Category Gig/Festival Reviews

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172 minuter Steve Vai. En klar kandidat till årets spelning

Gitarr-legendaren Steve Vai har länge varit önskad åter till Sverige. Så nu när han äntligen skulle komma till KB, Malmös bästa klubbscen, fick många av oss gåshud innan han äntrat scenen!

Det är fullt och avslappnat när jag kliver in på KB strax innan avfärd till galaxernas mystiska världar. Publiken är mogen med kanske en medelålder på 40 år och står lugnt och sansade, prydligt uppradade framför scenen.
När såväl allas hjälte springer upp på scenen som en virrande orkan så kan man inte göra annat än att stå still och häpnas av Steves magiska kraft. Han har stil. Han har energi. Han är självsäker men har samtidigt en självdistans och vågar driva med sig själv...

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First up tonight were Wisdom. Despite being on fairly soon after the doors opened, there was already a large crowd by the time they came on stage (well done to the venue staff for opening the doors on time and also getting fans in so quickly and efficiently). In fact the venue was probably already 60% full. Wisdom are a Hungarian power metal band who put in a highly energetic performance with the band members racing around the stage (indeed it’s hard to photograph the singer as he never stays still for more than half a second) or headbanging furiously. The crowd certainly give them a good response, and their cover of Iron Maidens ”Wasted years” goes down particularly well. A fairly short set but a very good one.

Wisdom setlist:

Fallin Away From Grace
Somewhere Alone
Live Forevermore
...

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Last Friday night streets of Göteborg was loud by sounds of the weekend, and something other: retro metal in the air..!

Too bad, that this night wasn’t longer… Dödaren, and another, a bit older metalgroup, Year of the Goat took the party-line this on 27th of October at the famous Sticky Fingers Pub. Unnecessary to over explain it. Dödren from Göteborg made something new, something unusual, giving an incredible mood of music listening by it.

Somebody asked me before the concert, how could I paraphrase the music of this band. I’ve just told them: it’s like young Pink Floyd, in a metal version. And the audience liked it...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

First up were Pain, on a rare visit to the UK. Singer/guitarist Peter Tagtgren is probably the only person who’d attempt to play guitar while wearing a straightjacket (with the sleeves unfastened obviously). They’re an odd choice of support for Nightwish as they are so different musically, and quite a few Nightwish fans had expressed disappointment when they were announced yet again to support Nightwish in the UK. Despite this, once they started playing they did actually go down very well with most of the crowd. Musically they’re a hard band to describe – I’d say its mainly industrial metal but there’s also a strong electronic feel to the music too, and this really lifts the music up a level making it far more catchy and entertaining...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

The habitants from the village Dobroslavtsi have been trained to endure noise from planes, cause it is a small airport, but on the 22th, 23th and 24th of June you can’t hear the planes – only the three massive stages and the singing crowd for the second edition of Elevation Festival Bulgaria.
The first “warm up day” of the event passed relatively peacefully and with great attendance on Sunday June 23, and thousands of people gathered from all over Bulgaria, who nearly filled the capacity of the location.
The scorching sun and high temperature did not stop the hundreds of people hungry for music and festival experience to roam the airbase from early afternoon on the second day of the Elevation...

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A few hours before the concert. There are thousands of people in front of the hall. There are hundred of sings “Looking for tickets”, but none with “Selling”. People with t-shirts, bandanas, body paintings waiting without any patience for everything to start. The picture was beautiful.
This is pretty much the expectation for a band like Red Hot Chili Peppers. They have been in Top 10 for decades for their talented, yet very different music and to be here in a small country like Bulgaria was a one life chance.
At exactly 20h everyone was inside the hall in ecstatic mood. On there stage, though, were an English band, called As Able As Kane. They are from the rave generation and had kind of a career in late 80s...

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Det är en i det närmsta full lokal som väntar Haparandas hjältar när de kliver på scenen vid midnatt. Och det är en blandad skara folk, allt från stekarfrisyrer till skogshuggarskägg och längst fram – ett gäng gotare. Vad de här lackbeklädda figurerna ser i Raubtiers musik vet jag inte, i vilket fall som helst kan man konstatera att bandet tilltalar många.

Sin vana trogen inleder de med Det finns bara krig, och rusar sen vidare in i Sveriges elit. Det blir mest material från de två första plattorna, men de nya låtarna får ett lika varmt mottagande.

Tyvärr är L’Orient ingen bra konsertlokal. Scenen är så låg så står man inte längst fram är det svårt att se bandet, och ljudet är inte heller optimalt...

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Ett utsålt KB en rekordvarm höstlördag blev ännu hetare när Kanadensarna Danko Jones rev av sin in-your-face attitydfyllda rock. Som Mr. Jones själv uttryckte sig så var publiken packad som sardiner. Det var ett enda galet party där en crowdsurfare dyker upp redan under en av de första låtarna.

Svettigare konsert är det länge sedan jag upplevde på KB. Alla ville stå längst fram. Danko Jones bjöd på rockdängor som fick publiken att bli tokig. First Date, Had Enough, Code Of The Road och I Think Bad Thoughts och man hade ett lyckorus I hela kroppen!
Trots hyllningarna av Sverige och framförallt KB där Danko Jones är ett husband så fick vi ingen Womanbound, Too Much Trouble och Baby Hates Me som även dem spelades i Finlad nyligen! Efter det något kortare setet på knappt 80 ...

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Overkill, Purified in blood, 3 inches of blood – Islington academy, London – 7th October 2012

Purified In Blood put in a very energetic set. Their music felt powerful, angry and aggressive, and Hallgeir Enoksen certainly looked the part. He did everything possible to get the crowd going including climbing over the barrier and singing from the crowd as he tried to stir up some energy from the crowd. If you like your music loud, powerful, aggressive and good then these guys are well worth a listen.

Next up came 3 inches of Blood. If ever there’s a prize for the most misleading band name these guys must be in with a chance...

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It’s never easy choosing singles from an album, especially an album where the songs are both well-crafted and packed with lyrics that instantly throw up all kinds of visual ideas, some more bizarre than others. So, following on from ‘No Place Like Home’ and ‘No Friendly Neighbour’, singles one & two from the debut Primal Rock Rebellion album, ‘Awoken Broken’, it was decided that followers of the project – new to the public, but several years in the making – should be given the chance to register their vote, and the band’s online sites duly glowed red hot with suggestion and counter-suggestion as to just what single three should be…

An interesting exercise for sure, and by and large, what the Primal Rock People wanted was ‘Tortured Tone’… not one of the album’s more de...