Academy
2
The Treatment are first up in the smaller room
of tonight’s mini festival; having hit the
stage merely seconds after Yashin who opened up
the main room, they are greeted to a horrifically
empty room. Initially I thought that was going
to be it and felt deep sympathy for the band but
thankfully as time passes more people begin to
arrive. Being relatively unknown on a bill filled
with predominantly metal artists, The Treatment
bring the rock and roll tonight and really fight
to be noticed. I welcome this sleazy rock style
with open arms and find myself extremely impressed
with what I’ve seen; to start with it is
true that the room may not be anywhere near full,
very few people may be getting involved with the
band or singing along but determination and perseverance
pays off for them and by the time it’s time
for them to leave the crowd is cheering and clapping.
What an extremely impressive set from these up
and coming future legends, a memorable set I will
remember from the night.
 Malefice have a very hard time playing tonight,
not only are they following Therapy? who put on
quite a show but they are also the victims of
circumstance. The band was placed on the bill
after all the posters were printed and all of
the advertising was done, so none of the bands
fans are aware of them playing. That I feel has
something to do with why what happened to The
Treatment is happening again; initially the room
was filled with empty space but as time progresses
the room actually filled up nicely. Now normally
a Malefice show would contain excessive amounts
of blood, violence and bone breaking because the
fans are bat shit crazy, tonight however draws
a crowd of people checking Malefice out for the
first time so the most aggression on show here
is some pretty vigorous head banging. It’s
such a shame about the turnout for most of the
set and the atmosphere due to the lack of their
dedicated fans, the band have really embraced
the Halloween spirit and gone to great lengths
to put on a great show, the band are dressed as
butchers by wearing aprons coating in blood. If
this was their own headline show chaos would have
erupted, due to the fact that it didn’t
I found myself enjoying them much less than usual.
 Rolo Tomassi are the final band to play tonight;
after Skindred had just obliterated the main room
of the venue, there was definitely a big question
I was asking myself, how do Rolo Tomassi plan
on competing with that? It is clear from what
I’ve just witnessed that they never intended
on competing with the ‘Dred because if they
did they failed miserably. Whilst lead vocalist
Eva Spence however definitely entertained me in
a special way, the music and overall performance
almost put me to sleep, imagine taking a Viagra
then a punch to the face, a boner and a migraine
are not the best combination of circumstances.
Initially however the turnout is much better than
the previous acts playing this room tonight, not
by much though and there’s no excuse there
were no other bands playing. Having seen what
they had to offer however I cannot blame people
for not sticking around and the ones that dead
leaving not even half way through. Such an incredibly
dull and boring performance; no display of energy,
little movement, minimal interaction, a lack of
anything really, its just music with a ridiculous
amount of blinding strobes. That’s really
not for me thank you very much, come back to me
when you get a bit more life in your show.
Main Academy
 Yashin open up the night but unfortunately
for me by the time I arrived at the venue, the
band only had a few songs left, however from what
I saw they band put on a good show. The band displayed
huge bursts of energy, loyalty to their fans and
blasting a heavy as hell brand of Scottish Post-Hardcore.
The final song of their set is a Britney Spears
cover, “Everytime” to be exact and
it goes down a storm with their fan’s and
first time attendees alike, from what I’ve
seen they put on a good show but not a spectacular
performance.
 Therapy? hit the stage next in this main
room but 3rd over all, by this point people are
warmed up and ready to go, this band in particular
have a lot of dedicated fans in attendance tonight
who are all beaming from beginning to end. Not
being a fan myself I can’t really comment
on the material but I can see for myself that
their strange alternative metal style can be quite
trippy at times which the band uses in their performance
to put on quite a sophisticated show. I’ve
never listened to the band before and after this
show its clear that a lengthy career has allowed
the band to perfect every aspect of their live
show and they’ve matured like a fine whiskey,
the longer they go the better they get.
 Skindred are still an unstoppable force
of nature. I am glad to see the band finally getting
the recognition they truly deserve; when a band
possesses this sheer talent and produce some of
the greatest music of all time that is not only
contagious but is ripe with musical originality
when a sea of imitation and generic metal bands
flood the world it’s something worth worshipping.
When you combine that with the pure charisma and
onstage entertainment given by front man Benji
Webbe what you then have is the full package;
music for a broad range of music fans to enjoy,
one of the best live shows you will ever witness
and dedication to the British Metal Scene. As
this is  Halloween night the band are wearing a
variety of assorted costumes; most notable being
The Imperial March playing as the bands intro
and Benji strides onstage as Darth Vader. The
band may only manage 10 songs due to all of the
playful activities and strange shenanigans Benji
produces and inspires but that’s the whole
point of the Dred’s live show its hilarious
fun. The best tracks were definitely “Trouble”
which included the “Sad But True”
cover, “Destroy The Dancefloor” which
included the heavy metal robot dance, “Doom
Riff” which had a huge sing along competition
and the “Selector/Pass Out” mash up
which has become ritual. After fan favourites
“Pressure” and “Nobody”
the band briefly departs before returning to a
dance/dub remix of “Breathe” by The
Prodigy before unleashing the bands heaviest track
to date “Warning”, the clothing comes
off and the garment helicopter causes all kinds
of hell, another Skindred gig to get a perfect
rating from me but believe me they always earn
it.
The Treatment – 4/5
Malefice – 3.5/5
Rolo Tomassi – 1.5/5
Yashin – 3/5
Therapy? – 3.5/5
Skindred – 5/5
Review By James Webb
Photos By Robert Lawrence |
