I get to the academy 2 tonight, after the queues
have gone, but well before Cars on fire take to
the stage, only to find myself not on the list.
When I finally get everything sorted, I catch
the tail end of cars on fire set, it seemed like
they put on a good show, but I can’t really
say as I only saw the last song.
So the first band I see properly tonight is main
support Forever Never, a Metal band from these
shores. The first thing you notice well I should
say feel, is the bass, it was very much over the
top tonight, the opening track, I thought that
my rob cage was going to vibrate open! I feel
sorry for the poor bastards on the front row,
with no earplugs and basically rooted to one spot!
OK, so on with the music, there songs have their
bright spots, be it at a break down or guitar
solo, the rest of the song well its decent enough
and has catchy moments, but mostly seems by the
numbers metal, the vocals while competent, there
really typical of a lot of bands that are about
these days, plus there’s a strange American
accent to it! The drumming is solid and precise,
with lots of bass whacking away at your ribcage;
the blasting in the opening song really had the
water in drinks bucket moving. Overall, it’s
a good visual performance by the band, full of
energy to match their songs, but the music while
full of pace and vigour, just didn't really grab
me that much, nothing really stuck in my mind.
3/5
Skindred, quite surprised that there not playing
in the bigger room, as the academy 2 tonight is
sold out and heaving, it was like a sauna in there,
When the set started with the intro of AC/DCs
'Your shook me all night long', The whole room
became very much alive, There opener Stand for
something bought the house down, madness erupted,
and the temperature went through the roof, causing
some photographers lenses to fog up, not mine
though! Third song, ‘you can’t stop
it' heavy as hell, much better than the album
version. ‘Pressure' when they teased the
crowd with the into, then stopped, a riot could
have broken out easily, when they went full into
it, it was the best live performance of Pressure
I’ve ever seen, phenomenal performance.
The whole package just felt a whole lot better
than the last time I saw them, there smaller rooms
like this are built for nights like this, the
band being close to the crowd feeding of each
other’s energy, fantastic. I had to leave
though the back door mid set because I was getting
baked at the front, I got back in through the
front door to watch from the back, cooler it was
a relief! the rest of the set included, Bruises,
Rude boy for life and Destroy. I don’t think
they missed a beat, it was a top performance which
ended as they started really on fire tonight,
Invincible and nobody rounded off a brilliant
set and set the hot and sweaty people back outside
to the cool air to dry off and be happy that they've
witnessed a brilliant live show.
Forver Never 3/5
Skindred 5/5
Review By Robert Lawrence |
