Tag Archives: o2 Academy

Pavilions, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Even the most optimistic of music lovers are fully aware that to not see a band for around a year and expect them to play with the same consistency, the same richness that attracted you to them in the first place, could be seen as neglect, musical carelessness, a certain mistreatment. After all if human beings can change and grow then why not the artistic endeavours that we pursue. Those same artistic impressions can often lead to a downhill path, the choices made seemingly poor as band politics come into play and ego’s get bruised and battered.

Pavilions, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014) full post

(487 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Buckle Tongue, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To sit infront of a young band who has come out fighting on all fronts since their inception and knowing that each time they appear before you, they just get more sleek, more smooth and unbelievably good is a feeling that warms the heart of even the most ungracious of hearts.

Buckle Tongue, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014) full post

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

The Twang, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Any band that can survive the pre-Christmas atmosphere of The Rainbow in the area of Birmingham called Digbeth, a place in which poets have trembled and the packets of pork scratchings come with their own serving suggestion, will always surely go down well in Liverpool. The Twang exemplify the bridge, the mutual love in that does exist between the cities of Liverpool and Birmingham, especially when it comes to decent, well performed music.

The Twang, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(439 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Pauline Black Of The Selecter.

Every generation gets the music they deserve. As with politicians, it can be a blessing or a curse visited upon those growing up between the time of leaving junior school and the post teenage years and finding music either a godsend or hindrance to their lives. For those who just avoided the golden period of Progressive Rock and were not bothered with the happy go lucky feel of a three minute song that really didn’t have a message there was always Punk and Ska and one of the leading lights of the latter has to be the gracious lead vocalist of Ska favourites The Selecter, Pauline Black.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Pauline Black Of The Selecter. full post

(1309 words, estimated 5:14 mins reading time)

Medina Lake, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If a main act can be surmised by the company it keeps in the type of support it has on before them then Medina Lake should be lauded for being one of the most energetic, most lively and physically demanding bands of the last few years. The invisible energy that had been building up from the start with the outstanding Buckle Tongue, through the Fearless Vampire Killers and Pavilions and culminating in a cacophony of sweat, blistering power and a mutual admiration between rock act and Liverpool audience.

Medina Lake, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(416 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Fearless Vampire Killers, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are mercurial substances when blended together seem to give the potent headiness that makes people swoon, scream with adulation at the very merest thought of having a hand touch a lock of hair and somehow make everything else in the world seem irrelevant; even for the briefest of moments. When the powerful aroma of burgeoning testosterone adds itself to the glitter of eye-liner, a theatrical moodiness and enough spray on pheromones to knock out the navigation systems of any passing passenger liner, then at some point those who made their way to rock gigs in the 1980s may have felt slightly caught unawares by the veneration shown by the crowd as the Fearless Vampire Killers made their way through their set in support of Medina Lake.

Fearless Vampire Killers, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(417 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Buckle Tongue, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Perhaps it was fortuitous that Merseyside band Buckle Tongue opened up their set in support of Medina Lake at the o2 Academy with the song Grow. For in the space of ten months that is exactly what they have done. Ten short months from a place in which they were already impressing those who saw them to a point now where surely they are a band to nurture, to grasp with both hands and say please keep going. Liverpool doesn’t really do the very heavy side of rock but judging by the adoration they received from perhaps even the strangest quarters in the o2, they are ready for bigger things.

Buckle Tongue, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(338 words, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)

Heaven’s Basement, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The walls at the o2 Academy have seen some incredible acts in the long years that it has stood on Hotham Street, it has held those memories within its brickwork and steel framing for so long that perhaps it is unsurprising that those reminiscences, the ghosts of fantastic sessions decided to come out of the stonework, to bleed themselves out and drench the audience in sweat at the outstanding and ear obliterating concert given by Heaven’s Basement.

Heaven’s Basement, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(490 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Buffalo Summer, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Wales has always managed to hold onto its musical secrets until the right time comes along to unleash them upon the world in a blaze of Welsh pride, especially its rock groups. The Alarm, Manic Street Preachers, The Reasoning and The Stereophonics all have become household names over the decades not just in their home country but across the River Severn and through the mountains and hills of the North and invaded the collective music thought of the neighbours in England.

Buffalo Summer, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(362 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

Skarlett Riot, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Some people kick off their weekend by taking off their work shoes slumping infront of the television for the night and only moving again when the television reception goes wonky. Others will be more adventurous and make their way into town and watch television on a big screen as Wimbledon reaches its climax. For some though the chance to take in some music, to find an oasis in a desert, is too compelling an opportunity to mess with and as Skarlett Riot entered the fray at the O2 Academy to a crowd that was already in love with them after catching the foursome finish their warm-up, there may as well have been a big sign stamped on the wall saying, your weekend starts here, rock your heart out and enjoy!

Skarlett Riot, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(392 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)