Gigs

Well that was a weird one.

So Rochdale put on a (mostly) annual ‘Feel-Good Festival’ where the pubs and bars put singers on, there are food stalls etc, and then there are bands on in the late afternoon and into the night. Generally pop or older indie acts. The first (in fact last) time I went it was Alphabeat (remember that ‘Fascination’ song?) and since then they’ve had stuff like the Fratellis, the Bluetones, I think even the Lightning Seeds once.

Anyway they’ve moved towards a charging model this year (not sure if this happened in previous years) and we’ve had an unlikely triple threat of Heather Small (deliberately missed), the Lottery Winners and Ocean Colour Scene for £15 quid.

Lottery Winners were arse but the crowd seemed to love them. Crap guitar pop with what sounded like Johnny Vegas randomly shouting over it. Did seemingly more covers than original songs including It Must Be Love, Don’t Look Back In Anger and I’m sure there were more, I forget. To be fair, they absolutely played to their crowd, did lots of patter and participation, and did it proficiently enough, but it felt like watching Tik Tok for an hour.

OCS - my other half’s favourite band and I’m a halfway big fan too. Simon Fowler was not in very strong voice tonight and the sound was crap for probably fully half of their set, with large swathes of it having inaudible lead guitar (Craddock is one of my favourite players too). OCS are more pastoral than people think with a big folk influence amongst the mod rock and soul stuff they do and it was just falling really flat. Sadly this was reflected in the performance. The crowd killed them. Fowler looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there. Not an uncommon reaction to Rochdale to be fair. Odd bits of singing and recognition for Riverboat/Circle/Profit in Peace, Different World and Hundred Mile City, and then the crowd of course all pipes up for Day They Caught the Train. Wrong band for the wrong event I think, and I saw them before Xmas in Liverpool last year when they were absolutely awesome.

You wouldn’t believe the amount of people moaning about that charge.

Arctangent has now concluded.

Not going to go through a full list of what I saw as I'm lazy, but uighlights of the last two days include:

The Omnific - Australian the piece, drummer and two bassists. Mostly instrumental, but a lot of fun. Lots of slap bass, almost a dueling bass scenario as the two bassist trade riffs, and occasionally do synchronised bass riffing.

Incredibly fun, very catchy hooks and occasional techno sections where the drummer starts dancing around as the four-to-the-floor sample kicks in.



Sigh - absolutely incredible. I've seen them before, a couple of years ago (which was their first UK gig in 20 years), but this has a different line up. Mirai wasn't on bass this time, just doing vocals and occasional flute, and he was joined by Dr. Mikannibal, on vocals and occasional sax, who was absent at the previous gig I saw.

Mirai and Dr. Mikannibal (who actually is a Dr, as she has a PhD in physics) are married, and they also bought along their youngish kids who occasionally threw horns to get the crowd hyped up, so it was a real family affair.

Their music is great, based in black metal but over the decades before much more experimental, and there's some nice theatrics like flaming swords, burning magic books and Dr. Mikannibal pouring red wax over herself so it looks like dripping blood. They're just a lot of fun, and possibly the highlight of my weekend.


Imperial Triumphant - Avant Garde black metal. Musically it's heavily jazz inflected, using strange bass runs and time signatures and frankly it's often impenetrable.

But it's somehow fun. You pick up on groove and patterns, but it's really just down to how charismatic the players are - considering they never actually spoke (outside of the death growls in song) and wear art-deco masks, they move doing stage in a very entertaining manner. In on the quieter sections they walk side by side, comparing riffs with each other, or another time spraying champagne into the crowd (as befits their whole theme of art-deco indulgence collapsing into decay).


Electric Wizard - just great. As expected there is a thick wall of sound from the scuzzy bass and guitars, and it's all centred around heavy fucking riffs. The band played extremely well, but the production was immense too. Smoke machines creating literal clouds that hung around for ages, intense light show and projections showing clips of b-movies and bikers, interspersed with psychedelic patterns.

And they closed with Funeralopolis which is one of my favourites of all time, so a real bucket-list track.

I just come home from Arctangent too! Didn't realise you were going, wished I saw your earlier post, would have been nice to say hi and have a chat. 

It's my favourite festival, been for the last three years and i love it. It's friendly, easy to navigate and the lines ups are killer and you are bound to find something new and exciting. full Because of its size I just find it an easy festival to relax at. No missions anywhere and it's an easy drive home. 

Looking through your two lists, looks likes we mostly saw different things!

Band of the weekend for me were Amenra. They were incredible. I was really impressed with them a couple of years back but been listening to them a lot since. This performance was genuinely one of the best sets I have ever seen. Post metal band, with a really simple but effective monochrome lighting set up that really highlights their brutalist nature. It was pretty much perfect. 

Likewise, I saw Sigh and Electric Wizard. Both were incredible. Sigh is like walking into a musical sweet shop, they go off in so many directions but in a way that isn't frustrating. They are a lot of fun. First time seeing them, come across them a few years ago and been wanting to see them. They kind of like if Frank Zappa had a black metal band. They're nuts. Had nice chat with some one who was super into them whilst waiting for a pizza too.  Electric Wizard were fantastic. I saw them about a decade ago, whilst liking them, it was one of the sludgiest shows I have seen haha, so wasn't too fussed about seeing them again, but glad I did. This was incredibly rich, matched with a simple but effective production. Their sound was immense and they played with a professionalism and tempo that impressed me a lot. 

Other bands that I liked a lot:

Pyschonaut - Just a great doom band. 
Explosions in the sky - a college fav for me, and glad I had the opportunity to see them before they split up. 
Bo Ningen - always good fun. One of those that are stuck in small band territory playing the same smaller festival. Great to see they still play with heart and energy. 
Kalandra - new to me, but good moody scandi prog rock with a great singer. Just really tasteful. 
Meshuggah - Not really my cup of tea, but can't deny their prowess. tight as fuck. Probably a band I should give a proper go.
Mogwai - Its Mogwai! First time I seen them do their own album stuff, seem them twice but oddly only doing soundtracks to the Zidane and Atomic films. Impressed how they kept that uncertain fragility in their live performance. Felt at home watching them
Slift - new to me, a really modern take on 70's Floyd, Zeppelin and Sabbath - had so much energy and man, that is one of a band that knows how to play. 
Bossk - their Wednesday performance wasn't great, sound was all over the place. But their Sat set was fantastic. 
Hexvessel - New to me. Finnish Black metal band crossed with Echo and the bunnymen and the Church with that driving force of Gaahl/Gorgorth. Enjoyed it a lot.
Briqueville - new to me. Oh man these were good. Probably close to Amenra as band of the weekend. Band in crow outfits playing some fucking epic rifts. Just loved how simple but effective they were. 
House Horo - Similar to Kalandra - moody driving prog rock with a great female singer. Ticks my boxes. 

Most disappointing set for me was Ihsahn. I was really looking forward to seeing him but it didn't really land for me. He mentioned he was a in a bit of a rush to get to the festival (arriving an hour before his set) and you could tell. Was a bit frantic, sound had trouble copping with all the various elements of his music and oddly for someone who puts in so much craft and care into his music it seemed a bit loose. Don't think the set list was that great either. A shame, hope to see him on a better day.

Anyway, hope you had a good time. 

Is this Bossk now the same band that was doing general post-rock/metal on hardcore bills about 15 years ago? I didn’t realise they were still going, or had become a big deal.

Benefits are one of those bands who are evolving and improving so fast they’re almost unrecognisable. They deserve to be up there with Sleaford Mods and Idles really. Although their live show can be bordering on drum’n’bass backed by a wall of strobes for intensity on top of the vocal message. Definitely more of a live act than studio one for me.

I believe it's the same Bossk, they've been around since 2005.

And Benefits definitely had a lot of strobes, to the point of discomfort. which is the point I guess. Totally agree it's more a live act, I find it hard to listen to the entire last album in one go but it works well live.

I think I’ve still got their first ep somewhere. The cover is all green and dense woodland. They used to be on so many shows with bands trying to sound like Botch that I was attending back then.

And surely the true marker of being at a festival is Skindred turning up?

One of the very few bands that have eluded me over the years. From watching on YouTube Tim’s voice seems to either be great or poor. Hope you get the great version. Sufferer and the Witness is a classic album.

How was the gig?

Really really good, although my hearing is still fucked. I suffer with tinnitus in my right ear so I wear the earbuds to protect them. Hasn't worked this time and I've developed it in my left ear at a different pitch. It's not great and if I yawn I can't hear anything 😅.

Brilliant night though and the crowd were amazing, there was this poor security guard at the front catching crowd surfers and he didn't miss a beat all night. Must have been absolutely knackered at the end.

We had second tier unreserved seating and standing and managed to find a spot to stand right above the stage so they were about 6 foot away but down. Gave us an amazing view and where it was like a smallish bit there wasn't room for anyone else there.

All in all a brilliant night now just hoping my ears mend!

Saw Yours Truly aus indie rock group in Guildford Boileroom Fri night and they were very good. Better than expected given the lead singer’s voice isn’t the loudest for live music. She uses a backing track quite a bit. However the songs from the new album Toxic sounded great and it was an all tempo hard rocking short set list.

Boileroom living up to its name and crazy hot as usual in there! Seems every gig I go to there the acts mention it so can’t be great for the band either but small venue so got to be forgiving!

7/10 for gig that scale 🤘

Down at Victorious Fest, Pompey today solo and loving it so far 😎

I feel like as a 90s teen and a casual fan who never saw them the first time round that I should make the effort for this, but I just really can't be bothered. It's going to be really expensive, a pain in the arse travel wise, and the you know the crowd will be full of proper twats.

Pixies in Glasgow last week....still great, but I think I just like the night out with the old friend that I go with...
Took my eldest (20), I've passed on the baton. Think I was about 19 when I first saw them....

Have to get into some new music to see, I look at what I've got coming up over the next few months, and it's all 80s/90s folk...Evan Dando, Mercury Rev, Cardiacs...

Mine this year make me look kinda young and cool.. The Warning, Lauren Spencer Smith, Maneskin, Olivia Rodrigo, etc.. 

But that's mainly because I couldn't get tickets for most of the 80s/90s ones  

Probably gonna try for Green Day next year.