Live Music Reviews
by Matt Cotsell
What’s your guilty pleasure? What perennial favourite do you always fall back on, when you’re feeling worn out? For the legend that is Keith Richards it’s apparently good old fashioned Shepherd’s Pie. A classic stodgy…
by Michael Hubbard
For some two years, a Jarvis Cocker-starring entity known as JARV IS… has been pitching up at caves, offbeat gig venues and the odd festival space, and setting about defining what Jarv… is. In so...
by Matt Cotsell
It seems that Jason Reece, of Austin based prog-metal lifers …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, has momentarily lost his cool and spends what seems like the first half of tonight’s...
by Tim Lee
The difference between Nadine Shah the singer and Nadine Shah the between-tracks raconteur is stark. Equally entertaining, but starkly contrasted. For when Shah sings (and this amplified by what she chooses to sing tonight) it...
by Steven Johnson
2019 was undeniably a good year for Big Thief – they released two critically acclaimed albums in UFOF and Two Hands and graduated into a band that now headlines festivals and comfortably fills venues like...
by Matt Cotsell
To set the appropriate mood as we wait for the headliners, there are two palm trees taking up centre stage behind the microphone stands, casting their unflinching bruise coloured shadows against the diffused pink screen...
by Tim Lee
It is 19 years since The Strokes’ debut album. How many pairs of Converse have been bought and destroyed in that time? How many t-shirts advertising obscure brands and unsuccessful sports teams have transitioned from...
by Matt Cotsell
Not deterred by the approaching ravages of Storm Dennis, people slowly begin to bundle into the dim recesses of the cavernous Green Door Store, ready to catch another performance by Californian dance punkers YACHT. As...
by Matt Cotsell
Opening with Highway, the girls in Automatic are going to take us on a ride, and whilst it may not be the craziest, and it may not reach its destination very quickly, it will be...
by Matt Cotsell
Life is filled with a monotonous stream of inevitabilities and constants. A cavalcade of unalterable situations and circumstances that play out ad infinitum through history, yet somehow these events ground us firmly in the present....
by Steven Johnson
Baltimore musician Dan Deacon has gained a reputation for playing gigs that don’t really follow standard live music norms. Tonight’s show at the Scala in support of his excellent latest album Mystic Familiar saw him...
by Steven Johnson
Ma, the latest album by Devendra Banhart arrived last year with little in the way of fanfare or noise, appropriate given the hushed, gentle direction his music has been slowly moving in over recent years....
by Daniel Paton
This superb double performance will remain memorable for many more reasons than its coinciding with the UK leaving the European Union. Now a much more high profile artist following the success of her musical theatre...
by Matt Cotsell
Tonight Algiers are in a combative and performative mood. Front man Franklin James Fisher, normally the focal point due to that voice, risks being overshadowed by his band mates, one of whom is dressed like Danny...
by Matt Cotsell
Wire have always been semi-unwilling participants in the circuitous narrative of rock history. Dispensing with the extraneous flourishes of the then prevalent progressive and jazz rock scenes, they initially offered an abrasive and succinct alternative,...
by Matt Cotsell
Brighton has always had a soft spot for John Grant. Not only has local label Bella Union put out his five albums but last time he played here, he was at the Dome, a large...
by Matt Cotsell
The first month of this new decade is nearly over, and with it comes an ominous period of weighty national change and emotional loss. That so many of us native little islanders are currently sat...
by Steven Johnson
A small neon green rectangle pulses in the top left corner of a large black screen at the rear of the Barbican stage, eagerly awaiting instruction. Below on tables, are five 1980 Commodore computers, other...
by Steven Johnson
Recent years have seen a range of bands from the ’90s reform and return to the live arena. Many have been nostalgia-driven, focused on reprising former glories, but that’s not an accusation that can be...
by Matt Cotsell
Front and middle is a sword, dull, silvery and old. No explanation is given to its significance (although devotees may well recognise it from the album artwork), but its long slender profile sparks associations with...
by Matt Cotsell
As they take their places onstage, front man Sevi Landolt sardonically proclaims “Yeah, it’s Klausy baby” to the delight of fans. Perhaps we should add a caveat here; there is no Klaus Johann Grobe, albeit...
