 I
get into the wulrun hall, all ok tonight, not
even any problems getting in. Not long after i
get in with my girlfriend, i have to rush into
the pit and start shooting with my coat on getting
a bit hot in there really.
First band on was Counterpoint a hard rock band
from the UK, they open with 'Skin deep', its not
a bad song, its heavy on a hard rock sence, decent
riff, sounds somewhat like Buckcherry, possible
modeled there sound after them, only seem to be
doing better in not sounding tired and in the
catchyness stakes, they got off to a good start,
next up was House of jazz, a lesser song than
the opener, still sounding like Buckcherry though,
which as the set hoes on there songs could have
easily come from the Buckcherry cutting room floor!
There songs while heavy, the aren't ear splitting
loud, good sound levels. The vocals seem to sound
generic hard rock with what sounds like an American
accent. They played a fairly new tune tonight
called 'Cant breath', it wasn't too bad you can
hear it on their myspace page. Overall they put
on a good show, but they need to try and develop
a more distinct sound!
 Main support tonight was soil, a band that for
a while seem to have fallen off the map, up until
a few years ago im sure they would have been headlining,
but as it is there main support! I think the song
everyone was waiting for was 'Halo', an song from
my and many people i know, youth.They opened with
Give it up, a fairly decent opener, but not a
real grab your attention kind of tracks, next
up was a few older tracks, Unreal and Breaking
me down, these songs was split by a new track
off the album of the soon to be released Picture
Perfect, i enjoyed the new track as it seems a
bit more up to date than the older stuff which
defiantly sounds its still stuck in the nu-metal
era. After a short break the song everyone was
waiting for, Halo, its a classic or atleast brings
on good feelings from possible better days, still
heavy still sounding as great as ever, and the
AJ the singer deciding near the end of the track
to climb one of the speaker stacks then jump off.
 Headliners and band on the rise are shinedown,
Hard rock sound with wanna be stadium rock ambitions!
The sellout stadium tours may come at somepoint,
but a sold out wulfrun hall aint bad going, its
been full pretty much all night. They opened with
Sound of Madness, which was followed by 'save
me' then '.45' , they seem to be sounding like
a fair few bands, Nickleback being one of them,
its all very cliche stuff, especially in between
songs, giving the speeches, that included, we
don't wanna be anywhere else but here speech,
no doubt played to every crowd, and the women
are great speech, to which my girlfriend agreed,
but said it was very cliche for sure! There sound
is as far from original as it gets really, but
they do what they do well, they have some decent
riffs, the vocals you've heard a million times,
the lyrics are generic really, but they do have
a decent quality to them, very CD like, a decent
clean sound, which i do enjoy, Visually they put
on a good performance. Im Sure they'll get their
time in the sun, with any of the songs they played
tonight is a possible hit waiting to happen! The
crowd was loving it, one thing my girlfriend noticed
was that the crowd seemed to be made up of older
people than us, i guess this is the sound the
older rockers seem to like. Other songs that featured
in their set was 'If you only knew', 'Call me'
which i was expecting some kind of guitar solo
to be broken out ontop of a piano, but luckily
it was only a keyboard and no solos turned up
either! After the short interval when the inevitable
encore is duly about to start, they opened with
Second Chance, a song i know, which the crowd
gave a massive cheer to and sang along to and
which is there most successful single to date,
this was then followed by Devour there second
most successful single to date, another cheer
but less singing this time, but a decent fast
paced closer!
Counterpoint – 3/5
Soil – 4/5
Shinedown - 5/5
Review By Robert Lawrence |
