The Load In August may have been a relatively quiet month in terms of the volume of events I attended, but there can be no doubt that the quality has been exceptionally high. Having already spoken at length about Radar festival in my last column, I only have three more…
The Load-In Before we properly get stuck in to a busy month of shows, I did just want to share a little story about a brief encounter with a fellow gig junkie with Olympic-level commitment to the live music cause. Taking a breather from the band’s during my day on…
The Load-In Aaaaand we’re back. Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn’t, but I substituted last month’s column for my Keith Flint memorial piece. That felt like it needed to be done. I had been intending to write about the pestilence that is crowd-killing, and the knuckle-headed idiocy of vocalists saying…
The Load-In As I write these words, we are deep in the festive dead-zone, where gigs by anyone other than tribute or function bands are practically non-existent. Fortunately, in amongst the office parties and family commitments, I still managed to find a couple of shows to go to in December,…
Four years ago, I started to keep a complete list of every band I saw. Three years ago, I began kicking myself for not starting that childishly simple task sooner. Never mind. At least I can tell you exactly what I got up to this year – with one important caveat. A…
Now that’s more like it. After a couple of uncommonly lean months, my gig diary was back up to fighting weight in November, and I saw around thirty bands (some of them twice, but we’ll get to that), including some past and present favourites, giving me plenty to write about…
The Load-In My July, as you may have already seen from my review, is always dominated by Tech Fest. For the last six consecutive summers, I’ve enjoyed a highly concentrated weekend of general merriment, sub drops, breakdowns and attempting to headbang in 7/4. Which is super. In addition to the…
You can’t download a show. It’s no understatement to say that the internet changed almost everything. Today, imagining a world without Wi-Fi is tantamount to imagining a world without cars – we probably could just about manage, but everything would take an awful lot longer. Certainly, the way we discover,…
Disappointed by the new Underoath album? Me too. Never fear! If it’s forward-thinking, emotionally-charged, math-and-post-tinged hardcore you’re looking for, then Palm Reader have more than got you covered with their brand new record, Braille. The Nottingham quintet have long been one of the best kept secrets of the UK hardcore…
Each month, we always seem to come to the same conclusion when it comes to our Editors’ Picks column: Friday release days open the floodgates and unleash a seemingly endless stream of quality new music. But while some of our Editors and Contributors sit down gleefully each week to dive into this newly stocked treasure…
