Some great Prog!

Midlake at the Playhouse July 10th, part of the Mouth of the Tyne Festival and I have to say an inspired booking by who ever organised the event. It's not often I get to see the same band twice in the same year, but I'd seen Midlake earlier at the start of the Antiphon tour back in February, so it was going to be interesting to see how the sound has developed. It's definitely fuller sounding and is all the better for it, good tracks on the album have become excellent live vehicles for the band, in fact I'd now say Antiphon is my fave album by them.



September 22nd, Anathema at Newcastle's O2 Academy this time with the missus who had dismissed the last band we saw together, Midlake – the Glasgow gig, as not being Rock 'n' Roll enough for her.

We caught a few songs from support band Mothers Cake and I'm afraid they didn't impress.

There seemed an interminable wait while the stage was made ready for Anathema, probably due to them being moved to the smaller hall, maybe a little over 200 in the audience, where as the night before they'd sold out in, yes you guessed it, Glasgow! It was a tight squeeze for the six of them on stage.

The audience were well up to this one and they were greeted by a mighty cheer and roar as they took to the stage and opened up with The Lost Song parts one and two from new album Distant Satellites, listened to in silence by a totally engrossed crowd, literally erupting in to applause and cheers when the song ended. Next up was Untouchable parts one and two, a real fave of mine, and once more the audience we totally in to what was being presented to them, no one talking through the set, everyone concentrating on the gig, which was wonderful.

This was a real old school gig, no flashy visuals, basic lighting and I think it was all the better for it. The music stood on it's own and the vocal interplay between Lee Douglas (much given to doing 'thumbs up' to the crowd!) and Vincent Cavanagh was excellent. They played tracks from the past 10 years including a wonderful version of 'A Natural Disaster' from 2003.

Like all the best gigs it was over far too soon, I could quite happily have listed to them in to the small hours, in fact once we got home 'Universal' was quickly placed in the CD player and left playing as we drifted off to sleep.

Three of a different kind

We have to go back to April 14th 2014 for the Within Temptation gig, one I was attending with good friend Gordon Smith, we'd both been looking forward to catching them live after being impressed with a couple of their recent albums including new release Hydra. So a leisurely meet up and a couple of pints before heading across to the O2 Academy only to be greeted by the longest queue to get in I'd seen for some time, right around the block the Academy is on and then almost all the way along an adjoining street, clearly this was a sell out! By the time we got in the support band Delain were already part way through their set, pretty good sound but lacking that 'killer' song.

Waiting for Within Temptation gave us time to take in the staging, an impressive stage set including some back projection. We didn't have to wait to long and they burst on to the stage all guns blazing and before we knew it we were four songs in to the set and Faster was blasting out. It was around this time that it became clear, at least to me, that something wasn't quite right. There's definitely another vocal track coming through it dawned on me that lead singer, Sharon Janny den Adel, was using a vocal track to support her voice. It became obvious a couple of songs later when the vocals were clearly separate. Now don't get me wrong when you have a sound as full as Within Temptations then maybe the vocals do need some help from technology. But for me, especially after a excellent Amaranthe gig earlier in the year, something about the performance was lost and towards the end I have to admit to being a little bored, so much so that we left early to grab a final couple of pints.

Fast forward four weeks to May 10th and it's off up to Glasgow to take in Tori Amos, courtesy of a TicketMaster freebie after the Midlake ticket cock up! Apart from the first couple of albums I wasn't really up to speed with Tori's later works but I'd always found her interesting so was anticipating a good, classy gig. Well maybe anywhere else, but not Glasgow! Lots of audience noise and calling out, you'd think it was a Slayer gig! But Tori Amos was excellent, everything you could hope for for a one woman performance, Crucify was electrifying live and a great cover of the Eurythmics Sweet Dreams made for a classic gig.

Moving on to June 14th brought yet another trip up to Glasgow, rapidly becoming my go to place for a gig. This time it was Television performing Marquee Moon, surely one of the iconic albums of the New York Punk scene and also it happens to be one of my fave albums of all time. Taking in this one with my son Rory we had a leisurely day in Glasgow, sampling some fine foods and ales before heading to the O2 Academy on Sauchiehall Street. Don't recall much about the support but Television were everything you would want from these aging punksters, at times absolutely brilliant, particularly on the track Marquee Moon and at other times shambolic and  seemingly disinterested, perhaps most evident during the encore Little Johnny Jewel which was great, but when Tom Verlaine encouraged the band to stay on stage they launched in to what is best described as a bit of a dirge finishing with a track called Psychotic Reaction a cover of a Count Five song... I'd never heard of Count Five either! Despite all that it's been one of the best gigs so far this year.

Amaranthe 02 Academy Islington London

Amaranthe, Deals Death and Smash it to Pieces rescheduled for 5th April 2014 at the 02 Academy Islington, London. A specially built venue apparently so was expecting good things acoustic wise.

Three bands from Sweden on the bill and all for around £20.00 I've got the Nexus album by Amaranthe, but the other two bands would be new to me.

Smash it to Pieces were already on stage when we got there a little after 6.30 pm, another early start so that the venue could be turned in to a  'club' for the evening. We'd be leaving the venue a few minutes after 9.30 pm!

Smash it Pieces were pretty good, in a kind of Staind way. Although I doubt I'll be rushing out to buy their debut album.

A short break and next up were Deals Death, described as melodic death metal on the metal archives website, whatever the description, they were great fun, loud, fast and not overcomplicated. They must have been growing their hair since they were about 10 as the stage was frequently just a mass of the stuff whirling round.

Another short break and on come Amaranthe, even louder than Deals Death but the acoustics were holding and all three vocalists (yes three!) were nice and clear. Formed in 2009 with 2 albums under their belt. There was a great atmosphere in the venue and both support bands were greeted enthusiastically but when Amaranthe took to the stage the crowd  went in to overdrive, much punching of the air and devil horns alongside a few 'hearts' directed to female vocalist Elize Ryd. They raced through their set and included a good number of tracks from Nexus all of which sounded harder and heavier live, pity about the drum solo tho' I've never been a fan of them. All to soon they'd left the stage and the crowd were definitely up for more, so on comes the bassist and runs through a somewhat bizarre 'comedy' routine, it was all getting a bit Spinal Tap, but all was restored to normal when the rest of the band returned to the stage to finish with two songs from their Nexus album, Invincible and the title track. Great stuff and so it was time to leave the venue to the 'clubbers'. Apparently they are going to support Within Temptation on a tour in North America, if they are in your area get along to see them, you won't be disappointed.
Full playlist
Future On Hold,  1.000.000 Lightyears,  Infinity,  Automatic,  Drum Solo,  Burn With Me,  Leave Everything Behind,  Afterlife,  Razorblade,  Amaranthine ,Mechanical Illusion,  Electroheart,  Hunger,  Theory of Everything,  Call Out My Name,  Encore: Invincible,  The Nexus

Midlake : Glasgow 02 Academy

So it was up to Glasgow, with my missus (suspect she was only coming along for a bit vintage shopping!) daughter Lani and future husband Pete to see Midlake on their Antiphon Tour, one of only a handful of dates in the UK.  We'll just skip over the mess Ticketmaster made of the ticketing!

First up were support band Horse Thief, managed to catch the last few songs of their set, sounded okay although a bit Mumford and Sons sounding for my tastes. A short intermission, there was a 10pm curfew on the gig, presumably to fill the venue with clubbers later on, but seeing as how it was pouring with rain I think it may have been a quiet night, there just didn't seem to be that many people out.

So on came Midlake to a really warm reception, They opened with tracks off new album Antiphon which were very good, 4th track Rulers, Ruling all things  from Courage of Others dispelled any doubts around original singer Tim Smiths departure and we knew it was all going to be alright! In fact they played tracks from all four albums, the material from Courage of Other and Trials of van Occupanther being given a serious 'cranking up' in a live setting. All the tracks were greeted loudly and enthusiastically by the audience. Roscoe was definitely a highlight alongside Van Occupanther. The gig wasn't a sell out by the way and the missus decided it wasn't rock 'n' roll enough for her tastes! But the rest of us had a great time.

Oh and discovered a new beer too... Joker IPA, very easy to drink!