty images. Which does nothing but piss me off for the entire set. Shame- good intentions, and all that.

• Djevara, Victims of Noise & The Maker @ Warwick Uni - March 2004

  I'll admit from the start, this will be a slightly rose-tinted review. Djevara and Victims of Noise are two of my favourite bands so I can't really be objective, but when has that ever stopped a reviewer before? Just look at Kerrang reviewing Nickelback, Metal Hammer reviewing Slayer, or the NME reviewing the Strokes. Biased, each and every one of them. So just humour me, OK?

• Renton, Radiate & Strobe 45, @ The Plantation Cafe, Guildford, Surrey

  "First of all, The Plantation Café is small. Its very small. Its small, noisy and cramped. I love it! Never would you normally get so close to such great unsigned bands as you could tonight. In the line-up tonight, are Strobe 45, a thrash-jazz-metal band (for want of a better description), Renton, the darlings of the punk world, god only knows why they haven't been snapped up by a record label, and Radiate, a band that seems to keep on getting better and better."

• Sucka @ The Agincourt Rock Venue, Camberley, Surrey"In The Dark were first up here, and they were all really good, with great music. The only problem was the microphones not being loud enough to hear the vocalist, apart from his occasional screams! Also, Timmy, you should not have been wasted while trying to sing!!! And good height on that jump off the stage too"

• Machine Head @ Carling Academy, Birmingham

  "Apologies if my memory's a bit muddled, but since it was machine head, I thought I should get in the spirit and partake of a few 'brown-eyes' throughout the evening. Bad idea, especially when combined with no sleep, and an empty stomach!"

• Slipknot @ London Arena

  Well this was my first trip to London Arena. We got to the arena by taking the tube then the Docklands Light Railway, which worked out very easy indeed, as the Docklands railway stops literally right outside the doors of the arena, so you'll have no trouble finding it and little walking to do! Also, I noticed how nice the surroundings of the docklands were, unlike the dingy streets of Brixton.

• Biffy Clyro @ Warwick Students Union

  Well that was a kind of mixed bag of an evening. I'll start with the obvious rant that there should be more alternative music events at warwick, since this seemed to have all the indie kids, as well as the fashionistas, crawling out of the woodwork... After touring their arses off for the last few years, these boys have become the last word in technical excellence. If they ever try to record a live album, people will accuse them of over-dubbing it with studio sessions. But no, they really are that good on stage

• Alkaline Trio @ Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
• Evanescence @ Brixton Academy
• Without Grace @ Guildford Uni
• Two Days Too Late @ The Agincourt Rock Venue, Camberley
• The Lams/The Rocks/The Roolettes/Electricity Comes From Other Planets @ Rhythm Factory, Whitechapel
• Spiritualized @ The Electric Ballroom, Camden
• Ambulance, Patrick Park @ Camden Barfly
• Rises, The Mountaineers & Secret Machine @ Camden Barfly
• Jelutong and Karn8 @ Scamfest 2003
• Glastonbury 2003 Review
• Three Doors Down (plus Support) @ Shepherds Bush Empire
• Skindred & PDHM @ The Peel, Kingston
• The Streets @ Homelands 2003
• Junior Senoir @ Homelands 2003
• Sikth @ The Agincourt, Camberley
• Placebo @ Brixton Academy
• Pitchshifter @ The Agincourt Rock Venue, Camberley
• Method.One, Karn8, Blind II Reality, Monokey @ The Fez Club, Reading
• Reel Big Fish (plus support acts) @ The Astoria, London
• Skindred (plus support acts) @ The Agincourt, Camberley
• Hell Is For Heroes (plus support acts) @ Mojo Bar, Reading
• Finch (plus support acts) @ Electric Ballroom, Camden
• The Darkness, Three Litre, ChrisKilledAnna @ The Fez Club, Reading
• Disturbed @ The Astoria, London
• Tenacious D @ Brixton Academy

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