Words and Photos by Sean Gibson

It’s pretty impressive to think that the Deftones have been together for 23 years, no mean feat in the dog eat dog world of rock ‘n roll. This longevity has resulted in a very family-like feel to the band and this is immediately demonstrated to me by a sign at the guest list window requesting a £5 donation from everyone on the list to go towards Chi Cheng’s medical bills. I’m impressed by how only one of the several people in front of me bitches about this (obviously not a true fan).

With a big slot way up the bill looming at the Reading and Leeds festivals in a couple of days this one-off treat for London is definitely serving as a warm-up for the guys before the weekend and it looks to me like they’re having all the more fun for it. Chino strides onto stage with a big grin on his face and they rip into a couple of new tracks off Diamond Eyes, with ‘Rocket Skates’ getting the crowd behind the photo pit literally frothing at the mouth.

Deftones are a phenomenal stage act, all the guys looking more than in their element up in front of the packed house. Stand-in bassist Sergio Vega on the right hand side of the stage is a great counterbalance to a traditionally fairly static Stephen Carpenter on the left. He bounces around large tracts of stage, feeding off the hurricane that is Chino Moreno. Moreno is an amazing front-man and I’d love to see him with more room to move on a stage somewhere like Reading. At one point he loses his in-ear monitor and his poor roadie has a hard time getting him to stand still long enough to hook it up again. I think it’s a pretty good indicator of just how aggressively he involves every part of his body in the music that his microphone is swaddled in gaffer tape all around it and about a metre down the cord to protect it from the beating it takes. It needs it, trust me.

With the all the brilliance of this band and their vortex of energy spinning up on stage I’m feeling let down by the sound tonight. It’s muddy and Moreno’s voice is getting lost somewhere. The drums and bass sound great but something’s happening in the mids that’s detracting from the performance, which is a pity because Chino is holding some of the best vocal cords on any stage anywhere and it’d be nice to hear them properly. Still, that aside it‘s a great gig and with 6 albums of material to pick from we’re treated to whole range of their stuff with ‘My Own Summer’ raising the roof and ‘Digital Bath’ getting everyone singing along, hands reaching high.

The atmosphere I mentioned earlier of this feeling like a good-time, warm-up show for the band is evident in the few mistakes they make (and they are few) tonight and the their reactions to them. As they’re going through the spooky sound-scape that leads into ‘Digital Bath’ Abe Cunnigham cracks the snare a couple of bars too soon which gets all of them laughing, sharing the moment, and it makes me a little jealous. I want to be in an awesome band with my closest mates, having a good time on stage and laughing at each other’s cock-ups.

Author’s Side Note – Thank you to the security staff at The Empire and the PR lady for the band. You guys were super friendly, made us photographers feel more than welcome and did your work efficiently and with a smiles on your faces. I’ve been to most of London’s bigger venues and you guys outshine ‘em all.

Words by Jamie Reynolds / Photos by Marcus Maschwitz

There has been so much talk about up-coming Interpol “imitator” bands and although there are a few that are really doing some great work, I feel that these guys are the original founding fathers of the dark sound that they do so well.

Shepherds Bush Empire couldn’t have been filled anymore tonight if they tried and the crowd varied in age, race, style, sex and there was definitely a range of people from around the world. It’s so crazy that music can still bring people together to celebrate and have a good time regardless of up-bringing and everything else that classifies us into our little groups.

Public transport ensured that I missed the opening act but to be honest tonight was really all about the headliner for me … I had simply waited too many years for this show to take place and I wasn’t really sure of what I was in for seeing that this was the break of my Interpol live virginity.

At 9:30pm, pretty much like clockwork, the band took to the stage and opened up with Success which fitted perfectly and immediately I was flooded with goosebumps. Paul Banks voice hits deep, honestly I don’t think I could explain it even if I tried but sure that everyone at the show will be able to agree with me.

The guys make their way through a set made up of old and new tracks with my favourites being NARC, Barricade, Summer Well, Obstacle 1 and Slow Hands with people in the crowd singing along and tapping feet throughout.

The only thing I could have possibly hoped for was to have seen the band with Carlos still a part of it but the guys made me quickly for get that.

Beautiful lights, good sound, new friends, the historical theatre venue and one of my favourite bands resulted in one of my most memorable shows not only of this year so far but definitely for a long while. Interpol will be rocking my players (all of them) for at least a few more weeks.

If you get the chance to see these guys live do yourself a favour and if you don’t (or even if you do) make sure to pick up at least one of their albums. You will not regret it.

Words by Jamie Reynolds / photos by J Schultz – JamWire.com

I arrived at Shepherds Bush Empire tonight slightly confused as to what was going on because it’s normally packed outside with crowds trying to make their way inside and for some reason the only bustle is that of flippen touts trying to sell their last tickets and this becomes my only confirmation (as well as the Owl City sign) that I haven’t arrived on the wrong night. Regardless, I make my way inside only to find that the reason outside is deserted was because EVERYONE was already inside. I am not sure when last I saw the Bush this full and also with a crowd so different as tonight with ages ranging from what seems to be around 10 until about 90 … no word of lie.

We make our way upstairs to avoid the crowd and ensure that we get the best view possible to take in the show that I have been eagerly anticipating since the bands last show at Electric Ballroom where I left slightly disappointed and despondent but only because I expected more. I read a few reviews then to see if I was wrong and it seemed that a lot of people agreed with me that Adam on that day just seemed to be not as into it as expected and although he was “sick” I just didn’t take it as an excuse. Anyway, that aside, I am here tonight with fresh ears and a blank brain hoping to be entertained and from the first song I am … PROPERLY.

The set starts off with the band being introduced piece by piece kicking into Umbrella Beach which was a great choice. Immediately I am drawn to the lighting that has obviously been well thought of and it’s easy to know that tonight will easily over shadow last times experience and fix my disbelief in Adam’s seriousness of this project.

I really enjoy Adam’s song writing and even though he has been widely criticized for being a one-hit-wonder I seem to disagree. My main worry was always whether Adam would be able to pull off his emotions / “foolishness” to a stage with 2 000 (maybe one day more) people and convince them that he is for real. He does this tonight with the help of a band that seem to be having just as much fun with as much dedication as him and its easy to believe. Adam walks around the stage as if he is relearning how to walk looking slightly awkward but this is what indie music is all about and the 1800 ladies tonight seem to love it. Tonight Adam is confident and outdoes most front men that have been doing this for much longer than his fresh stint.

The set makes its way through favourites like Fireflies, Cave In, Dental Care and The Bird & The Worm and as the night progresses it’s safe to say that there isn’t one person in the venue that hasn’t danced like a young teenager and my brain is going to remember some of the scenes forever. Not many acts can create such a great involvement from the crowd especially when half of the venue is “seated”.

All in all, this was a great show with people smiling, laughing, crying, clapping and dancing and although Adam and his project are constantly going to receive negative feedback I cannot myself find anything about tonight that I can moan about. This is what a show is about and I am assured that everyone who paid to see this show left 100% satisfied and that is all that matters.

I look forward to watching Adam’s progress and the drop of his next album and even more to reading what people have to say about it all.

If you missed this show because you were worried about being considered “uncool” then you really missed out so make sure that next time you are rather “uncool” and go and have yourself a really enjoyable and memorable night. Go Owl City ……. Done!

Words and photos by Marcus Maschwitz

I’ve been a big fan of Imogen’s work since I first heard Frou Frou too many years ago and I have always been excited at the possibility of seeing her live and witnessing what I imagined would be sheer genius but NOTHING could have prepared me for the magic that I was lucky to be a part of tonight at Shepherds Bush Empire.

Imogen is really cool and very interactive with her fans and for the last week or so on her Facebook and Twitter she has been talking us through the troubles she has been having with her throat and many people were advising her to cancel / postpone shows but it was clear how much effort she was going through to make sure that this wouldn’t be an option and after seeing doctors and a throat specialist and taking some great steroids, she decided that she would give it a try. I was a little worried for her and a little worried that I might be disappointed but from the second she made her way on to the stage, it was clear that she was going to give tonight the best shot she ever could.

She brought on stage with her a crystal glass half full of sparkling water which she placed on her table to the side of the stage, picked up half a lemon which had been waiting for her and rubbed a bit on her finger and began swirling her finger around the rim of the class trying to make it give off some sounds which sadly it didn’t. No worries, she put the glass aside, after joking to want to smash it, and she began emulating the sound it would’ve made with her voice. She recorded the sound and began looping it back while recording a few other odd sounds and looping those back too until she had layers of recordings that sounded incredible to which she started playing her piano and singing along. I’ve seen a lot of artists playing a similar style of music but I have NEVER before seen someone playing music this way with so much excitement and randomness and never before has it sounded so interesting.

The stage tonight was FILLED with “toys” everywhere which Imogen used to make up the sounds for her set. Her show is made up of good music as well as “story telling” in a sense that she walks around explaining what she is doing and almost walks the crowd through her thought process. Apart from introducing her band, she also introduces a few of her sound making tools which included many bells, a gong, a squeeky rubber duck, thumb pianos, half a chopped bird cage, rubber pipes and and and …

She made her way through songs both old and new and it felt more like a personal sit-in of her improv rehearsal / writing sessions as apposed to a normal live show which I really appreciated being a part of because there is no way that the songs she played would ever sound the exact same as they did tonight. I feel honoured and really lucky to have been a part of this experience. It was amazing and a definite once off experience. Imogen is cute, friendly, quirky, excited, encouraging and GREATLY talented. When she was involved in Frou Frou there was a lot of press stating / questioning how much of it she was actually responsible and a lot more credit was given to producer / partner Guy Sigsworth who she worked with, but this all changed when she released “Speak for Yourself” in 2005 which she wrote and produced on her own. Tonight for me, it became 100% clear that Imogen is a driving force and I don’t doubt that other people have had a big part in her music making but I definitely feel that she is the mastermind behind it.

Right from the start of the set she said that her voice was not going to be perfect and compared it to walking on ice because she knew the direction she wanted to be going in and what notes she wanted to be hitting but she kept being “slid” in a slightly different path. After a few songs thought I didn’t really find it noticable and it really wasn’t even worth me considering because her heart was there to the full. No one in the crowd noticed any errors and all this just goes to prove to me that no matter what the artist is experiencing onstage “technically” the crowd will appreciate and feed off the fact that the artist continues to give their efforts and enjoys the show themselves. I’ve seen too many bands spend time on stage moaning because their monitors don’t sound completely perfect or that the stage is too small or that the made a mistake playing one note and most of this would just go right over the crowds heads as long as they enjoy themselves.

The night ended off running 30 minutes over curfew with 3 of my favourite songs (Hide and Seek, Just for Now and The Moment I Said It) and I appreciated so much that Imogen had made sure to finish off her set. Curfew in London is taken really seriously and the artists are fined if they run over this time which Imogen pointed out was £500 per 10 minutes. Amazing. I almost want to buy her albums again just to thank her.

I cannot wait for more of her music to be recorded in the future and to see her again live. This was one of my favourite live shows to date but for completely different reasons to any show I have ever been to before. It’s hard to explain and I know I won’t be able to but if you weren’t there, just know that you missed out.

Setlist: First Train Home, Wait It Out, Between Sheets, Headlock, Bad Body Double, Speeding Cars, Little Bird, Improv (The Shepherdess), Half Life, Aha!, Canvas, The Walk, Swoon, 2-1, Tidal, Hide And Seek, Just For Now, The Moment I Said It

NOTE: Imogen recorded a live improvised session during the show which she had mixed and edited to be sold and all proceeds from the sale will be going to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. You can hear and purchase the track by CLICKING HERE

Words by Brendan Monteiro / Photos by Marcus Maschwitz

With the amount of cheers coming from every space filled in the venue you would think that Cobra Starship were already on stage but you would be wrong.  It’s 21:30 and The Lonely Island are blaring through the house PA with every soul in the venue on the verge of hysteria, you could honestly not dream up any more enthusiasm if you wanted to.  As the lights go out the hysteria intensifies to a deafening sound cheers, screams and girls generally on a rampage to blow every eardrum in a 2 mile radius and as Gabe Saporta makes his entrance I literally have to block my ears before perforation is in full effect.  The first half of opening track This City Is At War is a muffled blur of catchy pop-punk mayhem and shrills from the girls, it’s as if Gabe’s pelvic is neurologically linked to every girls vocal chords.  

As the ear-splitting sounds start to subside the beginning to Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We’re Famous starts playing in and the party is in full motion.  From this moment the energy does not stop, song after song Cobra Starship up the levels and get every girls heart pounding harder than the base lines.  The antics between Gabe, Ryland and Alex is relentless, they have smiles plastered on their faces constantly as they take the audience through party stompers like Smile For The Paparazzi, Hot Mess and even Snakes On A Plane (Bring It).  The pop fueled mayhem continues and culminates in Cobra Starship’s biggest hit to date, Good Girls Go Bad, it’s a foot stomping ass swaggering party classic that leaves the venue gasping for more.

Setlist: Intro / This City Is At War, Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We’re Famous, Nice Guys Finish Last, Kiss My Sass, My Moves Are White (White Hot, That Is), Wet Hot American Summer, The Church Of Hot Addiction, Send My Love To The Dancefloor (Hey Mister DJ), Smile For The Paparazzi, Snakes On A Plane (Bring It), Hot Mess, Guilty Pleasure, Bright Lights, Good Girls Go Bad

Words by Anja Pomeroy / Photos by Marcus Maschwitz

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Juliette Lewis. I’d seen her with the Licks and never become a big fan. She came onto the stage looking like someone ready to go trick or treating and finished the show with so much emotion. Juliette said that when she was younger that she needed a way to express herself and that she thought music was her way. She definitely shows her expression and you join her on a journey with every song.

Miss Lewis mixes good old fashioned rock ‘n roll with her personality and eccentricity. She belted out loves song with a twist like Uh Huh that got most people tapping their toes, she played an eerie song called Ghost that made me feel like I was a star in Twilight and ended the show by donning her feathered headband to sing Hot Kiss which got the crowd in frenzy.

Juliette really does know how to put on a good show and I forget that I not the biggest fan and get pulled into her amazing showmanship. From her outfit to her onstage presence she ensures that everyone knows that she is in the building. At one stage she jumped on the drum stage and hit the cymbals so hard I thought they were going to explode into little metal pieces.

I really enjoyed the show and although I’m not the biggest fan I do think I am converted and a few of her songs will be added to my play list…

Setlist: Romeo, Into, Purgatory, Ghosts, Fantasy Bar, Pray, Hard Lovin Woman, Terra Incognita, Got Love to Kill, Uh Huh, Sticky, Speaking, Suicide Divebombers, Hot Kiss.

Words by Brendan Monteiro / Photo’s by Marcus Maschwitz

Welcome to the whacked out utterly dabaucherous, spandex cladded, time machine mind fuck that is best know as Steel Panther. Gaining a lot of interest of late on these shores the four glammed out purveyors of 80’s hair metal make their way on to a stage that seems to small for such a riot act. Every audience member in the room, from the people on the floor all the way up to the folks on the 4th level, greet them with a solid and sturdy cheer as they pounce their way into Eyes Of A Panther. With Satchel and Lexxi Foxxx (who by the way has ridiculously cool hair) side by side swaying to the grooves, and Starr all over the mic like a sex fiend sussing out the ‘goods’ in front of him, they stylishly manage to have every person in a seat on their feet in no time at all.

The first song comes to an end and what follows is an onslaught of inner band conflict resulting in Satchel claiming to have slept with Michael Starr’s mother, or as Lexxi Foxxx put it, “Hey Michael, you came out of your mom’s vagina, Satchel came in it”. Jokes like these have people in stitches all night long. It was the one thing I was worried about before the show even begun, how many sex and drugs jokes can one possibly take but the quality of their non musical side is almost genius. Asian Hooker, Fat Girl and Party All Day go down a treat but it’s community property that has the old amphitheater shaking to its very foundations.

My highlights of the evening came in four forms. firstly Satchels solo in which he had me bleeding from the ears and then somehow found his way to the drums and gave storming journey down memory lane, including Metallica, Guns & Roses and then into a demented metal version of “Doe a Deer, a female Deer”. I was impressed with his ability to rock out like that. Secondly was the song Shocker, it’s just got some evil riffs mixed with some downright nasty lyrical content that had me in stitches. Thirdly was their onstage antics, lampooning the great 80’s metal stage maneuvers, especially Lexxi who seemed like a skinny Zoolander unable to turn left. And lastly, my personal favourite joke of the evening, Satchel started thanking certain people and thanked “the dude that invented the bic razor, so girls could shave their p***** every night” leaving enough room for lead singer Michael Starr to jump in with “yeah dude, no one wants to go down on a chic and wrestle ZZ Top”.

Coincidental maybe? They are supporting the Southern legends at the end of October. Parody aside, these four sure do know how to throw a monstrous show so if you have not seen them before, make a plan for the Wembley show or miss out on a night that will leave you wanting to grow your hair, invest in spandex and buy a Trans AM.

Setlist: Eyes of a Panther, Asian Hooker, Fat Girl, Party All Day, Community Property, Guitar Solo, Hell’s on Fire, Girl from Oklahoma (Essex), Shocker, Stripper Girl, Death to All but Metal, Turn Out the Lights

Words by Rant Chick / Photos by Marcus Maschwitz

Cast your mind back to 1983: as you cough your way through the hairspray of the teased-haired, spandex-wearing, glitter-infused conglomeration of glam-metallers, you will stumble upon a band called Testament – born in America to the town of California. 27 years later the band exists as an attestation to longevity: testified by fans, both young and old, who congregated at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire to witness thrash metal at its very best. The all-consuming anticipation that permeates the air is finally ignited when the legends of thrash finally respond to the crowd’s calls and appear on stage to entertain and brutalise with riffs that are bigger and badder than ever. Chuck Billy, the mammoth vocalist with the mammoth voice, opens the set with The Preacher, taking the audience way back to Testament’s second album The New Order. The evening’s set list (The Preacher, The New Order, Over the Wall, Practice What You Preach, More Than Meets the Eye, The Persecuted Won’t Forget, Burnt Offerings, The Legacy, Into the Pit, Souls of Black, Disciples of the Watch Encore: DNR, 3 Days in Darkness and The Formation of Damnation) spans seven of the band’s ten albums, reflecting the contribution Testament has made to metal over that last two decades. Intellectually the band still has a great deal to offer, having lived through the political, personal and social upheavals that life has hurled its way since the band’s conception. Musically, the band is as tight as ever – guitarists Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick shred through an unyielding set without losing any fingers, bassist Greg Christian rips up some juggernaut speed tempos and, surprisingly, Paul Bostaph manages to extricate his foot from the double bass drum pedal when the gig is over. Billy owns the stage with his grandiose stage personality and, with the help of his mic-stand, ads to the guitar mayhem with some air-guitaring that punctuates his relentless vocal aggression. Testament comes full circle by ending a raucous three-song encore with the title track from 2008′s The Formation of Damnation, and even after a mass of tireless head-banging, moshing and crowd-surfing the crowd is still able conjure up enough energy to belt out the battle cry of the final song: I will fight relentlessly/ I stand tall defiantly/ I see what you cannot see/ I invoke the beast in me/ I fear not the agony/ I breathe hope inside of thee/ I will kill the enemy/ I fulfill my destiny” – powerful words that exemplify the persistence of a band (and its fans) that stands in opposition to the world’s bullshit.

Words by Steve Hall / Photos by crazybobbles

It was amazing, right, Kevin Barnes swooped on stage on a flying unicorn and then one the band actually transformed in to a drum kit and the set was at least four hours long. That’s how you might imagine a review of indie-pop oddballs Of Montreal would read if reality was that little bit more fun. But it’s not and the depressing part is that a band like this, so untrammelled by definition and crazed with imagination, can only do so much.

Chin up though, what they did do was give a powerful account of the bouncing giggling shots of energy that pepper their catalogue. Opening with ‘Nonpareil of Favor’, the tone is set: pumping, gushing, insistently sexual and instinctively catchy. ‘An Eluardian Instance’ raises the pulse (if you’re not familiar with the band, these titles are the short and simple ones), ‘Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse’ (told you) raises the cheers and the action comes thick and fast.

Lead man Barnes’ alter-ego George Fruit makes a subtle appearance as a stream of dancers and costumed maniacs continuously plunge across the stage, always drawing the eye and keeping the feet moving like the floor was purple lava. The Empire is in good song and although as a venue it’s not quite the indie mecca that might give Of Montreal an edge, no-one is complaining. Because they’re shaking it. The mystical animal masks, the suggestive lyrics and the a-sexual dancers perform that vital task of inviting the audience to skip into Barnes’ gleefully mad off-world, but pointing at something deeper and more deliberate in its symbolism.

And this is the rub. For a band so drawn to finding the tipping point between introspection and glammed up hysteria, the trick of creating a fanfare on stage without losing the complexity of their music is one that works, though not flawlessly. Their latest album deliberately eschewed the concept of ‘big songs’ and was made up of a myriad of different ideas and emotional forays that worked as a wheeling kaleidoscope of turbulent beauty. They’re not the first to try, but packaging this kind of art for a hungry audience is no mean feat. This difficulty was encapsulated by the encore – a let down for me, the band favouring a drawn out, more drony number of an ilk that so frequently gives their albums a darker undercurrent, but here failed to provide the coup de grace that would turn a good night in to a great one.

Camp, erratic and wildly accomplished, but a fraction short of magical, tonight was like meeting Elton John in Tescos. Which doesn’t mean it wasn’t superbly fruity.

UK JULY Dates
Mon 13th – Lexington Rock Feedback show
Tue 14th – Shepherd’s Bush Empire, main support to of Montreal
Thur 16th – Borderline Chess Club show
Fri 17th – Latitude Festival