A Place To Bury Strangers @ The Other Rooms

Reviewed by Chris Render

I hadn’t really heard much from this band before the night, but heralded as “the loudest band in New York”, A Place to Bury Strangers were always going to be something special. However, I had no idea quite what I was in for as the NY trio took to the stage in Digital’s Other Rooms on the 13th of November this year. They were phenomenal.

The set, although relatively short, was one of the most impassioned I have ever seen, a factor emphasised by the nature of the venue. A Place To Bury Strangers were perfectly suited to The Other Rooms, the bands characteristic intensity magnified by the intimate venue, leading to one of the most dynamic performances I’ve ever seen. The image of guitarist and singer Oliver Ackermann violently de-stringing a guitar mid-song will stay with me to the grave

The charismatic Ackermann is one hell of a performer, not just in terms of his notable musical talent, but also in terms of his commanding stage presence. He was one of the most dynamic stage performers I’ve ever seen, constantly in motion, injecting each song with intense passion. Adding to the band’s already formidable presence were drummer Jay Space and bassist Jono MOFO, one of the most talented rhythm sections I’ve ever encountered.

On the whole, the set was concise, brutal and amazing. Not a moment was wasted, the entire performance being imbued with the band’s trademark intensity and passion. I was left breathless and desperate for more. A Place To Bury Strangers were, in many ways, the musical equivalent of a rollercoaster: fast, intense, brutal and thrilling. One of the best performances I’ve ever seen.

Everything Everything

Everything Everything at the Other Rooms
Rob Sellars

The Other Rooms has developed a knack in recent times of showcasing new bands that go on to discover the dizzy heights of success, and Everything Everything will be hoping the trend continues. With three major release singles under their belt, and this, their second headline tour, in full swing, things are starting to look promising for the band, half of whom hail from Newcastle and for who this constitutes something of a homecoming, after a hectic opening to their tour. Meeting the band before the gig, tired but excited after a performance in Aberdeen the night before, local boys Jonathan (vocals) and Mike (drums) speak of their love for R Kelly, Geordie girls and TV on the Radio amongst other things, and their music too seems to incorporate such an amalgamation of tastes. Taking the harmonies of The Futureheads and the falsettos of Wild Beasts, Everything Everything apply the synths of the aforementioned TVOTR and produce a unique and refreshing sound. The band attract a decent crowd considering their still unsigned status, and play an hour long set that ranges from the epic to pop in a way that brings Flaming Lips to mind and highlights their expansive musical range. New single ‘My Keys, Your Boyfriend’ draws an excited response, and delivers in fine form, while ‘NASA Is On Your Side’ cuts between ethereal and pop in teasing blasts, suggesting that a debut album will feature enough to please anyone’s fancies. The band look at home on the stage, happy playing to a local crowd who are keen to express their affection, and if they carry on as they are, that affection may start coming from a much bigger audience.

The Boxer Rebellion @ The Other Rooms, 30.09.09

The Boxer Rebellion gig review

Stephen Ferrell

The Boxer Rebellion have always had a loyal fan base but the packed gig at the other rooms shows they are now also building a sizeable one as well. After the collapse of the Poptones label that the band were previously signed to. They chose to go down the route of self-funding and releasing their second album United. As Todd from the band said when I spoke to him before the gig. This has been a difficult route to go down. Though it is one they are glad they have taken as it gives them full control of the music they make. It was tracks from both this album and there first the often-underrated Exits that the band played throughout a highly energetic stage performance. They interacted with the crowd very well throughout the gig. The crowd clearly loving it and singing along to every track ‘Forces’ clearly being a particular crowd favourite. As alternative rock goes The Boxer rebellion are undeniably one of the bands that make the most danceable music. A large part of the crowd also took full advantage of this fact also. Looking around the other rooms it was clear to see this band is first-rate entertainers. Although I did not go to the gig as fan of the Boxer Rebellion. I certainly left considering myself to be one. Now I and I believe everyone else that was there will be looking forward to there next appearance in Newcastle. I can only see this band going from strength to strength and believe there public profile is set to become very big in the next few months.


Boxer Rebellion Interview by Louise Morris

Florence and the Machine gig, 3rd Nov at the Other Rooms

As we arrived the Other Rooms were filled with the psychedelic drone-rock of support band The Big Pink, atmospheric but no stage presence what so ever. We waited while the stage was strewn with hanging bird cages and the drum-kit with flowers. Flo came bursting on, hyperactive and held the crowd hypnotized by her piercingly powerful voice. She whirled around with feral energy, banging on drums and beaming constantly. For ‘Kiss with a Fist’ she demanded that the audience start fights with each other, in an ‘orgy of love and violence’. Flo’s magnetic personality saw everyone crouching down like children, then leaping up for her final song, and the set was predominantly upbeat with the pop-esque ‘Between Two Lungs’ and ferocity of ‘Bird Song’ New song ‘Cosmic Love’, showed off Flo’s beautiful, soaring voice and you can see how deeply passionate she is about singing, almost going into a trance at times then hurling herself out of it and dancing round the stage, a blur of gold glitter and sparkly jeans. Despite her claims of ‘I’m feeling violent!’ Flo still enraptures the audience with her quirky charm and playful banter. Catch her if you can!

Review by Louise Morris

Hot Club de Paris

The Others Rooms has to get the award for the most clichéd gig venue in Newcastle. Based in the Centre of Life, its part of the ‘Digital Super-Club’, which isn’t a Super-club at all. Referencing it on the dictionary says its ‘Higher in Quality’. Doesn’t that mean that every posh club is one? Or is it a title branched out for places that believe that just because they have a ‘mixture’ of music they can brand themselves in such way? Anyway, it’s a little room on the top floor that has what Hot Club de Paris (hereafter mentioned as HCDP) called an outrage for not having draught. It doesn’t really attract the young at heart, and that was evident by the audience, a bunch of 30 year olds, and the occasional younger couple, obviously saving their parent’s cash for more fruitful events, such as world hunger.
Anyway, the support bands came on. The first one was a local instrumental 3-piece guitar and occasional trumpet band, but to make themselves ‘rebellious’ they had masks on. If they had focused more on the guitar playing (the trumpet was admittedly very good) then they would have been rather good indeed, instead they let it become too repetitive and not telling a story. But, they obviously had talent, and some good songs.
Sky Larkin a female led indie band from Leeds were next up. Female bands are harder to find than male bands, some get marooned in either the Screemo Yeah Yeah Yeah’s sound or the subtler singer songwriter sound of coffee bar girls that sound exactly the same as the other girl I saw previously. For all that (and I would like to say I’m not totally against female singers, I am listening to Feist at the moment), Sky Larkin were impressive. Playing mostly of their new album, they showed quite a developed sound, with some nice lyrics.
When HCDP finally came on at 10.15. Their set can probably best be described as having a pot of (in its loosest term, but as they are actually on an independent Indie Label) indie and a pot of punk, combined in precise quantities to produce punchy pop punk gems that are over before you have chance to catch your breath. Their influences of early punk such as Firehose and Minutemen are very apparent and their execution is sharp whilst perfecting the love for simple harmonies that has stormed the indie scene of late with little difficulty. The majority of the set focuses their latest album Live At Dead Lake with the ingeniously named I Wasn’t Being Heartless When I Said Your Favourite Song Lacked Heart and current single My Little Haunting but classics such as Sometimesitsbetternottostickbitsofeachotherineachother and Your Face Looks All Wrong also get some play time. HCDP have a talent for bouncing off the crowd and their banter provokes many an excited ‘YEAH’ whilst salutes of expensive beer bottles fill the room. An undeniably fantastic performance, let’s hope these guys get the credit they deserve.

Review by Izaac Carlisle 

Tokyo Police Club @ The Other Rooms 11/06/08

No they are not from Japan, they are from Canada, you should know this if you have been on wikipedia and have read about this band. Tokyo Police Club is a band with four rather young members. Three are 21 and one is 23, and they make music that is worth going down in rock history.
For me this gig in Newcastle was the second time that I have seen them. I must say Tokyo Police Club or TPC have progressed loads since the 16th of February 2006. Elephant Shell their debut album was released this spring, providing fans with music that by far excelled the material found on the EP (treated like and album, but not being one) A Lesson In Crime. But I am meant to write about the gig and not about their records. By now I am late writing about the gig, I am sorry about that, but sometimes I feel the need of these things settling in my memory before I produce them on paper.Dave, Graham, Greg and Josh were on their last week of a 61-gig tour, but they still had more energy than most bands have these days. Their music is ‘demanding’, I am not sure if it is the right word that should be used, it is different from the other things that are out there. Not only their music is different, the lyrics are different. It was really too bad that there was a problem with Dave’s microphone, so on a few songs his beautiful voice was drowned out by the instruments.Your English Is Good and/or Tessellate and other songs had the whole of the public singing along. Some songs are there to be clapped to, in those cases the whole venue was clapping. There was no encore given by TPC, there was no need for one, the set was finished of in the certain harmony you want it to finish. If they would have played one more song they might have collapsed.
TPC brought with them the newest New York revelation Mobius Band for the European part of the tour. For a couple of months I had known one of their songs Hallie and I thought that it would be cool to see them live. I did not think they would be coming to the UK any time soon (allow some pessimism) and well the last thing that I though was that they would be the support band for one of my favorite bands.These three Brooklyn natives are a rather geeky bunch they know how to charm their public. In the beginning of their set everyone in the crowd kept the ‘obligatory’ distance to the stage. Mobius (I permit myself to shorten it to that) did not seem to like it, one of them more or less told us off and said that we should be filling the space right in front of the stage.I believe that with them it is interesting to see where they are going to be in a couple of weeks or months or years time. There is something very special about them, a momentum seems to be building up around them in the States, if the wave will hit Europe remains a yet unanswered question.
A year ago or so Tokyo Police Club would play their gig with only 10 songs, all they had in stock back then. Now their set list is miles long written on a paper plate and not including every release they have had so far. I believe I might have gotten a bit carried away with this review, but good music can sometimes hardly be described in a couple of words.

Review by Solveig Werner