Ida Maria @ The Carling Academy 9/11/08

Ida Maria the Norwegian singer-songwriter, is probably best known for her chick rock song, “Better When your Naked”, which many may dismiss for being too superficial and a bit of a cliché. Those who do, are missing out big time, for this is an artist out of the ordinary.
It wasn’t until I heard “Oh My God” that I really began to like Ida Maria.The song is so powerful, you can just feel her frustration, and listening to it nice and loud, is a great vent for ones own. The more I heard her album through and through, the more it grew on me, and now that I have seen her live, I’m completely sold.
Ida describes her songs as square pop songs, and although they are quite guitar heavy in a good way, they are catchy pop tunes, easy to sing along and let loose to, and all under 3:30minutes. Her voice is so unique, cracking at all the right places. She has a wonderful Norwegian accent, adding to the charm of her presence on stage.
Ida stepped on stage wearing a big fur coat, and began with the line “whisky please”, which the crowd, consisting mainly of teenage girls, the alternative kind, began singing along to. The concert was very intense, her eyes, almost crazy looking, starring over the crowd, perhaps due to her synesthesia. The roadie had to come on stage several times, to pick up her guitar or microphone which she let crash around on stage, something that the security guards didn’t seem to be expecting, judging from the young girlie crowd. Despite her on stage performance, the crowd were very mellow, and it wasn’t until the last song, that everyone finally let loose, jumping around, and all pushing to the front in a big mush pit. The screams when she finished were piercing, and she said very sincerely thank you so much, before leaving the stage dripping with sweat. I have to say, it was great!

1) Queen of the World

2) Louie
3) Morning Light
4) Forgive Me
5) Keep Me Warm
6) Drive Away My Heart
7) Stella
8) Always Alone
9) Oh My God
Encore
10) Hell
11) Naked

More information visit: http://www.myspace.com/idamaria

Words and photos by Emilia Flockhart

McFly, Reemer, Avenue @ Metro Radio Arena 08/11/08

This evening the arena is crammed with all the expected bunny-eared, tutu-clad teeny-boppers, the younger McFly fans with their mummies, plus a surprising number of 20-something males getting w**kered at the bar...
First up is Avenue. Think no instruments, think backing tracks, think dance routines, think Five meets some Xfactor reject, think oh dear...
Delivering more the sort of thing I was expecting, Reemer are probably the perfect McFly support band – cheesy, poppy, good-looking, charismatic, and nowhere near exciting enough to upstage the main boys. They certainly have the cringe factor - the lead singer’s enthusiasm almost bordering on scary as he lies across the stage, thighs-galore, singing meaningfully into the camera and making the girlies swoon. As for their music, they will obviously appeal to a younger crowd such as this, with barely-memorable choruses and monotonous lyrics such as ‘I could wrap you up in circles...if you like’ repeated over and over. It all sounds about ten years too late, and even ten years ago it would be nothing new. It’s a shame; they seem like lovely boys, but lovely boys don’t make rock stars.
You can always count on Tom, Danny, Dougie and Harry. No matter how much someone may criticise these boys, they never fail to deliver, and you can fall in love with each one individually as the show progresses. As the opening music builds up for their grand entrance onstage I couldn’t help but feel 16 again, let’s face it - when I loved them the first time around. They can sing, they can write good songs, and they can fly. Yes, McFly can fly. After balls of fire, fireworks, confetti and allsorts...a platform lowers and the boys clamber onto it as it travels over the crowd and plonks itself down right in the middle of the arena; a pretty amazing sight. I must say I prefer McFly’s older stuff, I seem to have lost interest recently, maybe that’s because I’m older and my music taste has changed (improved?) or maybe their songs aren’t as impressive and exciting as they once were? Whatever the answer, it was a damn enjoyable show.

Review by Marzena Dabrowska

NSR Session: Squares

On the 5th of November 2008, Squares played an exclusive gig for NSR in the Green Room. All photos by Solveig Werner.

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

White Lies @ The Cluny

White Lies are currently riding a wave of anticipation for their debut album, but for now fans have to make do with the release of their new single ‘Death’. Consequently a headline tour couldn’t come at a better time for the band. A close to sold out crowd are spoilt for up and coming alternative bands however as White Lies are joined by Lemington band Post War Years and female fronted 3-piece The Joy Formidable.
There’s something intriguing and fascinating about Post War Years. They started the set to a small arriving crowd, the majority of which probably hadn’t heard of the outfit. However by the end of their set, they’ve won nearly everybody over with their experimental, sample-crammed set, buzzing with energy and guts. With comparisons to Battles, Hot-Chip and Tom Vek this has to be one of the best support band’s I’ve seen all year. Next up, The Joy Formidable seem a more obvious choice as a support act for White Lies, similarly dressed in all black. Despite a strong start to the set, which gets the crowd tapping along, they fail to win over the growing crowd. A few gems signal promises of more to come.
White Lies seemed to have mastered this doom-and-gloom image malarkey. Which perfectly accompanies their equally drastic sound that plays around with lyrics about funerals, the cost of love and the death of a relationship or the death of someone even closer? What White Lies have in abundance is catchy songs. Unfinished Business and Death have been around for some time but other songs in the set glow as bright as the 2 singles. The 4th time I’ve seen this band and it’s a great feeling hearing a song that you remember liking on previous occasions but can’t track down online anywhere. Part of the draw of this band is the lack of songs they’ve put out for people to hear recorded. This must have been what it was like to see a band before the internet made it so easy to spread music and gossip on the latest hype band. Tonight is one of those performances where even though you might not be familiar with the majority of the songs played, you can enjoy yourself and anticipate any future releases. This band is destined for bigger things, a point no one at the Cluny tonight would contest.


Review by Christian Allen

The Last Shadow Puppets 27/10/08

Having never seen a gig at city hall I wasn’t really sure what to except, I felt it could be a bit too sophisticated and large scale for a band doing their first U.K. tour. But then when you have a collaboration of two brilliant musical minds like Alex Turner and Miles Kane and when the 16 piece orchestra begin to play, I realise they have in fact picked the perfect venue.
I can tell this isn’t going to be any ordinary gig from the second the orchestra start playing psychedelic tones which welcomes the band on stage and without any hesitation the pair launch into In my Room before playing there debut album title track Age of The Understatement, which with it’s grand orchestration has the effect it could be fitting for a film score.
Throughout the gig it’s impossible to take your eyes off Alex and Miles as you can see that this isn’t a business partnership at all, but two best friends who love what there doing and it’s a bonus they are amazing at it! There was endless banter between the band and the audience which created a brilliant and inspiring atmosphere, which was heightened by the ‘man-love’, which could be felt between the two band members!
The set mainly consisted of album tracks but they also played tribute to some of the great rock and roll legends through covers of The Beatles I Want You (She’s So Heavy), Leonard Cohen’s Memories and what Alex named his “x-factor number”, ‘In the Heat Of The Morning’ by David Bowie. It’s obvious to see where their musical influences come from; this is depicted in their music which runs themes of romance, darkness and tales of Femmes Fatales.
You could tell the pair didn’t want the gig to end as much as the audience and their playful side was shown as they crawled onstage for the encore, which if Alex’s trousers where any tighter wouldn’t have been possible! All in all this was an exceptional gig which makes you cherish the beauty of live music.

Review by Ann-Marie Loughney

General Fiasco @ The Union 23rd October

The average age of the people attending this gig must have been the 14 year-old girl. Okay I know that “girl” is not something that defines an age group, but in a way it does. Well there were a couple of middle-aged women present (a surprising number). I believe that was mostly thanks to the main act One Night Only. Well Little Comets are a very nice eye candy as well.
The first band to take the stage was Newcastle’s own Little Comets. Finally I got to see them again, it had been a while since I last went to one of their gigs. Well they have progressed positively since before the summer. They did rock the floorboards, loads of people were dancing, jumping around and a couple singing along (including my friend Marzy and me). These Comets are different from other bands, they experiment in a musical style which is not necessarily a defined genre, they have an amazing stage presents, helped a lot by their good looks.
Then it was General Fiasco’s turn, they are supporting One Night Only on the whole tour. I am struggling a bit when it comes to describing the way that they sound (hence my being very late with this review). There is a bit of a garage rock sound to them with the lyrics having a strong foothold in the Irish accent. They too had a lot of energy to woo the crowd, but there was less communication between them and those attending the gig. Interesting about them is going to see where they will be in a couple of months from now.

Review by Solveig Werner