Category: Live Reviews
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Josh Homme Plays Rare Live Acoustic Show At Meltdown: Royal Festival Hall
For those more used to seeing Josh Homme with his band Queens of the Stone Age from the perspective of a seething, frenzied mosh pit at some of London’s less salubrious venues such as The Forum and Brixton Academy, last night presented a rare chance to see a more dignified acoustic solo show by Mr…
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McAlmont and Butler: Live at The Union Chapel – Review
McAlmont and Butler Reunite For One-off Shows Never mind those Oasis Glastonbury rumours, another Britpop era reunion happened last night, and it was far better than any Gallagher family get-together is likely to be. Whilst twenty years on from the rise of Britpop it has rightly been recognised that it all began with Brett Anderson’s…
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Midlake Joined Onstage By Gaz Coombs At Shepherd’s Bush Gig
Midlake played a terrific show on Wednesday at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire as part of their European tour in support of their latest album “Antiphon”. If Midlake has passed you by, let’s have a quick recap: Hailing from Denton, Texas, they play a harmonious brand of occasionally complex (even prog-y) folk rock. Imagine Fleet Foxes…
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Drenge – Live at The NME Award Show: The Scala
It was somehow fitting that Drenge should play their biggest headline gig so far, in the week that the country watched the Reverend Alex Turner at The Brit Awards musing in a stoned statesman-like way “That rock’n’roll, eh? That rock’n’roll, it just won’t go away. It might hibernate from time to time, sink back into…
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Temples – Live at Rough Trade East
With February well underway, thought it might be about time we had something new to listen to. I mean, it’s all very well digging through loads of old songs, but what about the new guys? Can’t have them playing to empty rooms just because bloggers like me are too lazy to give them a mention.…
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The Man From Hell Comes To The 100 Club
Michael Katon and drummer Johnny Bee relax backstage at The 100 Club Michael Katon Live! The 100 Club in Oxford Street, London boasts a strong tradition of supporting the blues, having hosted Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Otis Span, Sonny Boy Williamson and those influenced by them such as The Yardbirds, Clapton, Beck, The…
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John Grant Live at Rough Trade East
John Grant played a short show at Rough Trade East in order to celebrate coming third in my albums of the year being granted the honour of being Rough Trade’s Album of the Year 2013 for Pale Green Ghosts. Grant’s album is a stunning record, and well deserving of the title bestowed upon it by…
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Aimee Mann – Live at The Union Chapel
For troubled souls, into which category I occasionally find myself, where better than the sanctuary of a church? In this case, the hallowed ground of brilliant London venue The Union Chapel (they have an ice cream lady in the interval – what’s not to like?) where Aimee Mann performed her “doom folk and recession rock”…
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Arcade Fire – Live At The Roundhouse: Review
THE REFLEKTORS – LIVE AT CAMDEN ROUNDHOUSE 12th NOV 2013 “Costumes or Formal Attire Mandatory” I’ll admit my heart sank just a little when I saw this email from The Reflektors – the secret name that Arcade Fire are touring under to promote their new album. It rather reeked of “organised fun”, “team building off-sites”…
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Alison Moyet – Live At Southend Cliff’s Pavillion
It was something of a homecoming for Alison Moyet last night as the Billericay-born and Basildon-schooled vocalist played nearby Southend to promote her 2013 album The Minutes. The last time I saw Moyet she briefly joined another Essex dweller Wilko Johnson and his band onstage for a joyous encore at the latter’s “farewell” concerts. This…
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Paul McCartney Plays Covent Garden. Best. Busker. Ever.
Friday lunchtimes don’t get much better than today’s. If it wasn’t enough stopping the traffic on Hollywood Boulevard and Times Square, Paul McCartney decided to add the woes of London’s traffic wardens by parking his great big lorry outside the Punch and Judy Tavern in Covent Garden today. “This is a change from the sixties…
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The Strypes – Live In London
The teenaged smart-suited boys onstage are tearing up the tiny stage with their maximum RnB sounds. Guitar, harmonica, bass, drums, no nonsense. Nods to the old blues masters and the crowd are dancing. The Rolling Stones in The Station Hotel, Richmond c1963? Dr Feelgood‘s pub rock at The Half Moon in Putney 1974? Nope. It’s…
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Drenge – Live at the St Moritz Club, Soho
The St Moritz club is named after a part of the world more normally associated with Swiss efficiency. I don’t approve. To paraphrase Orson Welles, what did 500 years of peace get Switzerland? The cuckoo clock? I can only assume the name for this venue is somewhat ironic, as the St Moritz club, Soho is…
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Atoms For Peace – Live at Camden Roundhouse
Thom Yorke has acted swiftly to make up the lost earnings he will have suffered from withdrawing his Atoms For Peace album from Spotify. Although the more cynical might suggest a morning paper round might cover the loss of income, Yorke has decided to choose another route: becoming a shopkeeper. Well, not actually a shopkeeper.…
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44 Years And Counting: ZZ Top Live At Hammersmith Apollo
For some people ZZ Top are seen as something fun that happened in the eighties, like the Sinclair ZX81, perms, Rubik’s Cubes and the threat of nuclear annihilation. Those synth-guitar albums “Eliminator“, “Afterburner” and “Recycler” (the latter actually released in 1990) produced some of MTV’s most memorable videos featuring legions of girls, three guys, two…
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