Gig Review

Jagermeister Ice Cold
Skindred, Therapy, Yashin, Rolo Tomassi, Malefice, The Treatment
Birmingham Academy
31st October 2011


Photo Of The Treatment © Copyright Robert Lawrence
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.

Photo Of Malefice © Copyright Robert LawrenceMalefice 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.

Photo Of Rolo Tomassi © Copyright Robert LawrenceRolo 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
Photo Of Yashin © Copyright Robert LawrenceYashin 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.

Photo Of Therapy? © Copyright Robert LawrenceTherapy? 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.

Photo Of Skindred © Copyright Robert LawrenceSkindred 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 Photo Of Skindred © Copyright Robert LawrenceHalloween 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

 Skindred


Benji Webbe
Mikeydemus
Dan Pugsley
Arya Goggin

 Therapy?


Andy Cairns
Michael McKeegan
Neil Cooper

 Yashin


Harry Radford
Kevin Miles
Paul Travers
Andy McShane
Lewis Millen
David Beaton

 Rolo Tomassi


Edward Dutton
Joe Nicholson
Eva Spence
James Spence
Joseph Thorpe

 Malefice


Dale Butler
Ben Symons
Alex Vuskans
Tom Hynes
Chris Allan-Whyte

 The Treatment


Matt Jones
Ben Brookland
Tag Grey
Dhani Mansworth
Swoggle

 Band Related Links
Skindred MySpace
Therapy MySpace
Yashin MySpace
Rolo Tomassi MySpace
Malefice MySpace
The Treatment MySpace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?