Been a while since I’ve seen Screaming Banshee Aircrew play (last time may well have been supporting The March Violets a couple of years ago (Pictures). There appear to have been some lineup changes (I’m sure I remember more than 4 in the band?) and a change in sound. There definitely seems to be a bit more of an edge to their sound these days. But it still sounds good, or at least as good as it can through ear plugs 12″ from the PA (my fault not theirs).

Took the EOS 30D out for a play as well for a bit of a change, so there’s some colour this time.

Black and white pictures take on a Canon EOS 3 on Ilford HP5+ @ 1600, some with flash, some without.

Ok, getting very tardy with band photos now. These ones date from the 8th May, but I blame having too  much fun at other gigs in the mean time :).

This was a bit of a strange one. Just a couple of songs performed just outside The Heavy Sounds shop in the middle of the West End Arcade in Nottingham. Don’t really know much about the band, except they’re a 2 piece consisting of guitar and drums, and that this event was to celebrate the launch of their debut 10″. Pretty good sounds, but I haven’t managed to get back down and pick up a copy, oops.

After this the bands just kept on coming as I traipsed up to The Old Angel for Wormrot, Unkind and a couple of others. Photos from that gig should be up pretty soon. Though I’m about to head out to Luxury Stranger and Screaming Banshee Aircrew, so I’m going to have even more to develop and process.

Canon EOS 3, Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 EX DG, Ilford HP5+ @ ISO 400, developed in DD-X, scanned on an Epson V500

Well Infest is back on this year, and looking forward to it. Though for a bit of blatant self-promotion I thought I’d just mention that I did the promo shots for this year – http://infestuk.com/press.html. And the kind organisers have agreed to let me DJ on the Friday night on the 2nd floor, so I didn’t annoy too many people when I DJed in 2008 then :).

Merciless Terror @ The Old Angel, Nottingham

Merciless Terror @ The Old Angel, Nottingham

Another evening back at Nottingham’s Old Angel, with the camera in tow. This time to catch Merciless Terror tearing up the stage. In fact, fast enough that I could barely focus, so not too many keepers out of the lot.

Hopefully there are some more Angel shot’s to come from Wormrot’s nottingham gig, but I’ve realised I’d shot them at ISO 800 and developed at ISO 1600, so we’ll have to see how they come out.

…..remember the fucking earplugs.

Just a tad loud last night at the Old Angel, and I can still barely hear. Going to have to make sure I stash plenty of earplugs in each of my camera bags.

Another tip I forgot was to mark which speed I shot each film at.  I mean, how do you tell the difference between a full casette of HP5+ @ 800 from one @1600? Thankfully I managed to remember that the ISO 1600 roll had been followed by a roll of DX3200, so if I’m right the 1600 ISO HP5 roll is in the Delta cannister. Hopefully…….

Good gig though. Absolutely knackered as I’d walked up to the Angel after getting the train back from Nottingham to Luton (which was redirected via Toton yard, cool if you like looking at old railway hardware). Necrocest had cancelled so Merciless Terror got to headline, pretty energetic so just hoping the autofocus kept up this time. Did end up cheating and getting the flash out, be interesting to see how that works with film.

So, the first trip out to see a band with the film camera in tow.

First up were  Twilight’s Embrace. A local Nottingham band tagging themslves in the Dark Melodic Metal camp who’ve been around a while, but this was their first ever live performance. Judging from the performance and feedback from the decent sized crowd I think we’ll be seeing them again soon.

Not many pictures as the 300 appears to not like focusing in the gloom, grrrr.

Headliners for the night were Sorrow’s fall, hopefully there’ll be some pics of them up shortly.

All pictures taken on a Canon EOS 300, with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens on Ilford HP5+ pushed to 1600 ISO, developed in DD-X and scanned on an epson V500

Now these were a fun band to watch. Full on medieval garb, swords being swung and goblets of blood being drunk. I seem to remember some ‘vomiting’ of blood, but thankfully the camera was kept far enough out of reach :)

Heimataerde MySpace
Heimataerde Webpage

So I’ve been a little tardy getting these up (18 months), but finally i’ve gone back and got them all sorted out. Half the time was taken trying to find the portable drive I’d stashed them on. There you go kids, tip number 2154, make sure you remember where you leave your photos (this is something moving onto film will make easier as I can just keep them all in a box in the cupboard :) )

First up are a couple of bands where I only got one or 2 of them (unfortunately a lot of EBM bands don’t actually move much, so chance for interesting shots are a little rare).

Marsheaux:

Coreline:

Noisuf-X:

More will appear shortly.

And if everything has worked behind the scenes this should also mean i’ve rejoined LJ, and in a moment of synchronicity these are the pictures I needed to sort out in my last post

I can’t make this tonight as I’ve got to head down to Kent due to a family bereavement, but it should be a great show:

(Text and flier shamelessly pinched from Torturous Promotions).

Torturous Promotions is proud to present the celebration of frostbitten grimness which is Black Metal Massacre III!

Headlining this coming together of misanthropes are Carpathia from Coventry. Their brand of Black Metal comes with a progressive edge along the lines of Norways’ finest Emperor and Enslaved!
Joining us as Special Guests are Cnoc An Tursa all the way from Scotland!
Finishing off the line-up are Plagues’ Fire from Lincoln and heroes of BMM II Adversary from Leicester!

Carpathia – Progressive Black Metal from Coventry!
www.myspace.com/carpathiametal

Cnoc An Tursa – Celtic Black Metal from Falkirk!
www.myspace.com/cnocantursa

Plagues Fire – Black Metal from Lincoln!
www.myspace.com/plaguesfired

Adversary – True Black Metal from Leicester!
www.myspace.com/adversarybm

Friday 8th of January 2010

The Central Inn,
310 Huntingdon Street,
Nottingham,
NG1 3LH.
Tel:- 07826803941

£5 On the door.
Doors at 19.30

Saturday saw a trek down to Brixton for the now annual Carter USM reformation gigs. Well annual for everyone but me as I missed the last 2 by double booking myself (Drop Dead in Prague and Carcass at Damnation respectively), so as it’s 12.5 years since I saw them last (Rock city, May 2007) I was determined to make this one.

After the customary pint in the Beehive head across to the Academy. Very busy getting in, but the merch stall was nice and quick so replaced some t-shirts with some newer less stained versions and headed into the main hall. Very full, but thankfully there was still a reasonable amount of space to stand around to chat and drink.

The chants of You Fat Bastard started up the minute Jon Beast was spotted. He appeared to be wearing underwear and bubblewrap, but thankfully from my view point I can’t confirm if the underwear was there or not:).

Setlist for this was nice and easy. Play all of 30 Something, and then 101 Damnations, then finish with a couple of single tracks and some covers.

Sound was great throughout. The passion and performance came piling off the stage. The Audience were all well up for it, decent sized outbreak of pogoing at the front, and the anti crowd-surfing posters the the front were just a joke :). Every word has someone singing along, even the samples got a good shouting out. Despite the lack of baggy shorts I felt 15 again.

Closing with Rent just reminded me that Carter and the Pet Shop boys are both ’2 blokes with a drum machine’, the difference being that Carter went to the pub and got a sense of humour.

Hopefully the threats that that might have been the last ever show turn out to be just empty ones. not a band I want to reform, but I sure like the option to see them now and again.

Bummer, appears tonight’s Goldblade gig at Seven has been cancelled. Rats, that’s put my evening’s plan to rest. Could be tempted by Editors at Rock City, but it’s not a cheap night out.

Well it looks like shaping up for some pretty good festivals next year.

Just booked the hotel for the Leipzig Wave Gotik Treffen, now debating whether to fly or take the train. No bands announced yet (as usual), but still 4 days in a beautiful city overrun with Goths, Punks and associated weirdos is always good for the soul.

Hellfest is shaping up nicely with Immortal, Twisted Sister, Behemoth and Finntroll. Think I might even invest in some cheap tickets before the end of November. This time the transport debate is between Flying and Driving, depending on what car we have at the time.

And last but not least the UK’s own Bloodstock is shaping up nicely with Behemoth, Obituary and a load more to be announced. if some of the rumours are true, this it going to be an impressive year.

I’m sure we’ll find plenty more to fit in around that lot as well. 2010 is looking to be a fun year.

Got into Rock City about songs into Suicide Silence‘s set. Got to say it didn’t do anything for me. I’ve got “The Cleansing” and didn’t think it was too bad as an album. I think the main problem was the vocals, there just wasn’t any real depth or command in them. There was a good racket from the drummer, though nothing amazing and the string section were passable. But at nearly twice the age of a lot of the crowd, what do I know?

Managed to get pretty close to the front for Behemoth. Amused by the chants for the band, seemed to be a bit of confusion about how exactly to pronounce it. Opening with “Ov Fire and The Void” from the new album was great, setting the bar high for the rest of the set. Which they hit, Slaves shall server was immense. The entire band were on top form. Inferno’s drumming was tight and fast, the Orion seemed to be having fun. And Nergal was on fine form, though touring with the Americans does seem to have had some influence on his stage manner. Where I was stood the crowd were really into the entire set, with some of the younger members of the audience having fun in a circle pit just behind. Only slight downsides were the constant leaving of the stage between songs to swap kit over, and finishing on a slow number.

retired to the Merch stand (lovely all over Evangalion print T-shirt purchased), grabbed a beer and watched DevilDriver from the back. Pretty competent set, but after about 4 songs it was all sounding a bit samey and nothing was really grabbing us so we decided the pub was a better use of time. After a slight fan moment as it was realised we were stood next to Behemoth (they scrub up well out of the stage gear) we headed off to the Tap.

Looking forward to seeing Behemoth again, hopefully headlining themselves next time. But looks like there’s at least 2 dates to look forward to next year as Hellfest and Bloodstock.

Only 2 gigs this week, but both should be pretty impressive

First up on Monday 19/10/2009 at Rock City:

rock city flier for Devil driver and behemoth

DevilDriver, Behemoth, Suicide Silence, Trigger the Bloodshed and Malfice. I’m mainly going for Behemoth, their new album “Evangalion” is probably going to end up in the top 10 albums of this year for me. DevilDriver are the new band of ex-Coal Chamber’s Dez Fafara and a listen to their latest album makes it sound like I’ll be hanging around to see them as well.

And then on Friday 23/10/2009 at Seven:

T.V Smith, yes that T.V Smith from the Adverts. And then headlining, John Robb and his merry band Goldblade. They never disappoint so really looking forward to that one.

And then on Sunday it’s the annual Hockley Hustle in Hockley. Far too many bands and venues to list here, so go and visit the website and I’m sure you’ll find someone you want to see.

Photos from Joolz Denby, New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack and The James Warner Prophecies performing at Seven in Nottingham on the 11th October 2009.

Didn’t take too many as it wasn’t really the sort of gig for wandering around at and I was worried by just how load the mirror slap on the 30D might have sounded (it was a seated show of acoustic and spoken word performances), and guessed that dragging out a huge flash might have made me unpopular.

Happy news of the night was that my 50mm/1.4 worked flawlessly. It started playing up at another gig a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been prevaricating on sending it away ever since. So glad it’s working though as it’s a lovely little lens in low light non-flash situations.

The James Warner Prophecies performing at Seven

New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack performing at Seven

Joolz Denby performing at Seven

And the cupcakes

Click on the photos to see the rest at flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/eeymsmo/sets/72157622446919719/

A bit of a different gig tonight. No distorted guitars or standing up clutching apint or energetic dancing for us. Instead a peaceful evening of acoustic performaces, spoken word and dinner.

The performance was downstairs at Seven for a change (normally bands are upstairs). The evening started with the serving of a veggie lasagne which was a nicer way to start than the usual pack of Dry Roasted peanuts to soak up the beer, could have been a little larger though.

First performance came from The James Warner Prophecies (Myspace). A nice laid back mix of acoustic guitar, bass, flute and a small drum. Really quite enjoyed this, nicely laid back rock/indie tunes with a bit of a lilt. They said normally they were a bit louder, and having listened to the tracks on their myspace I’d have to agree. But the acoustic set was enough to persuade me to fork over a fiver for their album. Will have to have a listen to that later.

Next up were 2 members of New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack (Myspace) doing a short set. Just a nice combination of guitar, bass and voice. Very 60′s/Donovan like, very nice. If I’m in the country we’ll try and catch the full band when they support In Isolation at The Maze on the 5th november

And then the main event of the evening, a spoken word performance by Joolz Denby (Myspace. Really hard to write a good review of this as it’s always amazing, but very hard to try and convey that to someone who’s never seen her perfom. There were stories of the seedy underbelly of music festival and the idiocy of believing that a gun makes you a man, all mixed in with sharp life observations and anecdotes. Speaking with passion Joolz always make you feel you’re there in the flesh, and even though you’re only with the characters for a short time they all feel fully fleshed out and very real. Plus there were cupcakes.

Joolz’s performances are always memorable for her performance and the overall evening (the time I saw her at Beeston library straight after driving back to nottingham from Leipzig, performing in a tattoo studio in Derby, and walking through a small blizzard to her last appearance at Seven spring to mind) and I this was another one to add to that list on both counts.

Many thanks to James and Michelle from Riot Promotions for putting the gig on.

I did take some photos, but they’ll follow later once I get a chance to see just how noisy and out of focus they are (and at Joolz’ request try to remove 15 years in photoshop).

Bit of a quiet week this week. I’ve got lots of birthday meals to go to, but I doubt anyone reading this is invited to those.

So that leaves one gig this week. Torturous Promotions offering 4 Black Metal bands at the Old Angel on 18/10/2009

Black Metal Massacre II

Four Black Metal bands are descending on Nottinghams’ Old Angel to spread their message of hate and misanthropia!

The Belonging from Bradford
www.myspace.com/thebelonging

Funeral Throne from Wolverhampton
www.myspace.com/nfbm

Ethereal from Liverpool
www.myspace.com/etherealofficial

Adversary from Leicester
www.myspace.com/adversarybm

Doors are at 19.00
Tax is £5 on the door

www.theoldangel.co.uk
www.myspace.com/torturouspromotions

Think I’ll be digging the camera out for this one.

So a thursday night trip into nottingham town for a gig at the old angel, been a while since I’ve done that.

unfortunately another late appearance due to sickness and work, but we were still there for just after 9 having been warned via Facebook that the place was looking very busy. It certainly was. Ended up grabbing a pint and chatting to people downstairs (could have done without Roy’s Rock Karaoke having now spread out from the Sal) for a bit.

Remembering why we’d turned up we headed upstairs to catch Afternoon Gentlemen (I think, I’ve no idea so apologies if I offended anyone). Good short focused set.

Then time for the main act. The only time I’ll get to see Insect Warfare. And boy they don’t disappoint. Straight off from the start. People going wild, pint glasses shattering off the roof (so much for the ‘plastics only upstairs’ policy). A variety of vocalists clamber on to help out, none of which I recognise. And as usual there’s no chance of a setlist from me, not even songs stand out, just a short wall of aggression. At most it was a 25 minute set, with one begrudging encore before the band starts stripping the stage.

So another night ends on a high with ringing ears. Need more of this.

Due to illness managed to miss Tracedawn and Metsatoll’s sets. Though I’m reliably informed that Metsatoll were very good.

Turned up about 10 minutes before Ensiferum went on stage so just enough time to grab a beer say hello to people and find a spot.
Nothing too flashy on stage, keyboard stand that looked like 2 huge swords and a very nice 6 string bass with LED fret markers was cool.

They came onto stage and immediately the crowd got going with chants and occasionally breaking into a small pit for the faster songs. Good setlist, decent mix of stuff off of all the albums. As usual I can’t remember too many of them (maybe pen and pencil in future?) but we definitely got From Afar, Little Dreamer, Lai Lai Hei, Slayer of Light and Iron. Bloody good value for money, 1:45 set is pretty impressive. Looked like lots of other people enjoyed is as well from the faces at the end of the set. pretty well attended as well.

Nice to be in the Rescue Rooms, wish more metal bands would book themselves in here rather than try for Rock City and end up in the Basement/Disco II. The Rescue Rooms have some space to move, and a stage that’s mor that 9″ high, so there’s a good chance of seeing the band you want to see. And the PA seems to be slightly less harsh on the ears, probably due to a bit more space and the hung PA, so there’s a chance for the engineer to give a good volume to everyone, and not deafen those nearest the stacks.

Tonight, Insect Warfare, oh yeah.

quiet week last week due to silly work schedule and illness. But this week’s looking good.

On Wednesday it’s off to the Rescue Rooms for Ensiferum:

Got the new album a couple of weeks, and it’s great. So really looking forward to this one.

Then at The old Angel on Thursday Insect Warfare pass through on their farewell European tour. Looks like another late night then :)

Insect Warfare
Fast and Brutal Grindcore from the States probably only UK tour ever!
http://www.myspace.com/insectwarfare

Afternoon Gentlemen
Fast noisy Powerviolence/Mincecore
http://www.myspace.com/theafternoongentlemen

Toecutter
Grindcore/Powerviolence with pure Negi breaks
http://www.myspace.com/toecutterhardcore

Winters in Osaka/Jonathan Ross
Experimental noise and loops from USA/UK with a blast of very fast
http://www.myspace.com/wintersinosaka
http://www.myspace.com/xjonathanrossx

Drag the Lake
Heavy as fuck Nottingham based extreme metal
http://www.myspace.com/dragthelakeband

The Old Angel, Stoney Street
First band at 8pm, £6 on the door.

Early tickets available here:
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/58014

Slight break until Sunday when Joolz Denby will be performing at Seven:

Looking forward to seeing this one. Saw her perform there a couple of years ago (memories of walking into town through a snow storm), and looking forward to repeating it :) (plus I’ve got my tickets so I’ve got a veggie curry to look forward to):