Slaves at O2 Institute Birmingham - gig review

Last Wednesday, I spontaneously went to go and see Slaves at the O2 Institute in Birmingham after randomly bumping into Laurie from the band in town and being added to the guest list earlier that day due to the kindness of Laurie himself.

It's been a manic year filled with gigs and music highlights, however, Wednesday night with these guys left 2015 on a memorable note to say the least.

The garage punk Kent duo's music seems to personally target their fans with an anger fuelled projection of intense noise demanding to be heard accompanying upfront lyrics, as if lead vocalist Isaac is hollering orders that any listener would struggle to disagree with. Due to their rather confrontational vibe and urgent sound, the duo have been known to split opinions but that's a sure sign of a good band.

It truly was a chaotic night, with balcony ticket holders watching in awe from above as the mosh pit below them erupted around the entirety of the room; the floor shaking as if struggling to cater for the typical temperament of Slaves' fans.

Each song had the kind of energy that was almost hard to keep up with, if you blinked then you'd miss it; with Isaac's comic yet straight forward explanations behind some of their songs in between acting as pit stops and giving the crowd mere moments to recuperate before bracing themselves for the next hit. I personally enjoyed hearing about how 'Where's Your Car Debbie?" came about in particular, with the explanation consisting of the pair of them walking a girl back to her car and being scared of being attacked by a rumoured big foot lurking around in the night. Well known single 'The Hunter' entailed the kind of reaction that's rare to see these days with upcoming bands, with the almost natural response casting an animal like hunger within the crowd - a refreshing moment to be a part of. Determination and energy levels rose with Isaac regularly enforcing that 'Birmingham is always one of the best if not the best crowds to play', the rowdy nature of the audience only magnifying with Laurie making it his mission to successfully crowd surf from the front of the room all the way to the sound guy and back again.

The whole night was truly something special to be a part of and I'll be sure to catch Slaves again as soon as I can next year.

The Magic Gang in Birmingham - gig review

Photo credit to Consequence Of Sound

Last night wasn't your typical, boring Monday evening with The Magic Gang in town. With their chilled out, indie, LA surf vibes I was surprised to hear that this quartet came from Brighton. With almost 200,000 listens collectively on Soundcloud across their other equally as infectious tunes, comparisons have been made to other bands such as Peace and Swim Deep, due to touring with them not so long ago and capturing a similar group of fans. 

Photo credit to me

Mayhem, in the most fashionable way possible, was inevitable for this band due to the box like boiler room of The Sunflower Lounge; movement was unavoidable due to the size of the place, even for the guys who like to stand at the back with a beer nodding for the entirety of a show. There was no playing safe at this gig; anywhere you stood you'd soon find yourself being hurtled around in a sea of excitable fans reciting every word of their snappy, memorable lyrics as if naturally rolling off the tongue without thought. (and possibly due to the sheer noise of the band making the room feel slightly unstable.)

The band were fully going for it, with the exception of having to make little announcements after songs telling the audience to 'be careful' after floods of crowd surfers were ungracefully thrown across the room, practically hitting their heads of the ceiling and kicking all of the stage lights on their way around; and the occasional wave of fans spilling face first onto the stage with the band lifting them up and bidding them farewell again into the mosh pit mid song. 

Photo credit to me

Sweat soaked members of the audience called for a predictable stage invasion to the Wheatus infused sounds of unmistakably contagious tracks - 'No Fun' and 'Alright', setting the scene for something in between wanting to effortlessly sway and plod along to their laid back riffs to the kind of hyped up, crazed energy that their gigs are known for. Their new song - 'She Doesn't See' gave us a possible teaser for their long awaited debut album that I hope will be coming out soon, encouraging just as much energy and uncontrollable singalongs as some of their older material. The set finished with a deafening orchestra of the crowd screaming the lyrics to 'Shallow' louder than the band themselves.
You can listen to their new, two day old song - 'She Doesn't See' on Soundcloud HERE

Written by Rosie Mulhern.