o2institute Archives - Page 4 of 7 -

February 15, 2017February 15, 2017

BPREVIEW: Tegan and Sara @ O2 Institute 18.02.17

On Saturday 18^th February, Tegan and Sara perform at the O2 Institute – with support from Alex Lahey, Ria Mae.

Doors open at 7pm, with tickets priced at £24.75 plus booking fee – as presented by Live Nation. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

For almost ten years, Tegan and Sara, purveyors of guitar-driven pop rock, were solidly successful and well loved by a niche, loyal audience. The twin sisters from Canada formed a band when they were in their teens and have been touring and releasing albums ever since.

But in 2013 they made a change, swapping their guitars for synthesisers and teaming up with pop producer Greg Kurstin (who has worked with artists including Adele, Pink and Lily Allen) to release their seventh studio album, Heartthrob. It was a gamble that paid off, with the album reaching #3 on the Billboard 200 singles chart and ‘Closer’ hitting #1 on the US dance chart.

Not only was Heartthrob a commercial success but it also won critical praise, with Entertainment Weekly saying ‘beneath all that gloss, Heartthrob has an underlying toughness and a clear-eyed take on heartbreak.’ Heartthrob also reportedly influenced Taylor Swift’s direction for her ultra successful album, 1989.

And then they released the single ‘Everything is Awesome!!!’ from The Lego Movie. But probably the less said about that the better…

The follow-up album, Love You to Death, was released in 2016 and continues down the synthetic pop route. But for the first time their music explores the twins’ tumultuous relationship; Tegan has described being in a band with her sister as like ‘some weird punishment or prison sentence’. They’ve had punch ups in the past and even had to cancel tour dates, although it seems that their relationship is better now and on album track ‘White Knuckles’ they’re able to reflect on past difficulties with the reassuring distance of hindsight.

Love You To Death also features pop songs unambiguously from the point of view of gay women. In ‘Boyfriend’, for example, a lover is berated ‘You treat me like your boyfriend… But I don’t want to be your secret anymore’.

Tegan and Sara have always been politically active and strong advocates for LGBT equality; both openly gay, they have recently set up their own eponymous foundation which works for ‘economic justice, health and representation for LGBTQ girls and women’. For more information visit, www.teganandsarafoundation.org

‘That Girl’ – Tegan and Sara

Tegan and Sara perform at the O2 Institute on Saturday 18^th February, as presented Live Nation. For direct gig info and online tickets sales, click here.

__________

For more on Tegan and Sara, visit www.teganandsara.com

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

For more from Live Nation, visit www.livenation.co.uk

January 29, 2017

BREVIEW: The Hunna @ O2 Institute 23.01.17

Words by Damien Russell / Pics by Rob Hadley

You know you’re in for a good night when it’s door opening time and there are staff making sure the roads aren’t blocked. Monday night and a queue around the corner kind of good.

The 2,900-person capacity venue had enough room to get to the bar, just, and with crowd-surfing and moshing all through the evening these two young bands clearly instill excitement and enthusiasm in their fans.

High Tyde, a 4-piece like The Hunna, hit the stage with great energy and great reactions from the crowd. They kept the tempo high until the very end and only the introduction to ‘Dark Love’ showed a bit of a softer side we might see develop over time. As The Hunna said of them during their own set, High Tyde “smashed it”.

The Hunna came out to another great response from the crowd. A bit slow to start after their introduction music, but when they did kick in with ‘You & Me’ they kicked in hard. Singer/guitarist, Ryan Potter, sounded a little tired to begin with and I did wondered if the road was wearing them down. But The Hunna seem to be a band that feeds off the love from the crowd and kept building momentum up to the end of the night.

The Hunna have a real gift for writing a sing-a-long chorus and the crowd knew them all, every word. Ryan Potter let the crowd take the lead more than once or twice, basking in having his lyrics sung back to him.

But the highlight of the night was ‘We Could Be’, tucked into the last third of the set; a real powerhouse of a song, it’s clear why it’s one of The Hunna’s singles. Although somehow it felt like the end of the set and I half expected to see them to just walk off, but ‘Rock My Way’ and ‘Bonfire’ followed in quick succession. The actual ending (before the inevitable encore) was a proper rock show of feedback and noise; the roar of a crowd still hungry for hits.

The Hunna finished with a three song encore of ‘World is Ours’, ‘Brother’ and finally ‘Bad For You’ – all kicked off with another piece of musical Interlude. Again, the interlude and song didn’t quite flow smoothly; between this and some of Ryan Potter’s clichéd ‘Best Audience Ever’ style patter, I felt the edge was knocked off their performance. I’ve heard all the old rock lines used before and this gig brought no new ones to add to the list.

That said, throughout their set it was clear that The Hunna are totally into their music and love every note. Definitely a good night. And after the encore it was no less busy outside, but nobody seemed in a rush to go home and admit it was all over.

For more on The Hunna, visit www.facebook.com/thehunnaband

For more on High Tyde, visit www.wearehightyde.com

___________

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

For more from Kilimanjaro Live, including full event listing and online ticket sales, visit www.myticket.co.uk

January 23, 2017

THE GALLERY: The Pretty Reckless @ O2 Institute 20.01.17

Pics by Rob Hadley

On Friday 20^th January, The Pretty Reckless performed at the O2 Institute – as presented by SJM Concerts/Gig & Tours.

On a global tour promoting their third studio album, Who You Selling For – out through Razor & Tie Recordings from October last year, The Pretty Reckless were in Birmingham for one of a handful (one for each finger & thumb) of UK dates. Next stops: mainland Europe, Russia, South, Central and North America. We did say global.

Fronted by Taylor Momsen, with Jamie Perkins, Ben Phillips and Mark Damon having been ‘the band’ since their debut LP, The Pretty Reckless are vocally strong and obviously Rock. But with Kato Khandwala (Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Papa Roach, Blondie) as producer for their three studio albums, this is what you’d want and expect. Something the gig ticket buying public seems pretty (no pun) happy with too, as The Pretty Reckless sold out their entire UK tour with reassuringly green tinged ease. I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller…

Rob Haldey was at the O2 Institute for Birmingham Review – shooting an extended photo feature to go into THE GALLERY. See a selection of Rob’s shots below or click here for the full Flickr of Pics (or on the link above). There’s some on the Birmingham Review Instagram page too.

The Pretty Reckless @ O2 Institute 20.01.17 / Rob Hadley

Who You Selling For – the third studio album from The Pretty Reckless, is out now on Razor & Tie Recordings. For more on The Pretty Reckless, including full tour dates and online sales, visit www.theprettyreckless.com

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

______________

For more from Razor & Tie Recordings, visit www.razorandtie.com

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

January 20, 2017January 20, 2017

BPREVIEW: The Hunna @ O2 Institute 23.01.17

Words by Damien Russell / Pics courtesy of Warner

On the 23^rd of January, the O2 Institute will host The Hunna on their 100 album headline tour – with support from Brighton based, High Tyde. This is The Hunna‘s eighth date of an 11 date UK tour, starting in Edinburgh and ending in London.

Doors will be opening a 19:00 with a 23:00 curfew. A ticket for this show is £15.50 + booking fees – as presented by Kilimanjaro Live. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

As a lover of live music I’m often scrolling through local events and taking a look at who’s on, doing a bit of digging into bands I’ve heard a bit about and generally browsing. It can feel like a rare thing, these days, to come across a group that has the ‘Rock Band’ look and feel… then there’s The Hunna.

The Hunna (sort of) started some time ago with Dan and Jermaine learning to play guitar together. But (officially) it was in 2015 where the addition of Ryan, a college friend, and Jack meant the guys finally had a four piece Rock outfit.

They wasted little time in getting their singles out there, with ‘Bonfire’ coming out in October 2015 and ‘We Could Be’ in early 2016. This was followed by sets at the Reading/Leeds and Dot-to-Dot Festivals, alongside a BBC Introducing set. Although by then they needed little introducing to some. The Hunna rounded off summer by releasing their debut album, 100, in August 2016.

A colloquialism of ‘hundred’, The Hunna say their name ‘reflects giving 100% and being true to ourselves, which we like to think we do in our music’ and their actions so far seem to support it. Fresh off a support tour with Jimmy Eat World, they’re already back on the road touring their 16-track debut.

Plus they look like an old school Rock band, they’ve put an album out five tracks longer than most, and have come straight off a major support tour onto a headline tour of their own, even taking their own support band, High Tyde, with them. On January 23^rd Birmingham will get to see exactly what that 100% attitude brings to the O2 Institute stage.

Anybody looking for a sneak preview, I recommend checking out ‘We Could Be’, below:

‘We Could Be’ – The Hunna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elZEIFuOxYo

The Hunna perform at the O2 Institute on Monday 23^rd January, with support from High Tyde – as presented Kilimanjaro Live. For direct gig info and online tickets sales, click here.

__________

For more on The Hunna, visit www.facebook.com/thehunnaband

For more on High Tyde, visit www.wearehightyde.com

______

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

For more from Kilimanjaro Live, including full event listing and online ticket sales, visit www.myticket.co.uk

January 17, 2017

BPREVIEW: The Pretty Reckless @ O2 Institute 20.01.17

Words by Ed King

On Friday 20^th January, The Pretty Reckless perform at the O2 Institute – coming to Birmingham on the second date of a five show UK tour.

Doors open at 7pm with an 11pm curfew. Tickets are priced at £23.75, as presented by SJM Concerts/Gigs & Tours. For direct gig info, including venue detail and onlie tickets sales click here.

N.B. At the time of writing, each UK date is presented as SOLD OUT through The Pretty Reckless website – check with a repeatable ticket outlet, or the individual venues, for returns/extras.

What do you get if you cross a creative polymath, two bands, a trademark dispute and a support tour with The Veronicas..? A bit of a clusterfu*k, to begin with anyway. But at least one that ended with a better name.

And from the flames of God-only-knows-what-happened, The Pretty Reckless were born. Again, and again – releasing their debut LP, Light Me Up, through Interscope Records in August 2010. Produced by Rock God Behind Soundproof Glass, Kato Khandwala (Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Papa Roach, Blondie), the ten track debut was a touch ‘generic’, according to some, but damn well delivered. And those vocals…

Four years passed until The Pretty Reckless let the studio doors fly open again, jumping to Razor & Tie Records to release their sophomore LP. But when they did twelve tracks of unashamed ROCK were unleashed on the world – complete with pounding rhythms, powerful vocals, a song about shotguns and a soundbyte of someone about to cum. And it was called Going to Hell… so there’s that.

Two years passed and The Pretty Reckless were at it once more, with their third studio album, Who You Selling For, released again through Razor & Tie Records in October 2016. Punchy, fresh, melodic (there’s even a piano in there) the third time round the studio sun showed just what The Pretty Reckless can achieve.

Now they’re on the global road to persuade us to buy a copy (not the world’s worst idea) coming to Birmingham as part of a five date UK tour – before heading over to mainland Europe, Russia, then South, Central and North America respectively.

But if you don’t hang on my every written word as if they were the POST-IT-NOTES-OF-GOD, then check out ‘Take Me Down’ – the lead single from Who You Selling For. Free will… what a jip.

‘Take Me Down’ – The Pretty Reckless

The Pretty Reckless perform at the O2 Institute on Friday 20^th January, as presented SJM Concerts/Gigs & Tours. For direct gig info and online tickets sales, click here.

__________

For more on The Pretty Reckless, visit www.theprettyreckless.com

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

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