It is a pleasure to see To Kill A King perform at Brudenell Social Club. A petite but amazing venue, watching anyone perform here can feel so personal and special, it is like they are performing just for you. And that’s exactly what To Kill A King make you feel.
Gavin James has been gathering fans at an electric pace with his acoustic performances. The title track from his début Say Hello EP also scooped the Choice Meteor ‘Song of the Year Award’ for 2012 whilst the EP itself entered the Irish iTunes album chart at number 1. This is why we arrive early to catch his support slot for fellow compatriots Kodaline - which eventually pans out be a night of top performances.
A lot can be said for gigs at the prestigious King Tuts Wah Wah Hut. But although I have frequented the venue on numerous occasions - running the eye over Glasgow’s thriving grassroots music scene - I am still yet to experience why it was voted ‘Britain’s Best Small Venue’ by NME in 2011. Tonight however, suggests that one need only witness King Tut’s hosting a top line-up in order to see this 300 capacity venue come to life. Kodaline and Co. do just the trick.
Out of the growing music scene in Leeds, a new era is being born. The electronic scene is developing through house and its variations. This in turn has given way to new clubs; Canal Mills, Mint Warehouse, and The Garage. Such venues have raised the profile of Leeds, allowing it to compete with its party rival down the M62, Manchester, and even the musical powerhouse that is London.
From Dunedin (NZ) to Dunedin (UK), as was, Die!Die!Die! hit town to promote new album Harmony & bring it home to me that now's maybe the time to invest in some earplugs for gigs. This was a damn loud show. They perpetrate this sonic terrorism at breakneck speed, battering out such selections as 'Blinding' (from the Promises Promises album of 2007) with barely a gap for any light to get in between one song and the next.
In the terrifying collision of man and machine that is twenty-first century electronic music, ‘performers’ are disappearing behind the cut and paste, loops and samples. Emphasis has been put on making the machines sing ,whilst faces behind them exist only as an extension of the instrument. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in dance music, and nowhere is dance music more prevalent than Berlin.
