Review - Woolstock II, Leeds, July 2007.
Pyromancer
Woolstock II - The Lamb Of Goth
Day 1: Flock Night
(at The Subculture)
First Friday, The Subculture. Loads of people! Loads of non-regular
people too! Every seat taken, every spare bit of floor stood on. Great
slabs of trad and classic stuff punctuated by bouncy EBM for contrast,
while folk who'd not seen each other since the last Whitby caught up in
the corners.
Day 2: Killing the Skeletal Roman Novena!
(at The Josephs Well)
The crowd gathers. Doors open. Solemn Novena take to the stage for their
first UK mainland gig, and prove once and for all that the Northern
Irish Goth Scene is clearly a place to watch! They started very
strongly, and though some nerves seemed to show for the second and third
tracks, after that they settled down and "went for it", the results were
brilliant, and they got the biggest crowd I've ever seen for an opening
band at the Well. The classic "As Darkness Falls" was kept till late in
the set and got a very appreciative roar from the crowd.
Between the bands DJ gothVodka from Carpe Noctum kept everyone
entertained with all manner of strange and bizarre covers and remixes,
including a reggae version of Temple Of Love, and the Amateur
Transplants' ode to the wonders of the London Underground.
Next up were Rome Burns, and what a performance! They opened with "Non
Specific Ghost Stories", didn't put a foot wrong and filled the gig room
to capacity by the end of their third track. They kept the audience with
them all the way through their set too - top notch stuff and beautifully
played - another band to watch if you're not doing so already!
Skeletal Family came next, classic proper post punk from the very Dawn
of Goth itself, though with a somewhat younger (and both talented and
very attractive!) singer. They played wonderfully, and though they
didn't quite get the reaction Rome Burns had managed they had an
appreciative audience throughout. The music varied quite a bit from all
out stomping piledrivers to very punky sounds, with both old classics
and new material.
And then it was time for the headliners, Killing Miranda dominating the
stage in their own unique style, Rikky looking fit to start beheading
anyone who got in his way while the band just got down and rocked. They
opened with Discotheque Necronomicon, and the set included Teenage
Vampire which went down an absolute storm. Loads of banter, including
Rikky revealing that when they arrived one of the barmaids had asked the
drummer if he was the singer, and then asked Rikky if he was the roadie!
They got a huge reaction and really got the crowd with them all the way
through, definitely a proper headline performance and a fine end to the
night.
Day 3: The Screaming Peacock Pro-Jekt Hearse!
(at The Subculture)
Doors billed to open at 7, arrived at 7:40 to find a huge crowd of Goths
outside the venue, Sarah Orange standing like a valkerye gatekeeper in
the doorway, and a sign on the wall saying "Doors 7:30-ish". Nice to see
a promoter with a touch of honesty! Much silly banter floated through
the good-natured crowd, and soon enough we were all inside - and packing
the venue to an extent I've not seen since it re-opened last year. The
tiny stage was absolutely jammed with gear, it managed to look more like
a display in a particularly over-enthusiastic musical instrument shop
than anything else, and we wondered how on earth band members would
manage to fit, but fit they did and the results were electric.
Pink Hearse opened the show with a wildly enthusiastic and energetic
act, the very punky female singer even managing to do high-kicks while
singing without demolishing anything, quite a feat in a space only about
a foot deep. First time I'd heard them, and an impressive performance.
They started off sounding rather like Devilish Presley, definitely
deathrock to the max, but as the set went on they managed to get both
heavier and even more energetic. A brilliant opening performance and I
suspect they made quite a few converts in the crowd.
Next was Pro-Jekt, and they really were stunning. I've seen them before
several times but in the past they've always seemed to lack that "spark"
that really makes a performance, but they had whole lightning-bolts of
it this time, delivering an absolutely storming performance that had the
crowd roaring its approval between every track. They're playing the WGW
in October, you're in for a real treat if you go.
And then to the double-headliners.
Cauda Pavonis played first. Their first Northern Scene gig since playing
support at the now-legendary Inkubus Sukkubus gig at Carpe Noctum in
Bradford back in 2005, and their first UK gig since headlining at
Leipzig in May of this year - and their first gig anywhere since drummer
Dave and singer Su got married in June! There was an enthusiastic crowd
for them at the front even before they took to the stage, and once they
started the roars and cheers came quick and fast! All the classics were
there, as well as three of the four tracks on the more recently released
"Carnival Noir" EP. They opened with Carnival Noir itself, and when they
played SGS and Black Sheep favourite "The Morrigan" the roar of response
was deafening. A brilliant performance, Cauda Pavonis are on absolute
top form, if you've not seen them yet, go!
Then came The Screaming Banshee Aircrew, long-time darlings of the
Northern Scene, the band who've played more Sheepish gigs than anyone
else, recently expanded to a six-piece with the release of their second
album on Resurrection Records, "When All Is Said And Done". I've never
seen the Aircrew play a bad gig, and this time they played an amazing
one. Mr Ed and Jo Violet make a fantastic duet pair, interacting and
reacting with the audience and each other, and projecting huge amounts
of personality and style into the performance. They were flanked with
new bassist Tori Pink (already well known to Rome Burns fans) and Chris
Banshee on guitar, while the drummer and keyboardist lurked menacingly
in the background. They played stuff from both Fishnet Messiah and the
new album, and got equally enthusiastic reactions to both.
And then, at last, it was all over.
Huge thanks to all the bands, to Paul for organising and promoting it,
to Sarah Orange for sponsoring the Sunday night, to gothVodka for
providing the inter-band DJing, to the sound engineers who gave us all
such wonderful sound all the way through on both band nights, and to
absolutely everyone who came and made it the roaring (baa-ing?) success
it was.
--
- DJ Pyromancer, Black Sheep, Leeds. <http://www.sheepish.net>
Hard Rock, Leeds <http://www.hard-rock.org.uk>
Broadband, Dialup, Domains = <http://www.wytches.net> = The UK's Pagan ISP!
<http://www.inkubus-sukkubus.co.uk> <http://www.revival.stormshadow.com>
oldgoth
> Solemn Novena take to the stage for their
> first UK mainland gig, and prove once and for all that the Northern
> Irish Goth Scene is clearly a place to watch!
Good to see them getting the recognition now, It's been great watching
the interest build, from when we first mailed out the promo's.
martin oldgoth
www.thirteen13.co.uk
Phono Paul
>
> Good to see them getting the recognition now, It's been great watching
> the interest build, from when we first mailed out the promo's.
Credit where it's due, if it hadn't been for Kev (TWF) and that promo
from yourself, I very much doubt I'd have even thought about asking them
to play.
Most of these sort of gigs I've done or been to you often get most
people staying in the bar for the opening bands. However SN really did
have a large crowd watching them, despite the Saturday venue having a
very comfortable and spacious separate bar area!