A Comedy Of Errors

It's been a rubbish week for live music. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong, one way or another. Here's a quick rundown of why I haven't seen any live music in the last five days.

Thursday - Opinicus @ West Street Live


Fellow Sheffielders Opinicus put on a live gig at West Street Live. This is a good thing. It was a free gig. This was a very good thing. I went alone, and took my camera in case I got an opportunity to try out some shots with my fancy fast lens. All set for a reasonable night. Unfortunately the first support came on.

Necrogrinder. The name should tell it all, really. They were "extreme metal", which I've come to realise means "not very good metal". While the lead singer alternately screeched and belched into the microphone, the three guitarists hammered their instruments while apparently ignoring the fretboard entirely. I've no idea what the drummer was doing. But with their mercifully short (circa 20 second) songs at least they got rid of it quickly.

Sadly they decided to take their "extreme"ness to an, erm, extreme and went for deliberately and boringly tasteless song titles. Not that the titles had anything to do with the songs, all of which sounded the same and had no discernible lyrics.

Anyway, that went on a while and I decided that I couldn't sit through any more of that hoping that the good stuff would arrive. I was on my own so couldn't even chat to people while waiting. Very dull indeed.

Sunday - Volbeat @ Corporation


I was looking forward to this one. Having recently discovering them, and previously reviewing the album, I was in the mood for some relatively up tempo rock and roll metal. Sadly vocalist Michael Poulson is unwell and the band have been forced to cancel the entire first week of the UK tour. And to top it off, there were literally no other gigs in Sheffield that night except a folk supergroup at Plug. Rubbish. We went to see Skyline at the cinema instead. It was rubbish.

Monday - Vampire Weekend @ O2 Academy


Nothing technically wrong with this gig. In fact, I should be there as I write this post. But I'm not. Because for the last two days the city has been at a standstill due to snowfall, and we know for a fact that if we venture into town and the snow comes down, we ain't getting home again without a very long walk. So we're missing it, despite nary a flake to be seen.

Next March - Within Temptation @ Shepherd's Bush Empire Brixton Academy


We got the tickets early for this one. A two day trip to the capital for a night of music, fun and drink and a leisurely drive home the next day. Great idea. Thankfully we didn't book the nearby hotel because a couple of days after buying the tickets, the venue changed. Dodged that bullet.

Then we discover that not only has the venue changed, but so has the date. Onto the one day in November we simply cannot go. And to top if off, further dates in Manchester and Birmingham have been added. If they had been an option in the first place, would the original venue have sold out? Probably not.

The reason for the shift is genuine enough. Sharon den Adel is pregnant and can't be touring next March. Can't really argue with that. But the planning and communication of this entire tour has been a nightmare. Changing venues, moving dates, adding more venues after months of ticket sales ... it's just not helping the fans support the band.

And so there it is. In a mere five days I've managed to see no live music (I don't count Necrogrinder as music) and found that the big gig of 2011 is in question. Hopefully we can get tickets for the Manchester show.

Meh.