Event Reviews

Having never been to The Doghouse venue Carlton, Nottingham before I didn’t know what to expect when I rolled up for The Aces High Festival 2013: 24th and 25th August 2013. The Doghouse turned out to be a smaller concert venue about 2 miles outside Nottingham (on the lilac bus …

Belsonic is what is referred to in modern parlance as a “boutique” festival:  taking place in Belfast’s Custom House Square, a man made auditorium, close by the River Lagan, with apartment blocks to the front and one side of the stage, and the imposing edifice of the Custom House from which …

Tonight’s gig in this former whiskey bonding house come music resource centre is somewhat appropriately branded as ‘Distillation 03’, being as it is the third in the series of special showcase events supported by sponsorship from Bushmills Irish Whiskey… well, such an synergistic association doesn’t really need to provide much …

The car park of a country pub in what we in this part of the universe refer to as ‘the arse-end of nowhere’ may seem an unusual location for an extreme metal event, but here we are:  in a tent, in the pissing rain, at the back of a pub …

Over the past couple of years, Voodoo – a converted restaurant just off Belfast’s main shopping thoroughfare – has become one of my favourite venues in my home city.  Having rapidly established itself as the hangout of choice for a large proportion of the local rock and metal fraternity, it’s …

A selection of photographs from the recent Torche concert at Voodoo Belfast     Photographs by Paul Verner www.livei.co.uk

2013 has been  a very busy year for Uli Jon Roth with over 100 gigs scheduled and he made his second visit in 12 months to The Box in Crewe last Saturday. It was the first of 2 gigs in 2 days (the other at the Diamond in Sutton-In-Ashfield) before …

Take some old school rock like Wolfmother and The Sword, add some lyrics about black magic, rituals and exorcism, add a pinch of influences from some obscure seventies bands as Coven and you have something that sounds just like Year of the Goat. This band puts a great effort into …

Bloodstock Open Air 2013 marks the 6th consecutive time that I have personally attended the festival and over these years I’ve seen the festival change in many ways, good and bad. In the past the cleanliness of the Bloodstock toilets has ranked as the worst festival toilets that I have …

Today I decided to check out Sacred Mother Tongue whose name seems to be haunting me. To be honest I was quite underwhelmed by them and felt that they would pack more of a punch with a more aggressive approach especially in their vocals. I personally thought that the performance …

Although they don’t play their native Ireland on a regular basis, Gama Bomb were tonight returning to Belfast for the second time in around eight months, this time finding themselves in the rather sedate surroundings of the Empire Music Hall:  as its name suggests, this converted church is used to …

There’s a saying about a week being a long time in politics, but in the music business a year can be very short – and that can certainly be said of Belfast upstarts Maverick, for whom this return to the legendary Limelight for their second headline slot in as many …

Belfast has become something of a favourite stopping off point for US bands either going to or from the European festival circuit…  In recent years the path to this little corner of planet metal has been trodden by acts as diverse as Tesla and Metallica, Machine Head and Black Stone …

Back and fresh from playing a great set at the Y-Not Festival, Eva Plays Dead kicked off their mid-summer tour in their home town of Derby. After reviewing the groups last album ‘Guilt Trips and Sins’ for Planetmosh back in June, I then gave it a top 10/10 and put …

Rather than start my day with a full on dose of metal, I pleasantly started it with a slice of medieval full contact battling. In the past the Viking battling had been a little on the soft side, wielding wooden swords and could get boring pretty quickly. Medieval battling on the …

After yesterday’s heat I was hoping for a cooler start to the second day (first for the Friday arrivals), however, I had no such luck. Another blazing hot start to the day. Today’s breakfast band for me consisted of some “Great British heavy fucking metal” in the form of Absolva. …

When is a tribute band not a tribute band?  One answer would be when the band is question is not only in itself a tribute to the great music which it performs but also contains within its ranks the majority of the supremely talented musicians which created that music – …

Today was the day that we’d all been waiting for. The first day of the highly anticipated bloodstock open air 2013. Each year the eagerly awaiting crowd starts congregating at the gates earlier and earlier demanding entry but the security hold their ground until the specified 12pm opening time. An …

A tremendous night of rock and metal from four very different bands and all in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust unfolded at the Classic Grand in Glasgow as the Headbangers Balls Tour rolled into town. 12 tour dates spread across July and August with over 40 of the UK’s finest upcoming …

Gig reviews for Planetmosh are posted in a section called Event Reviews and the Headbangers Balls gig is worthy of being called an event and not just a gig due to the reasons behind it. The tour consists of 12 UK dates on weekends between July 12th to August 17th …