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Friday 29 January 2010

Don't Hold Back

My to do list

Get a new job.
Move to Manchester.
Go out more!
Write more for Birmingham Live.
Get some work experience at a music magazine.
Make some new playlists.
Buy a new camera.

Thumper

Great new video from Enter Shikari

Wednesday 27 January 2010

The voiceless


Bowling for Soup doing what they do best for Haiti

Tuesday 26 January 2010

One flight, one flame

It’s a bitterly cold night in Birmingham as the ‘A Ska Odyssey’ tour rolls its way into town bringing with it Sonic Boom Six, Big D and the Kids Table and headliners Californian Ska legends Reel Big Fish. It was soon going to warm up though!

The support acts this evening are mixed bag, first up where Sonic Boom Six, hailing from Manchester and playing a mash up of punk, reggae and Ska. They didn’t really do it for me, mainly put off by Laila Khan’s vocals, however they did a good job of getting the audience warmed up ready for Big D and the Kids Table. Having never heard of this band before I had no idea what to expect but boy did they impress. It seems they pulled out all the stops with big screen projected backdrops, backing singers and some quality songs with some great musicianship, especially the Saxophonist.

It wasn’t long to wait for the main event as a 2001 (A Space Odyssey) came blasting over the P.A system and Reel Big Fish bounded on to the stage. The mood across the academy was buoyant with the band feeding off the energy of the crowd and vice versa. They played a varied set full of original songs like ‘Don’t Start a Band’, ‘She has a Girlfriend Now’ and ‘Sell Out’ and some of their ‘many, many hit songs that we cover’ cue ‘Brown Eyed Girl’, ‘Take on me’ and a great cover of Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’!

Watching Reel Big Fish is one of the few times you’re going to feel stupid for not dancing. You can’t help but move your feet and the whole crowd was going for it skanking and jumping on cue a sea of sweating, moving bodies. Self proclaimed ‘Masters’ of all musical genres they entertained the crowd with 6 versions of ‘S.R.’ for the encore covering reggae, punk rock, blues, disco, country and western and the funniest of all death metal!

Reel Big Fish truly are ‘Masters’ of the live show you’d be forgiven for thinking them a younger band with the amount of energy they create. Even after claiming they were at work you could see in their faces they were enjoying every second of it and in turn so did the crowd. With their quirky covers, fun songs and energetic live show Reel Big Fish is a band you definitely need to see to appreciate how good they actually are. It proves that getting older doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun and they have definitely proved that tonight!

Monday 25 January 2010

Don't be careless

Reel Big Fish tonight, 2nd review for Birmingham Live! can't wait to get my Ska on!

Friday 22 January 2010

The earth will shake

Back from another couple of days in Manchester and back to the shitness that is work!

Manchester may seem a long way to go to a gig but my god was it worth it! Thrice just blew me away from the moment they hit the stage. I couldn't fault them (apart from the didn't play The Whaler!) with Teppei not on this tour due to the death of his mother you could excuse them for being less than perfect, this was not the case. With only 3 days to learn the songs Nate (The Dear Hunter) stepped up to the plate magnificantly! It was refreshing to see Thrice play with such passion and energy, for a band thats been around for over 10 years its nice to see that playing music is still something that they love! The new songs sound great live and seem to fit in seamlessly with the old material and there was definately a few oldies thrown in for good measure with an excellent rendition of Deadbolt. Dustin came on solo for the encore asking the crowd to decide between Stare at the Sun and Come all you Weary. Come all you Weary won out and the whole band closed the set with Beggars.

We are the Ocean are on their way to big things this year with the release of their debut 'Cutting our Teeth' out January 25th (something I will be pre-ordering!, this being my 3rd time seeing them, they just get better and better. Lots of energy, lots of riffage and supurb vocals from Dan and Liam. Expect 2010 to be their year!

Friday 15 January 2010

Damaged goods

La Dispute where have you been?

This is to fire!!!

Bands I'm discovering and loving right now

The Graduate

Explosions in the Sky
God is an Astronaut
Consider The Theif
Maybeshewill
Lydia

Resume Ignore

Being ill is soo boring! We have had so much snow and I haven't been able to enjoy it at all and now its all melting away and looks horrible. But enough about the weather its the start of a new year and it's looking promising.

I have numerous gigs to review for Birmingham Live! such as Reel Big Fish, YouMeAt6, HIM, Zebrahead and 65 Days of Static. I also have lots of other gigs to look forward to, Thrice in Manchester, Lostprophets, AFI, Dance Gavin Dance and A Day to Remember, and thats only upto May!

I can't wait to see Thrice, 'Beggars' has been spinning in my cd player for the last couple of nights and it just gets better and better! Plus it means going to Manchester and seing Ffi and Becky!

I'm so unbelivably fed up at work, this was meant to be a temp job, it has been over a year and half :(

The good thing is you can always count on OKGO for a great music video and their latest doesn't dissapoint!

Monday 11 January 2010

Badges and Badges

It's late and I'm tired but this blog feels a bit neglected. So a quick update

New Year- Manchester- Awesome
Thrice- Manchester- Hopefully will be amazing
Work- Sucks
Snow- Fun but cold
Being ill- Sucks

this is shit, proper update tomorrow!