Bog Fundraiser - Audacious 31/03/18

I didn't take a picture at this gig. Oops.

We get there early so we could see the first band, one of my partner's friend's partner was playing. They were alright. The singer had slight Tom Waits twinges and the music was finger-picked, near rock.

Second on were Tommy Hillfinger, a three-piece who played really tight surf rock. Good solid musicianship. I would search them out to watch again.

Third on were YoDynamo, a bass and drums duo who created an awful lot of sound for two people. The drummer was often a blur, blasting out ferocious rhythms, quite impressive. The bass player was equally energetic, playing well and providing energetic vocals. There were some suspect kazoo parts and monkey noises between songs but overall it was good.

We left before Ganglions played. Nothing against the band but the amount of people smoking inside the venue started to upset my breathing. It was really strange and a bit disappointing to see smoking inside and it felt a bit odd against my understanding of the safe-space, accessible, diy venue ethos.

Dinosaur Jr - Plug 26/03/18

I didn't even know Dinosaur Jr were touring, let alone coming to Sheffield, until my partner mentioned it and then booked tickets. I was very excited. I had noticed that they do tour quite often but only seemed to visit Leeds. I was quite excited.

Stephen McBean opened. He made a great noise using an acoustic guitar but blasting out fuzzed out rhythm and soloing to great effect.

Dinosaur Jr took to the stage sometime after. They were solid and as good as you would expect. I would put them in the legendary tier of bands, quite easily.

This was the first gig I had actually been excited for in a long time. Listening to albums the day before. It felt like going to gigs as a teenager again. I think I had assumed I would never see them perform live, really, with my unwillingness to travel. Unfortunately this enthusiasm turned into me drinking too much and spending the night throwing up when I got home. This was not my finest hour.

King Capisce - Record Junkee 23/02/18

This was the first gig I went to at Record Junkee. It is a decent space, the sound was good, but £4 for a can of Red Stripe seems slightly pricey.

King Capisce were fantastic as usual. They had both saxophonist's the time, I think when we saw them at The Bath Hotel at Tramlines they only had one. They seemed to have a great time and I think it was easy to tell from the music.

A band called Evil Usses headlined. They are in the picture at the top. I wasn't that impressed but I don't think I was giving them a fair go. They had a vintage Italian synth though.

I am trying to cut gluten, or at least bread, out of my diet as it seems to help me not feel like bloated all the time. We went to the Pizza Express in The Moor for dinner and had a gluten free, dairy free pizza. It is nice but it is not the same. The good point is that they don't charge extra for the dietary substitutions.

Baba Naga - Yellow Arches 01/02/17

I think Baba Naga are pretty good. High quality musicianship, great riffs and solos, great songs. They have the person that dresses up and dances around but we were too far back to see them.

Support came from Swedish Death Candy, also very solid.

I engaged in daytime drinking before this show and as such didn't survive far into the night. I cut my hair off the left-side of my head before going out and lots of people said it looked like I had escaped from brain surgery.

PINS - Picture House Social 09/11/17

PINS had been getting some play on 6music with their latest single "Serve The Rich". I've heard them on the radio lots of times in the last couple of years, and seen that they'd played Sheffield a couple of times but I'd never actually made it to a gig.

PHS was the busiest I've ever seen it outside of Tramlines. There was a healthy crowd their for the opening act Cowtown. Cowtown are a three-piece from Leeds as far as I know. I've seen them a couple of times, once at Audacious and again at Bungalows, I think. They play fast, no messing indie rock I guess. The synth player was actually audible this time, blasting out the bass. The guitarist and synth player swapped instruments for the last song. I really dislike it when that happens.

PINS came on a short while after. Their live sound was more electronic than I had anticipated, with triggered samples and some use of a drum machine as far as I could tell. Their songs are good, nothing too fast, some great gang vocals. The picture is from the song that featured Iggy Pop on vocals/drawling and the bass player did a good job of replacing that. I kept thinking they sounded like a modern Bananarama which isn't really a bad thing in my eyes.

I'd go and see them again.

Dignan Porch - Audacious 16/10/17

Dignan Porch are one of those bands that always seem to be highly regarded when they have a biography on an event page. We went down to Audacious to see them. There were no slot times available so we got there quite early. We spent a pleasant hour in the band room. There was a decent playlist on.

Stuff eventually started to happen and Thee Mightees appeared on stage. I really like their music. Jangly Marr-ish lead guitar and good songs. They have a song that the lead guitarist sings that I feel is very much in the mould of "I wanna be yours" by John Cooper Clarke. I'll keep going to see them.

Dignan Porch came on quite quickly after. There are 5 of them. 2 guitars, bass, synth and drums. They seemed to have a really tight sound. Quite a varied mix of songs tempo and tone wise. Nothing really too heavy. A couple of intriguing trips into guitar pedal fuckery. I think they were deserving of the high praise and I'd go and see them again when they are next up this way.

Skinny Girl Diet - Picture House Social 11/10/17

I think that I might have heard the name Skinny Girl Diet before but couldn't place the music. We checked out some songs and it seemed interesting and noisey so we went to see them when they played at Picture House Social.

Duck were the opening act. We saw them open for Living Bodies, also at PHS, at some point in the summer. They are a 3 piece with guitar, synth and then varying accompaniment(guitar, drums, some sort of synth or melodica). Quite heavy and machine like with a drum machine providing the rhythm. Interesting guitar and synth work too.

Skinny Girl Diet appeared as a duo, apparently they sometimes have a bassist but tonight it was just drums and guitar. Deafeningly loud with impressive guitar and drum work. Very grunge tinged and the singer has a good voice. I'll be going to see them again if they ever come back to Sheffield.

Yassassin - Rough Trade, Nottingham 07/10/17

We saw Yassassin performing at Bungalows and Bears as part of Tramlines this year. We saw Sievehead, Nacthexen and then Yassassin to finish out the weekend, it was pretty great. We noticed that Yassassin were playing a free gig at Rough Trade in Nottingham to support their new EP so we headed down on the train.

There was no support act, just Yassassin. They have a pretty good punk/rock sound, sometimes drifting into shoegaze-y drones. I think all of them join in with the singing, leading at times to some pretty raucous gang vocals. They put in a fair amount of energy on stage and I think that really comes through in the music. I'd go and see them again.

Slotface - Picture House Social 06/10/17

I don't usually like gigs at Picture House Social as I find the sound quality to usually be lacking. I find this quite annoying as they book lots of interesting bands.

Ganglions were supporting and although I'd noticed them booked onto lots of gigs I had never managed to see them. I think they were great and outplayed Slotface. They are a 3-piece band with the drummer and bassist sharing vocal duties. There is lots of jangly, technical lead guitar in a kind-of math-rock without the distortion fashion. Really great to hear. The songs all feel the right length, with none of them feeling like they dragged on. They were promoting a new EP which hopefully they will be playing locally in support of, so I'll get a chance to go and see them again soon.

Slotface are a Norwegian pop-punk band. The music is well done but fairly standard with most of the interest coming from the lyrics. I found the vocals to be too low in the mix to really make out much at the gig, which was slightly disappointing. They got a mosh-pit going which is quite an achievement. They also threw a disposable camera into the crowd and it hit the person next to me, who had talked through the entire gig, square in the face as they weren't paying attention. That was pretty good. I don't think I'd go out of my way to see them again.  

This Is The Kit - Hubs 16/09/17

I've been a fan of This Is The Kit for a long time but this was only my second time seeing them. The first time was last summer at Tramlines when Kate had banjo problems.

Support came from Barbarossa, a two piece electro band, who I'd never heard of before. They were quite good, I think the singer had quite an androgynous voice that reminded me a lot of Rhye.

This Is The Kit were very good. Despite having a fair few albums of great songs to choose from the set consisted mostly of new material meaning quite a lot of my favourite songs didn't get played. I don't think that mattered though as it was a great performance. This Is The Kit seem much more like a general feeling than specific songs, I think. Great musicianship and good chat between songs.

I like Hubs as venue. I saw a few acts there at Tramlines and this gig too and it has seemed to have good, clear sound each time.