Author Archives: Jason Miller

Roxy Music wrapped the UK leg of their critically acclaimed 50th-anniversary tour, celebrating their first album at a sold-out O2 Arena in London on Friday night. It was the reunion that I never expected to see in my lifetime, and it was exquisite. The band that gave birth to the genre of art rock was also noted for keeping David Bowie inspired and “on his toes.” They laid the foundation for many subcultures to follow, including electronic, punk, disco, new wave, and of course, the new romantics. It was all on display, and it was done with style.

Led by the ultra-charismatic Bryan Ferry, this was the classic 1972 Roxy Music line-up featuring guitarist Phil Manzanera, saxophonist Andy Mackay, and drummer Paul Thompson. Noticeably absent was Brian Eno, but after the first few songs, I don’t think it made any difference. The band were locked and loaded, and it looked like they were having the time of their lives, feeding off not only the capacity crowd but one another.

The setlist opened with the first song from the classic debut album, “Re-Make, Re-Model,” and we were off to the races. Then it was straight into “Out of the Blue” from 1974’s Country Life, followed by an amended version of the 9-minute opus “The Bogus Man.” Then Ferry and company slowed the pace a bit with “Ladytron,” “While My Heart is Still Beating,” and “Oh Yeah,” which was my favorite song of the evening.

As they got closer to weaving in tracks from Avalon, the song selection began to get bolder—the art of art rock began to shine. There were several moments when I absolutely lost myself in the visuals and the drawn-out instrumental breaks. It was almost Pink Floyd-ish at times but nothing short of blissfully calm. It was a gorgeous soundscape with Phil Manzanera’s guitar tone slicing through the groundswell like a Ginsu knife through warm butter. It was interesting to see how these songs from so many different eras played so nicely together.

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It was close to being the last live music show in London before the lockdown began in 2020. Anvil were touring in support of their 18th studio album, Legal at Last. “We put out the album, came here to England and went home. We had never had a chance to play anything from the album.” The pandemic forced the band to cancel the tour, and now they were in a race to get home before the world shut down. “We were the last band off the road. When we got to the airport, I got my ticket and handed them my passport, and they had just closed the borders of America,” recalled Lips. 

“You can’t take this flight as it goes through New York,” said the ticket agent. “So, how do we get home?” asked Lips. “You can’t,” said the agent. Eventually, after racing from airline to airline across several different terminals at Heathrow, flights were filling up, but they finally got a direct flight from London to Toronto. If that wasn’t chaotic enough, Lips tested positive for covid when he got back home to Toronto. Although he recovered, there seems to be a lingering effect.” I’ve got a bit of memory fog, I don’t know if it’s my age or covid, but I think it’s covid as I’ve never had that kind of issue before,” he recalls. But out of the darkness comes the light. Anvil always looks for the positive in any situation, and they try to push on and make the best of it. In this case, a new album was born; the pandemic-fueled Impact is Imminent.

“Our album titles are always alliterations; we have thousands compiled, literally,” says Lips. Impact is Imminent was chosen because of what was happening at the time and still is. “We were talking about the impact of the pandemic; the worst is yet to come. So we made an Anvil asteroid, but we didn’t want to show it hitting the Earth because maybe it would miss this time around. We realized they were printing money, and the cost of living was going to skyrocket. The impact is imminent, literally,” says Lips.

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Hailing from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, The Sheepdogs brought their authentic brand of ’70s-infused rock ‘n’ roll to the UK for an electrifying show at London’s famed Electric Ballroom. I’m a bit late to the party on this one, stumbling on the band on a recommendation from a fellow member of a Jellyfish Facebook group, but once I watched the video for “I Wanna Know You,” I was hooked. At first I thought this can’t be real—this is too fucking good. Then I met the band and saw the show, and I can say this is 100% real, it’s authentic, it’s home-cooked rock ‘n’ roll. 

Just before their show in London, I went backstage to chat with frontman Ewan Currie and bassist Ryan Gullen about their sound, creativity during the lockdown, and pop culture—and got a few fun stories along the way. 

Why this sound in particular? What drew the band to the ’70s? 

Ewan: When I was a teenager, I didn’t care about modern music the way I felt about Creedence, The Kinks, Zeppelin, or The Beatles. Then when I was 19 and going to bars, there weren’t any bands playing this kind of music. We were listening to the early Black Keys, the first Kings of Leon album, and we thought we could do this kind of stuff. We figured that we would all sing and do guitar harmonies hopefully. Eighteen years in, it’s not like we are chasing a trend; this is us. 

Ryan: We started out playing songs from bands that we liked, and then eventually we started writing our own songs. We always come from an honest place, even if it’s beneficial or not to us. We try to be genuine in the way we do things, and I think we attract a more dedicated fanbase because it’s so organic. 

How did the lockdown affect the band’s creativity? Did you find you were more or less creative? 

Ewan: I think it was a bit of both. We tour a lot it’s hard to be creative on the road. For me, I find that creativity is usually associated with quiet introspection, a chance to sit down and sort through thoughts and ideas instead of when you’re rushing around on tour. Being in a green room with a bunch of guys around you, along with frantic travel, it becomes the enemy of creativity. 

It was such a bummer of a time. I guess some people get motivated when they are depressed, but it didn’t feel like a very inspiring time. You have to live your life and be inspired by things to come up with ideas. Being stuck at home watching TV or whatever shit we were doing during lockdown just doesn’t really get my juices flowing. 

Ryan: What started to be like a fun long weekend turned into the uncertainty of when this would end. It was the first time we had taken a long period of time off with the band, it was kind of fun, but then as time went on, we didn’t really know if we are going to be able to make a record. It became a bit of a bummer, but when we finally did back together to play music again, it was amazing and it actually helped us creatively as we were all a bit refreshed and excited to be back together. 

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Is it finally time to stop calling Behemoth underground? They are clearly on a trajectory for breaking through to mass appeal, and while I would hesitate to say mainstream, there’s something happening here that cannot be ignored.

Few bands can maintain this level of heaviness and continue to grow at this rate while keeping their street cred. Lamb of God did it when they signed to a major label more than a decade ago, something I don’t think anyone saw coming, but Epic records took a risk and hit a fucking home run. They’ve also had a longer run on Epic than 90% of other bands who took the plunge. Soon after, all the other major labels started looking for their extreme metal band with mass appeal, but they quickly found out this wasn’t a cookie-cutter exercise. Now that the hype has died down, Behemoth could be the last band standing, as they are primed for a major label to swoop in and take them to the next level.

Hats off to Nuclear Blast for doing what they do with pushing the band and keeping them at the forefront of a movement, but what happens next? Truth is, they’ve got everything they need; an insanely dedicated and rabid fanbase, critical acclaim (Kerrang gave the new album a perfect score), and literally nothing left to check off among the do-it-yourself, from-the-ground-up playbook. And does the band really care? I mean, hell, they just headlined Brixton Academy in London. Is there a better venue to aspire to? I think not.

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I’ve seen some metal shows in my time, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as hardcore as Watain. These guys take the cake in terms of embracing the old-school death metal mentality as they bring together all the things we love about the often misunderstood genre.

Pyrotechnics, candles, Satanic rituals, animal carcasses, and yes, even real blood, which they’ve been known to hurl at audiences during their live shows, is a batteries-included approach to an epic metal show. Apparently, this show was moved from several different venues as I heard rumours that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the band to find a suitable venue as they tend to leave a mark where they play. I think that’s pretty fucking cool.

Enter London’s famed Troxy. The last place you would ever expect to see an extreme metal show. This place looks like it could have hosted a residency from the Rat Pack back in the ’60s. It’s massive, and it’s got carpet. So I guess the pig’s blood is out, then? Either way, it seemed to be a bit tamed down from the other shows I’ve heard about, and that’s okay. Watain “tamed” is still about 10-times more extreme than the mass of other so-called death metal bands. These guys still turned it up to eleven.

At one point during the show, eclectic frontman Erik Danielsson seemed to be conjuring up a spell of sorts with his back to the audience. Then out of nowhere, I get doused with a handful of ashes with some hard bits mixed in. My guess is crushed animal bones scattered across my camera and black t-shirt. I’ve shot Gwar a number of times and had a direct hit of space jizz from Vulvatron, so that didn’t really phase me (although it’s a bitch to get out of wool).

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The Black Crowes are on another level at the moment. They’re the best rock ‘n’ roll band on tour right now—my generation’s Led Zeppelin. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band that makes it look so easy; it’s as if the only reason they are here on the planet to remind us what good old-school rock ‘n’ roll is and can be. (Yeah, I get it, that’s a heap of praise to throw at a band in the first paragraph of a gig review, but you had to see it to believe it.) People were in fucking awe. In the words of Liam Gallagher, “it was biblical.”

There’s something to be said about the company they keep as well. There was an all-star list of London rock ‘n’ rollers in attendance. Spike from the Quireboys and the man who invented heavy metal, Tony Iommi, were just a few that I saw on night one. The show had been postponed several times, but unlike many others, it didn’t affect the anticipation or turnout. Was it sold out? There was one seat open, and I grabbed it, so yeah, essentially, it was.

I watched two brothers with a very public turbulent past jamming together in perfect harmony. Hell, they even smiled at each other more than once. This is the power of music, the power of great fucking songs, the power of connection with the audience, personified and amplified. You could feel this show in your heart; it warmed you up.

I’ve always been a fan of the Crowes, but I lost touch after By Your Side. They started to drift into a sort of jam-band space that I wasn’t really into. But that doesn’t change the fact that their debut masterpiece, Shake Your Money Maker, is still one of my favourite records of all time.

I would argue that The Southern Harmony and Musician Companion is the superior record, only because it took everything I loved from the debut and turned it up to eleven, but hearing “Twice as Hard” as the opening song brought me back to the glory days of MTV and the first time I heard this band. Fucking hell, I forgot how brilliant that song is as an opener. I was transported automatically back to 1992 when Riki Rachtman first said, “I’ve got a new band for you that I think you are going to like,” and the rest is history.

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It’s easy to write off Three Days Grace as just another alt-metal band from the early 2000s, but that would be the cliched thing to do and the easy way out.

The fact that they have a record 17 number-one singles is a testament to how they stand out by a long shot among their peers and the long line of copycats being snatched up by major labels after they hit it big with their self-titled debut. Even I was a bit hesitant when I heard “I Hate Everything About You.” But I was quickly sold on “Home” as I thought this was one of the best rock songs from that entire decade. Great lyrics, chunky riffs, and even a bit of passion and soul in the chorus. It sounded like this guy was singing from the actual experience of this story happening to him, right there.

I have to admit I lost track of the band after original frontman Adam Gontier left, but I was intrigued when I saw that they were coming to London. I hadn’t seen these guys since I lived in Austin, Texas, more than thirty years ago. Now fronted by former My Darkest Days singer Matt Walst, the band is still going strong, having just released their latest album, Explosions. They don’t seem to tour very often in the UK, so I was interested to see what the crowd would look like. American alt-metal bands from that era were a bit hit and miss when they hit London, but this show was sold out. 

The O2 Forum in Kentish Town was jammed to the gills. The crowd was a mix of new and old fans alike. One younger guy I ran into said he’d never heard of Three Days Grace and that he was more of an Ed Sheeran fan, but his girlfriend dragged him to the gig as she was a massive fan. I saw them on the way out, and it looked like he had converted.

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This is the tenth time I’ve seen Starsailor. I’ve seen them live more than any other band, with Cheap Trick and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult a close second. (Yeah, how’s that for a mix?)

I am very aware that I throw around the phrase best show I’ve seen, best band etc., quite a bit, but I see ALOT of live music, and the majority of it is pretty epic. But Starsailor is on another level. I don’t think they’ve ever written a bad song. They’re one of the few bands left that consistently deliver brilliant albums from start to finish. They also continue to evolve their sound but never go off the deep end.

This time around, it is to celebrate their debut album which came out 20 years ago. Love is Here was the album that kickstarted the post-Brit-Pop movement in the early 2000s. It seemed to be a competition between Coldplay, Travis, Feeder, Keane, and more. It’s a masterpiece in terms of a marriage between glorified acoustics and a one-of-a-kind voice. The hits just kept coming in the form of “Lullaby,” “Alcoholic,” “Fever,” “Poor Misguided Fool,” and of course, the career-defining “Good Souls.” To hear this album from start to finish isn’t a fucking gimmick; it’s a privilege.

Even though the gig was rescheduled three times due to the pandemic, it was worth the wait. Yet again, the timing wasn’t perfect. With the announcement earlier that day that Queen Elizabeth II had passed, it was impossible not to acknowledge it. “I’m not a big fan of the monarch, but she played by the rules just like us, and that I have to respect,” said Walsh just after the first few songs.

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It may be cliched to call them the Godfathers of Goth, but it’s also challenging to explain one band’s impact over such a short time.

Bauhaus are to post-punk and goth what the Sex Pistols were to punk in terms of impact, and The Clash in the melding of musical styles. They defined a genre, crafted two perfect albums that ignited a movement, and set the stage for a number of new artists to carry the torch. Interestingly, one could view Bauhaus as an all-star band, but the process for each member coming into their own is reversed. The sum of the offshoots returns to a place where each band member is known by their reputation, not necessarily their early legacy. I mean, how many bands are there from four decades ago where every fan knows each of their individual names?

I don’t think anyone expected them to return quickly for a London show after a magnum opus Halloween show less than a year ago at Alexandra Palace. Still, it was a welcomed return to the iconic Brixton Academy. There’s a certain mystique around the band and their live performances—and in addition a new song conjured out of lockdown. “Drink The New Wine” marks their first new single since 2008’s Go Away White, and the story of how it was created proves that the band have not lost their edge for experimentation.

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I’m not a massive fan of festivals as I generally prefer the smaller club shows and theaters. But there’s one festival I’ve had my eye on for the past few years, and it finally happened after a series of pandemic-induced delays. The Rebellion Festival lineup continued to get more and more stacked as each postponed year rolled into the next. So much so that they added an extra outdoor stage and a slew of additional acts outside of the original announcement more than two years ago. This was gearing up to be the biggest and best Rebellion yet, and I was on my way.

The festival is held in Blackpool, just north of Manchester. Having never been to Blackpool, I was told this was sort of the Vegas of the UK, or at least it used to be many years ago. Today it’s a bit of a forgotten seaside town, which seemed perfect as the host for a punk rock festival; the underdog with the potential to be great.

Over 200 bands were playing, and there was no way I would be able to see half of them, so some careful planning and research was underway. There were several hidden gems, one-off performances, reunions, new bands, legendary bands, and of course, once-in-lifetime opportunities to see punk legends sharing the stage with other punk legends. There’s no telling who will show up where and with whom. It reminded me a bit of the Monsters of Rock cruise, which I’ve covered several times.

Still, instead of a mishmash of ’80s hair metal legends and the new breed of rock ‘n’ roll, it was a history lesson in all things UK punk, mod, and new wave, along with a stage dedicated to the best up and comers, the ones who will define the future of the genre, and to be honest, that’s where I found myself spending the majority of my time.

I ended up seeing more than forty bands over three days (I couldn’t stay for the fourth day as I had to get back to London). It’s certainly not easy to choose a top ten, but here’s my attempt at pulling together the best of the best over the weekend. I couldn’t narrow it down to ten, so here’s my top twelve and why they made the list:

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George Thorogood is a bit of a mythical figure to me. Growing up in the midwest of the US, I was eight years old when I first saw the video for “Bad to the Bone.” Here’s this regular-looking dude walking into a pool hall with a guitar case that, instead of a Gibson, had a pool cue in it. He would go on to hustle the legendary bluesman Bo Diddley (I had no idea who he was at that time). I thought it was a bit strange for a storyline for a music video, but there was no denying that this guy was a bad motherfucker when it came to playing the blues. Is he a shredder like SRV or Hendrix? No. He’s got style, he’s got finesse, and most importantly, he’s got attitude.

Fast forward 40 years (Jesus, I’m getting old), and I get my first chance to see him live, and he brought the Destroyers. Celebrating 45 years of rock, the show that had been postponed several times finally arrived at London’s famed Shepherd’s Bush Empire. George came out on stage, immediately walked up to the front, and gave all the photographers in the pit a chance at an epic shot—then he went straight for the crowd. I’ve never seen anyone have such a good time playing the blues. He made the sold-out, packed to the gills theatre feel like the roadhouse saloon somewhere outside of Philadelphia. He was cracking jokes, chatting directly with the crowd, telling stories, and making quips; it was as if George knew the crowd intimately.

And I’m here to tell you, George didn’t miss a beat. His personality and that character I saw in the “Bad to the Bone” video is authentic; that’s just how he is. Even the security guy told me he was making jokes and telling stories to the staff during soundcheck. You can clearly see in the photos that George was on fire, and the Destroyers were tight as can be with original band members Billy Blough and Jeff Simon holding down the groove. For me, this puts a show over the top, seeing someone who’s been doing it for this long and still looks like they are having the time of their life.

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The Struts made their triumphant return home last week in London, kicking off their UK tour at the beautiful Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Having recently announced signing on with one of the hottest labels on the planet, Big Machine, The Struts look to be primed to finally break through and fulfill their destiny to be one of the biggest rock bands on the planet.

If you’re not familiar with Big Machine, they are the leading “independent” label based in the States with a rich history of not only turning artists into hit-making machines, but also opening up the heavens in terms of opportunities to reach the masses like no one else. Big Machine is a shining example of the modern record label; when it works, it works and generally blows up, taking the band to the next level of their career; when it doesn’t, well, let’s not go there.

The first sign of the “rebirth” of The Struts comes in the form of a new single. The band is super excited about this one as they invited the VIP ticket holders into the venue early to give it a spin. Then they played it live. I heard this song three times that night, the studio version once and two times live. While it certainly sounds like The Struts, it’s moving in a slightly new direction. Holy shit, the Machine is working.

The Struts 3.0 is an evolution, and it’s quite good. The song is called “Falling with Me,” and it’s about a night out in LA with the band as they personify the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle at the legendary Rainbow Room on the once famed Sunset Strip. It’s no surprise that these guys love their ’70s and ’80s glam rock, so why not retrace the steps of your peers and inject that into your music?

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Mika made his triumphant return to London at the legendary Roundhouse on Sunday night, 7/3. This was quite the intimate venue for an artist of his magnitude, especially coming off the high of an epic Eurovision performance. The line wrapped around the venue as thousands queued to get in, some even waiting out front for nearly twenty-four hours. Why on earth would anyone wait that long? For a live spectacle like no other and the perfect way to wrap a month of pride celebrations.

The Lebanese-born, British singer-songwriter has proven to be a virtuoso over the past decade and a half, with a sharp wit and an incredible sense of melody. He’s like a cross between Barry Gibb, Freddie Mercury, and Idina Menzel, bridging the gap between theatrical rock, pop, dance, and Broadway. He was hitting notes that I didn’t think were possible, and he made it look easy. He can write a hook like no other, his musical resume speaks volumes, and he’s become an icon and inspiration for the LGBT community and beyond. It begs the question, is there anything that Mika can’t do?

Soft-spoken, charming, and personable, he had the audience in the palm of his hand, not because of ego but because he’s vulnerable; he was one of them. He’s also quite the storyteller. Throughout the set he spoke to the capacity crowd as if they were all gathered around the fireplace at his home. He told a heartwarming story about his mother before dedicating “Grace Kelly” to her. He also talked about how excited he was about writing the symphonic score for an upcoming movie about an unusual friendship that blossoms between a boy and a camel (I couldn’t make out the name of the film, and I don’t think it’s been announced yet).

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Cleveland, Ohio natives Mushroomhead kicked off their tour in London last week, bringing their signature industrial-infused brand of metal to the European masses. Over the years, I’ve been a bit of a casual fan of the band since someone gave me a copy of Xx back in 2001. This is a beast of a album, and although the band was constantly being compared to fellow midwest metallers Slipknot, I didn’t really get it. Sure, they wore masks and played in a similar ballpark genre-wise, but it was way too easy to dismiss them as simply copycats. With all the hype surrounding Slipknot, I actually thought Mushroomhead was the more interesting band. After seeing them live, I’m convinced. 

They are certainly more accessible and arguably more creative in terms of the mashup of styles that they bring together. Some might say it’s a bit too commercial with their latest endeavor, but who really fucking cares? So was Static X, and they were able to keep their metal cred by crossing over (OK, not the best example, but you get it). Fast forward twenty years, several revolving members, five studio records, a major label stint, I finally get to see the band live. The chaos, the rabid fans, the mystique—it was all about to explode into the twisted metal circus that came to town.

In support of their 2020 album, It’s a Wonderful Life the tour is being called the best lineup and best album since their peak with XIII nearly two decades ago. This is a massive leap forward for the band in terms of production, songwriting, and experimentation. Seventeen songs clocking in at 71 minutes with an overarching Faith No More vibe happening across several songs and a progressive metal feel to a few others, it’s rounded out with some massively heavy grooves and classic Mushroomhead chunky guitar breaks. There is something for everyone here. 

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I’m standing in the photo pit between five thousand screaming Nine Inch Nails fans and the stage at the legendary Brixton Academy. I’ve been here dozens of times before, but this one was different; the return of one of the most influential bands of all time.

It’s been four years since Trent Reznor and company brought their brutal industrial sounds to the UK, and a lot was riding on this one. The smoke rolls across the stage, cutting through the chromed metal fixtures as if it’s on a mission to engulf the entire front of the stage, including myself. Mission accomplished. The stage is a glowing orange, reminiscent of a futuristic wasteland as it’s contrasting with the darkness leaving an eerie feeling of the inevitable nuclear blast of sounds about to hit.

Then it happens. The lights go dark and before I can even turn my head to comprehend what’s happening, the whitest light I’ve ever seen hits me. It was like watching an atom bomb explosion through a welder’s mask—and just like that the band is blasting into their first song. Holy shit, I didn’t even see anyone walk on stage, and now I’m in the middle of a full-on riot.

I’ve seen thousands of shows before, and generally, you get some inkling that the band is coming on stage in the form of the drummer first taking to the throne with a stick in the air, a gracious wave from the singer, and snark from the guitarist. Fuck that, not this time. It was pedal to the metal, an all-guns-blazing sonic assault. Fuck, this is awesome turns quickly, too, fuck, I’ve got to take some pictures. Seconds later the crowd surfers are in full force, dropping, kicking, screaming, and reaching for the stage; it’s full-blown chaos.

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