Live Review: James Blake @ the Manchester Gorilla

Pic: Maanik Chadda, James Blake

Manchester Gorilla, UK - 06/12/12

James Blake treated an intimate Manchester crowd to intriguing new material and highlights from his self-titled debut album.

The sell-out crowd saw a steady, balanced set with moments of sadness and joy through Blake's spine-tingling falsetto voice and majestic use of his synths and keys.

He opened with dubstep bass-heavy track Air And Lack Thereof with a slick, addictive snare drum beat.

The haunting repeated lyrics in I Never Learnt To Share work with the extremely distorted synths to combust in a mind-blowing explosion of musical ecstasy.

Popular Feist cover, Limit To Your Love, soon follows to put the audience in a head-nodding state of contentment.

The beautiful Lindisfarne duo gelled elegantly along with Blake's effortless vocals, repeated drum beat and distorted guitar riff.

All senses are go when a James Blake fan hears the opening notes to CMYK. The R&B dance favourite samples the simple lyrics 'look I found her red coat' to lift the crowd into a gentle dubstep sway.

Engaging new songs were well received but they failed to challenge his past masterpieces.

The encore began with a build up to a perfectly sustained garage-influenced dubstep mix.

The Londoner ended confidently with strongest album track The Wilhelm Scream to provide the ideal climax to a blissful evening.

Blake's warm-up act, Lone, was pleasant, relaxing and distinctly average throughout. Uplifting at times, Matt Cutler's repetitive blend of drum and bass, 90s new rave and 80s synths was suitable background music to prepare for the real thing.

Although Blake may not have met the incredibly high standards of his studio recordings live, he has still proved that he can captivate an enchanted crowd on a cold December night.

The set list is below:

Air And Lack Thereof
I Never Learnt To Share
Our Dog Comes Back
Limit To Your Love
Lindisfarne
Over-Come
CMYK
Everyday I Ran Around The Park
(We're Going) To The Pub
Klavierwerke
Retro Clothes Shop
The Wilhelm Scream

Bon Iver touch the soft spot at Wembley

Bon Iver. Pic: rockzoom_de

Bon Iver @ Wembley Arena, London, UK - 08/11/12

There's only one Justin. And no, I don't mean the young boy who created an unwanted fever, or the one out of N'Sync who's post group era I did actually quite enjoy...or even the one who brought back the A-Team. I am of course talking about Justin Vernon, the inspirational lead of the most mesmerising group of the past few years, Bon Iver.

With immense help from his eight companions on stage, Vernon managed to captivate a sold-out Wembley Arena full of young bearded men who enjoyed the one night where they didn't have to convince people they're not growing it for Movember, but they are just naturally gifted at pulling off facial hair that unfortunately makes myself look quite threatening...

The heart-wrenching intro to Perth sent goosebumps racing to set the tone for what would undoubtedly become an unforgettable evening.

Thunderous lights, parallel to the explosive closing to the opening song, crashed down on the darkly lit stage.

The shredded hanging curtains and rows of small blue standing lights created a caved atmosphere to match their enclosed, earthy sounds.

Following the album set-up, the spectacular Minnesota brought us some intricately simple acoustic guitar playing with haunting falsetto harmonies while Vernon lullabies 'never gonna' break'.

The Grammy nominated Holocene was delivered to perfection. Every harmony and repeated brush of a snare left you hopelessly falling for all nine geniuses on stage.

Wash. provided the most simple, yet effective, Bon Iver opening. The two repeated chords formed the base, while the majestic strings and vocals alongside the train-like percussion allowed you to drop into your own magical world of unconditional bliss.

The compelling harmonic intro to Towers began the most impressively composed song by Bon Iver as the acapella vocals towards the end contrasted wonderfully with the complex climax.

Bon Iver. Pic: rockzoom_de

Vernon instantly befriended the audience once he stepped onto the stage and his awkward yet incredibly comfortable conversing only kept our eyes and ears glued.

Intriguing support act from Watford, The Staves, warmed up a chilled audience 

who waited graciously in anticipation.

The three sisters were clinical in their harmonies and created quite an atmosphere using only their daunting voices, an acoustic guitar and a ukelele.

The group joined Vernon on stage while the remainder of Bon Iver took a break to enjoy Re: Stacks performed as an impressive stripped down version.

You could have heard a pin drop in a fixated Wembley crowd. Groups of heads turned unexpectedly when a phone's record sound was heard by many...

The Staves left to a gracious applause while the mystical Flume amazed before Calgary linked into Beth/Rest for an unfortunate out-of-place 80s synth-heavy end to an otherwise unforgettable set.

Thankfully, to rid the worrying potential that we just experienced the poorest song to close the set, it didn't end there. The encore went straight into trademark song Skinny Love with thousands singing to 'my, my, my...'. Who would have thought that this lyric could join so many together to share an unlikely classic Wembley moment.

Vernon then surprisingly called for audience participation to sing 'what have I lost?' in a mind-blowing The Wolves (Act II and II). The silences were as vital as the increased speed of the strumming and the repeated harmonised vocals in a faultless rendition.

Although final song For Emma was pleasant, the set probably went on one song too many as Wolves would have been the perfect closer.

Nevertheless, the band from Wisconsin have travelled far since their HMV Hammersmith Apollo performance just one year ago.

The soft folk rockers tackled the mighty arena with few flaws and can all keep their dignity intact after a heroic and memorable night.

Live Review: The Crookes @ The Sugarmill, Hanley

The Sugarmill, Hanley, Staffordshire, UK - 02/11/12

The Crookes' George Waite. Pic: Maanik Chadda

Sheffield-based band The Crookes hit the stage at The Sugarmill in Hanley with an uplifting vibrancy in the air.

Stoke-on-Trent favourites Moral Panics and fellow South Yorkshire group Hey Sholay had set the tone with confident support.

The local rockers were playing their final show with bassist Charlie Maskrey and were determined not to disappoint with a chilling acapella ending to Voids and a passionate-as-always rendition of addictive riff-based song Move Your Feet.
 
Following their successful mosh-pit at the Hippy Horror Festival in Blythe Bridge last weekend, the boys enjoyed a calmer response from the crowd.

Although a risky shortened cover of LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem was off-putting, they swiftly moved on to leave you with that typical Moral Panics uncontrollable urge to sing ‘and all the talking…’ in your head over and over again.

Hey Sholay impressed without ever really surprising. Their solid set was pleasant but never broke the boundaries they always seemed capable of going through.

They play a self-described “breed of psychedelic independent pop with a hint of the Northern Lights captured in a jam jar”.  That twinkle in the sky was slightly blurred, but was still there.
Liam Creamer’s stunning vocals were at the forefront of a wonderfully balanced performance which deservedly maintained the attention of many.

The band are supporting The Crookes for the following two weeks after becoming great friends and competitors.

Hey Sholay's Liam Creamer. Pic: Maanik Chadda

Keyboard player and guitarist for Hey Sholay, Liam Ward, said: “We used to see them in a pool hall and play with them and then they got us to play squash with them because they’re really big squash players.

“There’s a fierce rivalry,” he joked.

The Crookes’ Drummer Russell Bates was pleased to have them on the bill too.

“They’re bloody great and they’re top lads,” he said. “So we thought ‘let’s take them on tour’.”

Although the crowd were perhaps not as lively as those at some of the  recent European shows the headliners have played, The Crookes put on a fine display.

The four-piece caught the ears of the crowd with their catchy riffs and built-up guitar and drum combinations while George Waite’s effortless vocals captivated the audience, particularly during an acapella intro.

Particular audience highlights included Bloodshot Days and George’s hair thrashing over the microphone.

The most poignant moment of the night was at first the most confusing.

One by one The Crookes strolled down the steps to take centre stage of the dance floor to perform an appealing acoustic number.

All four sang harmonies while the surrounding crowd stared in awe, clapping along to its crescendo.

They also provided a consistency of electricity between band members and the ability to make enough fans rock lightly from front to back, and occasionally even from side to side.

Click below to see more images from the gig: