Category Archives: Live

Ingrid Frøsland, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Ingrid Frøsland was in unique company as she stood on the stage at Studio 2 on Parr Street. Not only did she meet head on the hopes and expectations of the abundant crowd who had come to see her perform but she slotted herself perfectly into a night of female led revolution as part of March’s Strings and Things. She carried the Norwegian flag high alongside Mari Hajem and Nora Konstanse, an image which would not look out of place if the Norwegians had been allowed to lead the storming of the Bastille.

Ingrid Frøsland, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(420 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Mari Hajem, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

In an evening of music supplied by Stillhet’s Strings and Things, an evening in which the order of the day was showing female talent that resides in the heart of the city of Liverpool, the Nordic beating heart of atmospheric Noir-like pop tones with shades of the Progressive cleverly interwoven throughout every sinew, may not have been the first thought in many people’s minds of what to expect on the first day of the month in which the freezing cold is meant to be banished back to its Antarctica cave.

Mari Hajem, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(427 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Helena Johnson, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Say what you will about the modern age, moan about it being over commercial, intrusive, noisy to the point of petulant or even just plain out of step with how you remember it from your childhood but as a marketing tool to get you sit up and take notice of life outside your front door, the modern age is unsurpassable.

Helena Johnson, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(395 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Blind Monk Trio, Gig Review. International Jazz Festival, Capstone Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Jazz still has this wild, perhaps unfounded large target placed upon its broad, rather muscular shoulders, that it is all about the improvisation, or worse the same detractors will then start shouting the odds on how it perhaps placed firmly into the stale arena. This is partly in thanks to the limited knowledge of those who wander in off the streets without at least reading up, even slightly, on the extensive and abundant subject.

Blind Monk Trio, Gig Review. International Jazz Festival, Capstone Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(440 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

White Canvas, Gig Review. International Jazz Festival, Capstone Theatre, Liverpool. (2015).

White Canvas at the Capstone Theatre (2015), Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

From the planting of a single tiny acorn, White Canvas has flowered, grown and developed a sound that in two short years is so good it practically wears a halo and has no need for repentance for anything it does.

Two years after making their debut as part of the Liverpool International Jazz Festival at the Capstone Theatre, White Canvas returned to the stage inside the acoustically captivating building. What transpired, what was placed before the audience was music of an intrepid, fearless and enjoyable nature, resolute in undertaking, serious enough to appeal to the purist and yet with the subtle side wink of the cheeky added to give it body and grace.

White Canvas, Gig Review. International Jazz Festival, Capstone Theatre, Liverpool. (2015). full post

(374 words, 1 image, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Simon Thacker’s Svara Kanti, Gig Review. International Jazz Festival, Capstone Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Liverpool’s International Jazz Festival held at the Capstone Theatre continues to go from strength to strength and its ability to be greater than the sum of its parts is something in which Liverpool’s music community should take immense pride in; especially when it is fuses the music on offer within its walls to include a hybrid of sound so full of quality that its overflows the senses for the first time listener and holds close to its amalgamated heart those that have followed it for a while.

Simon Thacker’s Svara Kanti, Gig Review. International Jazz Festival, Capstone Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(427 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Nicola Farnon Trio, Gig Review. Liverpool International Jazz Festival. Capstone Theatre, Liverpool.

Nicola Farnon, International Jazz Festival, Liverpool. 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

If art is being performed with an abundance of passion then gravitate towards it with as much passion in return, for sparks and genuine appreciation will certainly run back and forth for the entire time the performer is on stage.

Nicola Farnon Trio, Gig Review. Liverpool International Jazz Festival. Capstone Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(401 words, 1 image, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

The Classic Rock Show, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. (2015).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Even now there is a kind of reverence attached to finding a good Rock pub and seeing in the corner a juke box. Shuffling over, walking past the possible bruising and certain derogatory tones should your choices fill the place with ire or at the very least, a tut from the resident barman who will give you a blank look all night when you try to order a beer, you take a cursory glance at the music on offer and finding a pound in amongst the lint and fluff, make your well-armed choice.

The Classic Rock Show, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. (2015). full post

(582 words, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)

All We Are, Gig Review. ALoft Hotel, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Only All We Are could be magnificent enough, dare to be different enough, to play venues in Liverpool that nobody else might ever think of. If a night in Williamson Tunnels on the edge of town, a venue more in keeping for the wake that was held for the much missed British horror writer James Herbert, was taken with as much seriousness and endeavour as performing for others might approach a night at the Echo Arena, then to play a selection of songs inside a hotel is to be considered just as different and inspiring.

All We Are, Gig Review. ALoft Hotel, Liverpool. full post

(495 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

The War On Drugs, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

The War On Drugs, Liverpool Academy. February 2015. Photograph by John Johnson.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The audience’s ears would still arguably be ringing days after the event as The War On Drugs assaulted the senses of a rammed Liverpool O2 Academy. Overdriven guitars, FX-laden keyboards and a bass with more bottom end than Loch Ness all contributed to a night of aural frenzy for the 1000 or so that jammed the big room in the venue on Hotham Street.

The War On Drugs, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(376 words, 1 image, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)