Glamour
of the Kill are back in Birmingham once again
on a pretty heavy line up, having seen them several
times before I know what the band are really capable
of. Tonight was a bit too much sound wise because
I think my ears are blown, it was only for their
set but I feel the fact that everything was a
bit too loud and unclear which I feel is why the
crowd missed some things that singer Davey was
asking for. They only had a short set so this
is more of a short time to showcase but I feel
the song selection was spot on; opening with “Supremacy”,
“Hope In Hell”, “If She Only
Knew”, “Worlds End”, then closing
with “Feeling Alive”. After their
3rd song their stage was invaded by Alesana’s
guitarist drunkenly thinking it was time for him
to play, was pretty funny. With a room that’s
surprisingly full for a first act I feel they’ve
won a few people over, shame about my ear drums
though but I’ll get over it.
Iwrestledabearonce
rattled my brain around. The harsh combination
of strobes and complex songs with various electronics
rendered me totally speechless. Don’t get
me wrong this kind of music really isn’t
my thing and I wouldn’t listen to it at
home but this tiny female vocalist puts some top
male screamers to absolute shame, I couldn’t
believe it. A portion of the crowd has left by
this point (to where I’ll never know they
all came back later) but this doesn’t go
unnoticed and the band rationalises it with some
dark humour. Not only am I deaf but I’m
not blind, everything’s taking a hit tonight
but whilst I dislike this music their raw energy
and sheer hyperactive behaviour makes for a very
good show. Halfway through again Alesana feel
it necessary to invade except this time it’s
the front row of the crowd for a bit of a rave
and to assert their presence I feel, it takes
nothing away from the set and they’ve genuinely
impressed me.
We
Came As Romans dominate the night. The room is
now more packed than it’s been all night
and turned into a warzone. It’s absolute
chaos people getting taken down left right and
centre boys and girls alike (I say that due to
the youth of most of the people in here). For
the first time tonight a band has come out and
aggressively asserted their presence in the venue
rather than hope the crowd will like them. Clear
vocal projections make every request and instruction
heard and understood, you can see confidence just
pouring out of them as they give it all they’ve
got. Both vocalists get their fair share of the
spotlight and don’t overshadow each other
which is nice to see for once, the crowd hangs
on every word from both men. Definitely the performance
of the night, again not a huge fan of their music
but I really enjoyed watching them it was a pleasure.
Alesana
themselves summed up their set from the start;
“So you’ve all had a good night so
far yeah? Well it’s all downhill from here,
we are Alesana” and downhill was an understatement.
By this point it’s quite clear a sizable
portion of the crowd were only here for We Came
As Romans as they’ve all left the venue
and headed home not even giving Alesana a chance.
It quickly becomes abundantly clear that their
all a bit too drunk after antics we’ve seen
before they’ve even come on stage (Guitarist
thinking he was on during the first band, singer
invading the crowd during Iwrestledabearonce)
and its clearer when the singer is tripping up
and generally making a tit of himself on stage.
At first I thought the lead mic was experiencing
problems as it was barely audible at times but
it must have been the vocalist as it worked during
his deep growls but not on the higher ones. Every
aspect of the performance was sloppy and with
the room being near enough empty now I can’t
get into it at all, very disappointed compared
to what I was expecting.
GOTK – 3.5/5
Iwrestledabearonce – 3/5
We Came As Romans – 4/5
Alesana – 2/5
Review By James Webb
Photos By Robert Lawrence
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