It's very rare for me to go to a gig purely to see a support band, but that was the case for me tonight. I absolutely love
Priest. Their debut album,
New Flesh (
read my review here) was my favourite record of 2017 (
full list here), so I've been looking forward to seeing the band live for months.
First up was UK based Electronica trio
Nature of Wires. I'd never heard of them before, but I was very pleased that I came down early to check them out. They had a
Gary Numan-meets-Dance music thing going on, and coupled with some hauntingly catchy vocals from their singer
Sarah Bouchier, I was won over quite quickly. I've heard a few bands that sound a bit like this recently, but what sets them apart from the pack is not only
Sarah's amazing voice, but also that their music is laced with Pop hooks making it instantly accessible.
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| Nature of Wires |
Amelia Arsenic was up next. Unfortunately, her backing band were sick and unable to perform. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to play, she performed with a backing track on a laptop. In fairness, many artists in this genre have almost everything on a backing track anyway, and it sounded great regardless. I also have a lot of respect for artists who step up in the face of adversity and make sure that the show goes on.
Amelia did just this, and put on an excellent performance. Her music has a
Sleigh Bells mixed with
Pretty Addicted vibe which I liked a lot. The songs were catchy and, coupled with her strong image, I can see
Amelia being really successful in the future.
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| Amelia Arsenic |
There appears to have been a lot of drama in the
Priest camp recently with rumours of firings and subsequent new band members. Having a band with people wearing masks and not using their real names allows line-up changes to happen behind the scenes without the audience being aware. I wonder which band this reminds me of? Anyway, if I hadn't read about these line-up changes on the internet I honestly wouldn't have realised, as
Priest looked and sounded like
Priest. Phew.
Opening with
The Pit, it was clear that I was not the only one here to see the main support band. There was a massive buzz in the audience, with plenty of people singing the words to every song. Having only one studio album, they squeezed most of their songs into their set, including personal favourites like
The Cross,
Private Eye and
Populist. Their set tonight was slick and nothing short of electrifying. I can't wait to see them again at the earliest opportunity!
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| Priest |
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| Priest |
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| Priest |
By the time headliners
Aesthetic Perfection hit the stage, the venue had filled up nicely. I'd checked out a few of their tracks on YouTube before the show, but other than that, I wasn't really familiar with the band. Fortunately for me, all of the songs I'd listened to prior to the gig were in the set, such as
Gods & Gold,
Never Enough,
Love Like Lies, and my personal favourite, the ludicrously catchy
Antibody.
Aesthetic Perfection were nothing short of excellent. The band crackled with energy and oozed charisma. I think having a live drummer and some live guitars thrown in there gave their show a badass Rock band vibe, and really added to their sound. Their set was tight, intense, and everything any fan could want. I was really impressed. I'm going to have to check out their back catalogue now and catch them again next time they come around.
