Tag Archives: Gig Review. Zanzibar

The Renaissance, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Manchester band The Renaissance undertook their debut Liverpool gig at Zanzibar and they made themselves right at home.

Having only played seven gigs together so far the four-piece band gave the open-staged night at one of Liverpool’s oldest and finest renowned Jazz bars their all. With a simple set-up of vocals, bass guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums and a playing-it-safe stage presence it was unbeknown to the comfortable and already previously swooned audience as what to expect.

The Renaissance, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(472 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Against The Sky, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The year seems to be slowly ebbing away, the nights are getting darker and the absurdity of such inclement weather for the time of year is enough to install a sense of deprivation and foreboding for the winter ahead.

What Liverpool has though is the means to generate heat, warmth and an overpowering urge to shake off the blues as easily as making sure that Westminster undesirables are never able to find their way past the Mersey. That heat, that serious endeavour to keep new music coming through the ranks and the venues of the home of culture is what keeps the smiles on the faces across all sections and genres of music lovers in the city.

Against The Sky, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(341 words, estimated 1:22 mins reading time)

Skylights, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are moments you feel for a band, when the Gods distract the flow and even the tiniest interruption could make or break the moment of absolute clarity. Bands of immense stature have suffered it and some have even folded under the pressure on the day, the music never really capturing the intensity that came before it. Yet in amongst the darkness of perhaps seen negativity an illumination can appear and what follows is just as hard core, just as enjoyable to watch as before the mishap on stage occurs.

Skylights, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(353 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

The Also Known As, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Everyone has a story to tell, to impart perhaps for the betterment or understanding of humanity’s place in the world and the ways that even the softest voice can change someone’s idea of what it means to achieve something extraordinary.

July may have ended on a bigger whimper than a child being offered a milkshake, fries and a juicy burger if it kept quiet all day, only to find that the parents had actually meant boiled cabbage and carrot water but in terms of young local bands finding their first steps into the creative, sometimes harsh but always nurturing, aspect of Liverpool music, July had been a God-send and as the month breathed its last The Zanzibar Club gave one more surprise in the collaboration series as The Also Known As played with minimum fuss and cool stance upon their stage.

The Also Known As, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(386 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Crowning Sky, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is something very cool, something very loveable that sits within the framework of Crowning Sky and for a band that stood out for being the only one not coveting the moody and brooding on a hot July evening. This tangibility of heartening spirit, that welcoming approach that sat with the brilliance on offer by the other three sets of artists at Zanzibar was enough to raise a smile of simple creative enjoyment rather than the grin and gob-smacked generosity that shook the hands of the other acts.

Crowning Sky, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

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

The Sneaky Nixons, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

The Sneaky Nixons at Zanzibar, Liverpool. July 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The sound of a lonely trumpet, mournful, respect inducing and being blown as if the last vestige of light was being snuffed out across the city and the rampaging hoards under the command of the Four Horsemen were clambering at the old walls, played out with a kind of skittish solemnity; for not everything in life sounds as though it is seen. Not every great explosion and brutally exquisite note is heralded by beauty in some eyes and yet as the dark shadows collected in the late July evening and the party revellers bounced to a incoherent beat somewhere in the distance, The Sneaky Nixons stormed the troops and the true beat of nature was there to be felt and admired in droves.

The Sneaky Nixons, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(461 words, 1 image, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Shamanarchy, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Shamanarchy’s Rowan Reid, Zanzibar, Liverpool. July 205. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is impossible to not love a woman with attitude, not the type of posturing of the insane found in either gender that has them starting fights and the tears before bedtime attitude but the type of the strong, down to earth, assured in their viewpoint and not scared to give a collected audience a show that sticks long in the memory. A performance made even more impressive because of how that woman has bought the male members of the band up to the same bruising and musically intellectual point that she has attained, that is true attitude.

Shamanarchy, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(411 words, 1 image, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Sophie Anderson, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Sophie Anderson at the Zanzibar in Liverpool. July 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There was a time when Sophie Anderson might have thought that the day had gone well to be called up at the last minute and asked if she was free to do a set at The Lomax. However, so much can happen in two and a half years, so much can take place and what was considered bountiful and awe-inspiring can undergo such transformation that the musical butterfly with a voice somewhere between Grace Slick and Marcella Detroit has become even more needed as a guide vocal, a motivation to young women everywhere and the voice; the voice has become rapturous.

Sophie Anderson, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(477 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Paul Wilkes, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

In some respects Al Capone may have had the greatest of intentions, albeit ultimately flawed and with murderous, evil intent, that to stage a massacre on Valentine’s Day would be remembered in the headlines of the papers of Chicago and further afield forever. However in the scheme of things and perhaps arguably with more noble and cherished intentions, the day does belong to those who make the most of the moving and special quality that a card and a prohibition gun can’t quite cut through.

Paul Wilkes, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(402 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Cal Ruddy, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Cal Ruddy, Zanzibar, Liverpool. February 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To become a hero, to wallow just for a short while in deserved applause, the aspiring musician need not sell his soul to sit in the reflected glory of a highly profitable television programme, all they need to do is come through the possible agony of a live performance in front of friends and family in which some difficulties, otherwise known as real life, are met head on and beaten by sheer force of will and the demeanour of one born to succeed.

Cal Ruddy, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(521 words, 1 image, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)