Zico Chain – Islington Academy – 27 January 2010

Words by Eric Cannon / Photos by February Photography

Firstly a full day driving is no way to prepare anyone for a gig, my trip to Bude and back left me devoid of any happy emotions about any gigging in any form, the only music I wanted to hear was by DJ Pillow at my local venue. So with my expectations seemingly low I enter the Islington Academy. I time my entrance pretty spot on as helicopter noise’s cut through the air to reveal More Than Life as their opening track. Paul Frost hides himself from the crowd behind a stand for his acoustic, then steps out and rips electric hooks of melody into ever wanting crowd.

It’s amazing how pumped everybody is, by the time they roll Preach off the stage everyone in the room is headbanding, including myself and by the time Mercury Gift comes along there are a majority of people forming pits and my only explanation is that Zico are on form tonight. Mercury Gift really goes on to showcase how adect Zico Chains rhythm section is, with Chris and Ollie creating a buzz in the audience that has hands firing away to the beat. Some way through the song Paul has some technical problems which would normally get a crowd all worked up but instead a canticle in the form of “Zico, Zico” starts echoing around the venue with demands of drum and bass guitar solo’s. This just goes to show the unity and loyalty that Zico Chain have earned from their fans, there is no pretentiousness in this crowd or on stage, merely a real rock n roll show.

As the set draws on the excitement off stage seems to build too, with arms flying past my face on a regular timeline. These Birds will kill us all is Zico’s new single and is definitely my favourite in the set, it has rasping vocals that Chris belts out continuously, then he somehow morphs his vocals into his killer screams. As the set slowly starts drawing to an end the Chain dish out some favourites in the form of Where Would You Rather Be? and Rohypnol from their debut album and EP respectively. The night finally draws to an end, the crowd demand more and Zico deliver the final crushing blow. It’s a couple days later already but I’m still in a euphoric state from the show, if you need some cheering up then make sure to catch them on their next tour.

Set List:
More than life
Preach
Junk
New Romantic
Mercury Gift
AThousand Splended Suns
Black turns to white
I am scilence
Our Evil
These Birds will kill us all
Where would you rather be
Rohypnol
Bile & Blood
Pretty Pictures
Encore???

This post is tagged Chris Glithero, Degenerate Music, Ollie Middleton, Paul Frost, Zico Chain