BPREVIEW: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ O2 Academy 28.10.17

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ O2 Academy 28.10.17 / Tessa Angus

Words by Ed King / Pic by Tessa Angus

On Saturday 28th October, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club ride through Birmingham – coming to the O2 Academy as part of their nine date UK tour (plus one in Dublin). 

Doors open at 7pm, with tickets priced at £28.65 (including booking fee) – as presented by SJM Concerts/Gigs and Tours. For direct gig info, including venue details and online tickets sales, click here.

Responsible for one of the best debut albums ever… yep, I went there… Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have been tearing up the asphalt on both sides of the pond (and beyond) since 1998. Some call them ‘shoegaze’, some all them ‘grunge’, some call them ‘garage rock’, but Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have a distinctive twisted metal sound that they can comfortable call their own. ‘Fucking awesome’ is where I personally land, but with well over 200,000 words in the English language I’m sure you can come up with a more erudite description. Or you could just listen.

Globetrotting with a new album in the wings, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are coming to Birmingham to push their impending new album – Wrong Creatures, which will, apparently, possibly, be with us just after Christmas.

But having waited half a decade since their last LP, the 12 track monster that is Specter at the Feast, a few months here or there won’t bite down too hard. At least I’ll have something to spend those iTunes vouchers on, that will no doubt appear in some relative’s Hallmark hug this December (…other online music downloads are available).

Having recorded and released on their own imprint since 2008 (starting with the download only The Effects of 333) Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have been able to reinvent and reiterate all the cogs in their machine, drifting from the Native American rhythms of ‘Beat the Devil’s Tattoo’, passing through the dark rock heart of ‘War Machine’ and ‘Teenage Disease’, to stand still at the morbid curiosity of ‘Fire Walker’. Awesome. Relentless. Lots of other words; 24rs spent ploughing through this band’s back catalogue would not be a day wasted. Even if you’re wasted.

Now there’s another album in the offing too, and whilst we don’t know much about Wrong Creatures here’s a little taste of what’s to come… and yeah, that’ll do. The rest we’ll get to see/hear coming off stage at the O2 Academy on Say 28th October.

‘Little Thing Gone Wild’ – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

For more on Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, visit www.blackrebelmotorcycleclub.com

For more from the O2 Academy Birmingham, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2academybirmingham

For more from SJM Concerts/Gigs and Tours, visit www.gigsandtours.com

BREVIEW: The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17

The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

 

 

 

Words by  Emily Doyle / Pics by Rob Hadley

London’s self-described ‘sunshine doom’ 5-piece, Mass Datura, serve up a set of melodic prog to begin the evening. But thanks to a surprisingly long queue for entry at the O2 Institute, complete with drug dog patrols outside the venue, their early set is enjoyed by a smaller audience than they deserved.

And while the violin and keys are a little low in the mix, they craft some interesting textures – providing some excellent fodder to ease the crowd into the evening of psych to come (Mass Datura’s debut LP Sentimental Breakdown is out now on All Types of Slime Records, should you want to fall a little deeper down the rabbit hole).

Mass Datura – supporting The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham ReviewA Place to Bury Strangers slink onto the stage next, in an unassuming manner; they seem satisfied in the knowledge that the majority of the crowd (this reviewer included) have no idea what is to come. The term ‘wall of noise’ is thrown around all too lightly but in this case it is appropriate; intense strobe lighting marks the start of their set, at 8pm sharp, and does not relent throughout the opening track. Within minutes, some audience members are forced to shield their eyes.

Lia Simone Braswell is one of those rare drummer-come-front person characters. Her kit occupies the front and centre of the stage, a vocal mic arched above her. She is a powerhouse. To her left is Oliver Ackermann of Death By Audio fame, whose distorted vocals cut through the maelstrom;A Place to Bury Strangers – supporting The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review to her right is Dion Lunadon, who indulges in some bass guitar abuse to rival the Clash’s Paul Simonon – trusting his bass into the crowd while Ackermann holds his guitar aloft, and the noise fades.

Braswell produces an autoharp. She proceeds to play a haunting tune, accompanied by delicate vocals, while Lunadon and Ackermann tune up. A Place to Bury Strangers launch back into the howling punk-rock of 2009’s ‘I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow Of Your Heart’ with renewed energy. In my notepad, I write the word ‘onslaught’ a total of three times at different points during their set. A Place to Bury Strangers – supporting The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The lights dim and A Place to Bury Strangers appear to leave the stage, so the crowd migrates towards the bar to refuel before the headline act. Without warning, a driving electronic beat starts up and multi-coloured lasers erupt from a small circle over by the bar; Ackermann has wheeled a flight case into the crowd and the performance continues. Braswell’s aggressive dancing keeps us just far enough back while Lunadon climbs on top of the case, bass guitar in hand. After this extended jam, A Place to Bury Strangers dissolve into the audience once more… The room awaits The Black Angels.

‘Currency’, the opening track from The Black Angels‘ 2017 album, Death Song, is greeted by cheers. The driving two note riff cuts through the O2 Institute’s main room, with what appears to be Beelzebub’s teletext projected onto the back of the stage. The Black Angels exude a quiet, stoic confidence; a stark contrast to the territorial noise-rock of A Place to Bury Strangers. Alex Mass’s shamanic vocals are hypnotic, a perfect counterpoint to the grinding drums from Stephanie Bailey.The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

2010’s juddering ‘Bad Vibrations’ lulls the crowd into a comfortable, woozy sway. Everything about The Black Angels’ performance is equally comforting and uneasy; each track is full of the warm, swirling psychedelia of their forebears, but also buzzes with a hint of discord. On stage the band are relaxed, but choose to keep their distance with a complete absence of dialogue.

The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham ReviewThe crowd responds with an equally subdued manner; one girl dares to climb onto a friends shoulders to sway along to ‘You On The Run’ and is met by a surprising amount of disapproving British frowns. The Black Angels certainly aren’t in Texas anymore.

After an encore culminating in their breakthrough hit, ‘Young Mean Dead’, the audience files out of the O2 Institute. On my way out the door I run into Martin of Tamworth two-piece You Dirty Blue, eyeing the Death By Audio pedals on A Place to Bury Strangers’ merch stand (I later learn that grinders emblazoned with the slogan ‘Listen To The Black Angels’ were also on offer). On reflection, we both agree that although The Black Angels were as excellent as you would expect, it was A Place to Bury Strangers that were the band of the night.

 

 

 

Mass Datura – supporting The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Mass Datura – supporting The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Mass Datura – supporting The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

For more on Mass Datura, visit www.soundcloud.com/mass-datura

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A Place to Bury Strangers – supporting The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

A Place to Bury Strangers – supporting The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

A Place to Bury Strangers – supporting The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

For more on A Place to Bury Strangers, visit www.aplacetoburystrangers.com

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The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

For more on The Black Angels, visit www.theblackangels.com

For more from the O2 Institute, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2institutebirmingham

For more from Kilimanjaro Live, visit www.kilimanjarolive.co.uk

For more from This Is Tmrw, visit www.thisistmrw.co.uk

BPREVIEW: New Found Glory @ O2 Academy 30.09.17

New Found Glory @ O2 Academy 30.09.17

Words by Aatish Ramchurn

On Saturday 30th September 2017, New Found Glory come to the O2 Academy in Birmingham as part of their extensive, international 20 Years of Pop Punk tour. Support for New Found Glory comes from Eastbourne pop-punk band, ROAM.

The tour is presented by SJM Concerts/Gigs and Tours with tickets priced at £25.30, inclusive of booking fee. Doors open at O2 Academy from 7pm. For direct event info and online tickets from Gigs and Toursclick here.

A self explanatory, yet hard to believe, title for their tour, New Found Glory kick off the UK leg of their global 20 Years of Pop Punk Tour in Glasgow on 27th Sept, arriving at the O2 Academy in Birmingham on Saturday 30th September – just one year after playing at last year’s Slam Dunk festival at the Genting Arena.New Found Glory 20 Years of Pop Punk Tour (UK)

New Found Glory formed as a quintet in 1997, in Coral Springs, Florida. They signed their first record deal with Drive Thru Records and released From The Screen To Your Stereo in March 2000 – an EP consisting of covers from movie soundtracks, including Bryan Adams’ ‘Everything I Do (I Do It For You)’.

Alongside the likes of Blink 182 and Sum 41, New Found Glory cemented their place as one of the leading pop punk bands in the early 2000s with songs such as ‘Hit or Miss’, even finding their way into the American Pie soundtracks.

2014, however, saw one of their long standing members, Steve Klein, leave the band due to creative differences. The band were due to replace Klein but opted to carry on as quartet, consisting of vocalist (and Quentin Tarantino lookalike) Jordan Pundik, lead guitarist and former Shai Hulud vocalist Chad Gilbert, bassist Ian Grushka, and drummer Cyrus Bolooki.

Having released their ninth studio album, Makes Me Sick, earlier this year on Hopeless Records, New Found Glory will have plenty of material (20 years worth, in fact) to keep both their longstanding and new fans in Birmingham celebrating their long career as a pop punk band.

‘Sound of Two Voices’ – New Found Glory

For more on New Found Glory, visit www.newfoundglory.com

For more on ROAM, visit www.roamuk.bandcamp.com

For more from O2 Academy, Birmingham, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2academybirmingham/academybirmingham

For more from SJM Concerts/Gig and Tours, visit www.gigsandtours.com

BPREVIEW: The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17

The Black Angels @ O2 Institute 26.09.17

Words by Ed King

On Tuesday 26th September, The Black Angels land in Birmingham at the 02 Institute – performing live, with support from A Place to Bury Strangers + Mass Datura

Doors open at 7pm with tickets priced at £19.50, as presented by Kilimanjaro Live and This Is Tmrw. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

Out on the road with their fifth studio album, Death Song, The Black Angels are in Birmingham as part of only a handful of UK dates on their Death March Tour. Sandwiched in-between a gig in Glasgow and another in Bristol, the O2 Institute in Birmingham is the second date the Texan psych-rockers will be playing in Blighty. Although The Black Angels did play at the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia 2017, but who’s going to prove any of that actually happened. Or maybe it never stopped…

Four years since their last LP, Death Song came out on Partisan Records in April this year, with an extensive North American tour introducing the album stateside. A clear hat tip to the Velvet Underground – as in ‘The Black Angel’s Death Song’, from that record they made with that blonde lass – the new album from The Black Angels has been described by Phil Mongredien in The Guardian as a ‘menacing return to form’, further stating the 11 track LP harks back to ‘the threatening drones that made their first two so powerful’.

With a line up that makes the bill sound like a blueprint for Jonestown II, The Black Angels are supported by New York noise-rockers, A Place to Bury Strangers – alongside London’s self described ‘sunshine doom’ four piece, Mass Datura. So a nice quiet night in then… pass the shrooms and absinthe, Franz.

Having munched enough blotter acid to stop a heard of migrating springbok, Google it, I’m not sure another dark spiral is what this piece of psychedelic driftwood needs on a Tuesday.

But with only three dates in the UK, if you want a sneaky quarter of The Black Angels then you’d better get your game face on. Bit of a coup that they’re coming to Birmingham. In the meantime here’s a tiny taste of their new album:

‘Currency’ – The Black Angels

The Black Angels comes to the O2 Institute on 26th September, with support from A Place to Bury Strangers + Mass Datura – as presented by Kilimanjaro Live and This Is Tmrw. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here. 

For more on The Black Angels, visit www.theblackangels.com 

For more on A Place to Bury Strangers, visit www.aplacetoburystrangers.com

For more on Mass Datura, visit www.soundcloud.com/mass-datura 

For more from the O2 Institute, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2institutebirmingham

For more from Kilimanjaro Live, visit www.kilimanjarolive.co.uk

For more from This Is Tmrw, visit www.thisistmrw.co.uk 

BPREVIEW: Mayday Parade – A Lesson in Romantics 10th Anniversary Tour @ O2 Institute 23.09.17

BPREVIEW: Mayday Parade - A Lesson in Romantics 10th Anniversary Tour @ O2 Institute 23.09.17

Words by Eleanor Sutcliffe

On Saturday the 23rd of September, pop punk stalwarts Mayday Parade will be playing the O2 Institute as part of their A Lesson in Romantics 10th Anniversary Tour – with support from With Confidence + All Get Out.

Doors open at 7pm, with tickets priced at £21 (+bf) – as presented by SJM Concerts/Gigs and Tours. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

Released in July 2007, as Mayday Parade‘s debut studio album, A Lesson in Romantics has become somewhat of a cult classic throughout the years. Reaching No 8 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart, and No 42 on Rock Sound’s ‘51 Most Pop Punk Albums of All Time’, Mayday Parade sold over BPREVIEW: Mayday Parade - A Lesson in Romantics 10th Anniversary Tour @ O2 Institute 23.09.17200,000 copies of A Lesson in Romantics – earning themselves a place on the 2007 edition of the Vans Warped Tour. Tracks such as ‘Black Cat’, ‘Jamie All Over’ and ‘When I Get Home, You’re So Dead’ have become iconic singles for the band’s fanbase.

Since their debut Mayday Parade have released a further four albums, including Monsters in the Closet (2013) and Black Lines (2015) – both of which received positive reviews from critics. However, A Lesson in Romantics still remains the band’s reigning album, and a celebratory tour a decade later will come as little surprise to many fans.

Mayday Parade are kicking off their A Lesson in Romantics 10th Anniversary Tourr in Nottingham, followed by numerous dates across the UK including Leeds, Glasgow, Birmingham and London before heading out into Europe for the remaining dates.

Support at the O2 Institute comes from With Confidence, an Australian pop punk band who made waves in the UK following their Better Weather tour and appearance at Slam Dunk Festival, alongside All Get Out – fronted by singer songwriter, Nathan Hussey.

‘Jamie All Over’ – Mayday Parade

For more on Mayday Parade, visit www.maydayparade.com

For more on With Confidence, visit www.withconfidenceband.com

For more from All Get Out, visit www.allgetoutmusic.com

For more from O2 Institute, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2institutebirmingham

For more from SJM Concerts/Gigs and Tours, visit www.gigsandtours.com