After the splendid time we had last weekend doing the 'Abigail' escape room at Trapp'd Kettering, we thought we'd go straight back and do the room that we originally wanted to. Well, honestly I'm glad we did Abigail first because I'm not sure we would have gone back to do it after this. We really struggled with this one and apparently we were only about half way through when we ran out of time.
There were good bits to it, but we seemed to just hit dead end after dead end after dead end and after about 40m we were feeling pretty deflated. It's a shame because 'Abigail' was one of the best rooms we've ever done, I think we're more suited to physical puzzles and whatnot, as soon as they start involving technology it seems to go a bit wrong. Oh well, never mind.
Our first visit to Trapp'd in Kettering and I'm pleased to say that not only was it pleasantly cool in the escape room (despite the warm summer day outside) but we also got out with 30 seconds to spare! Really impressed with this one; one initial room turned into four once new openings appeared in the walls (bookcase, mantelpiece) providing the perfect amount of puzzles and confusing enough without leaving us completely baffled.
After several failed attempts to see 'Motorkill' last year, we finally managed to catch a Motorhead tribute show in Coventry, courtesy of 'Motorheadache'.
I have to say, it was pretty good. Sure they didn't play everything perfectly, but you wouldn't expect them to would you? After all this is Rock n Roll, not bloody Dream Theater!
As an aside, before we even got into the building, someone spotted my Razor shirt and screamed 'Razor Evil Invaders' from the outside balcony. Never have I had a shirt get so many reactions!
The spirit and feeling of Motorhead was there and captured very well I thought. It didn't hurt that the set was predominantly culled from the classic 1979-1982 era (hard to believe that's how long... or 'short', the 'classic' line-up lasted) and even featured some earlier tunes that predated Overkill.
Songs played include: Motorhead, Silver Machine, Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers, Please Don't Touch, Overkill, No Class, Damage Case, Capricorn, Metropolis, Bomber, All the Aces, Stone Dead Forever, The Hammer, We Are The Road Crew, Ace of Spades, Iron Fist, Killed by Death, Doctor Rock, R.A.M.O.N.E.S., Going to Brazil and Born to Raise Hell.
At one point 'Lemmy' managed to convince a couple of girls to come up on stage and then announced the next song would be 'Jailbait', which was a bit awkward as one of them looked rather young! He quickly changed this to 'Born to Raise Hell', and the two girls danced their way through that (and also returned later for 'Ace of Spades').
I must commend them for the attention to detail, Lemmy's Rickenbacker looked exactly like the real thing (I don't know if you can buy a carved Rickenbacker like Lemmy's or whether they did it themselves) and the hat, beard and vocals were also on point.
The room was smaller than we remembered from our last visit, and thankfully they had installed a large fan which kept things cool (it was absolutely melting when we saw 'The Devout' here a few years ago).
It didn't seem that loud until near the end when we moved directly in front of 'Lemmy' and then it suddenly seemed awfully loud, and predictable as soon as we left our ears were screaming...
We saw at least one, maybe two Blondie tribute bands back in the day (definitely one of which was at Sector 5, or possibly the Fan Club) but it was a long time ago and since this was at our favourite 'local' venue, well why not!
It's staggering how many Blondie songs I know, considering it's not a band I'd ever go out of my way to listen to. Before we went I could think of maybe six or seven songs, but I knew probably 80% of everything they played in their 1hr 45m set.
Tracks performed included, The Tide is High, Maria, 11:59, Ex Offender, Call Me, Denis, Atomic, Rip Her to Shreds, Dreaming, Rapture, Shayla, Hanging on the Telephone, Sunday Girl, Picture This, One Way or Another, Fade Away and Radiate, Pretty Baby, Heart of Glass, Union City Blue, Will Anything Happen, Fan Mail and Long Time.
Hanging on the Telephone... of course!
The band played two sets and shortly after starting the second set someone was taken ill at the front of the stage so the band went off for ten minutes, abandoning 'Shayla' half way through.
The band were really good, especially Celine D'mar who really captured Debbie Harry's voice (and mannerisms) well.
It had been incredibly hot all week and we could have blown it off, but I'm really glad we didn't because this was a really good gig and Rose especially enjoyed it (she's more of a Blondie fan than me). There were a lot of people there too, a surprising amount actually given the heat and the fact that England were playing in the World Cup the same night!
Once upon a time Voivod was the band I had waited the longest to see... but since then we've seen them a further six times (1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2018, 2023 and now 2026). The 2018 gig in Cardiff was one of the best gigs of all time, which unfortunately means every other Voivod gig falls a little short, but that doesn't mean they aren't still good.
This gig was billed as a co-headliner, and for once that actually meant Voivod and Midnight alternated closing the show. I found this rather bemusing as I would have thought Voivod were bigger than Midnight and I wonder if when Midnight headline the crowd thins a little after Voivod play?
We finally found out the Voivod would be closing the show in Nottingham and decided to get there good and early to make sure we secured a good spot on the balcony (after the bloody debacle that was trying to see Paradise Lost last year!). So we got in just after seven to find openers 'Cryptosis' already on stage.
I'm pretty sure I had one of their albums but I'm not sure I actually ever listened to it. The logo certainly looks familiar. They play a kind of progressive Thrash/Death with definite hints of Voivod and prog Black Metal too (the open, ringing chords bring to mind bands like Enslaved and Ved Buens Ende) here and there, maybe I will check them out again,
I have listened to Midnight over the years, but never really got into them. But knowing that we were going to see them we decided to watch a show on YouTube and it was pretty enjoyable. Live Midnight were much the same, a mixture of Venom, Motorhead with a simple catchy 'Punk' undertone.
Midnight - F.O.A.L.
Tonight they were playing the 'Satanic Royalty' album in full (plus extras) the title track of which is for sure my favourite Midnight song. I prefer them when they are doing that 'classic Metal' thing with less of the Punk to be honest (more like how Betwitched were back in 1996/1997). It was enjoyable if a little samey by the end, and they certainly were entertaining.
But really we were here to see Voivod, and they didn't disappoint. The set was only 10 songs long, which was a shame, but I guess if you co-headline and start late then that's what's gonna happen. The setlist was definitely an interesting one, I'm not sure I've ever heard Korgull the Exterminator live before, so that was something noteworthy.
Away, Rocky and Chewy are very capable and lively on stage but really Snake is the star of the show, he's just so damned weird! It's hard to believe there ever was a Voivod without him, but tonight Voivod actually played 'Nanoman' from the Eric Forest fronted era, which we probably haven't heard live since 1997.
VOIVOD - Voivod
In between the two bands the DJ played some corking tunes, including Razor, Watchtower and Omen's 'Death Rider'. I couldn't believe it when about five people below us in the crowd started singing along with this mid 80s power metal classic, I thought I was probably the only person in the place who knew what it was!
Well maybe not, because there was a dude there with a Nasty Savage back-patch and Hallow's Eve embroidered on the top of his jacket. I almost wanted to go down and shake his hand for being the coolest guy in the place, but I didn't.
From our spot on the balcony we spied someone in the crowd wearing a shirt with Voivod and Midnight logos on the back. A joint tour shirt, how cool is that? Even better the front was a mash-up of Midnight's logo with a Voivod face, which looked great. So Rose bought me one and I'll be getting that for my birthday. :)
With Cronos seemingly completely disinterested in booking dates for 'Venom' in the UK (the last time they played here I believe was at the LA2 in 2006!) the chance to see some Venom songs performed by the next best thing was not to be missed, and actually as the day approached I decided to relisten to the Venom Inc albums and actually found myself really warming to them, especially the first one 'Ave'.
To my surprise, Rose said she wanted to come with me, so we headed up the M1 on this Friday night and arrived to see the last song of Devastator's set. I wish I'd seen a bit more of them, and I wish I'd taken a photo of them too because they were quite a sight to behold. Proper old school bullet belts and (red) corpse paint on one of them. Sounded better than their slightly uninspiring album and they finished with an impromptu jam through the opening bars of Venom's 'In League With Satan'... cool!
In the interval Rose and I spent a bit of time trying to find a good place to stand, bearing in mind last time I was here I ended up getting knocked over! We made our way to the far wall near the soundman, but it seemed oddly warm there so we moved to the backwall where a fan gave us a tiny bit of breeze (though not really enough to notice).
The drummer took his place as the intro to 'Ave Satanas' rang through the building and he was quickly joined by the guitarist and former Venom vocalist/bassist Tony 'Demolition' Dolan. The sound was not great and had I not spent the previous week repeatedly listening to these songs I think I would have struggled to work some of them out. Indeed it took me a while to work out what I was listening to when they played 'Blackened Are the Priests' from 1989's Prime Evil album.
Gradually our ears adjusted, or maybe the sound improved? I'm not sure, but oddly when I recorded 'Live Like an Angel, Die Like a Devil' it came out so clear, I was expecting a complete racket - so maybe it was just too fucking loud! Yes, it definitely was too loud, our ears were still ringing the next day and that hardly ever happens any more.
The setlist was great, and the band concluded their set with a cover of Venom's 'Bloodlust' complete with Devastator's guitarist/vocalist handling the vocals. The band disappeared for a few moments and then came back to deliver a cover of Motorhead's 'The Hammer', an insanely fast song for 1980 and a fitting cover considering there's obviously a fair bit of Lemmy's influence on display here (Tony Dolan's bass was a Warwick, but shaped like a Rickenbacker for a start), not least the ear splitting volume just like in the good old Motorhead days. This, predictably caused an instantaneous mosh pit to break out that ended up with some guy being pushed back into Rose.
The band went off again and returned for one final tune, this time Venom's 'Black Metal', which caused another massive pit to erupt, this time resulting in someone being pushed back into me! At least we didn't both end up on the floor like I did at Pestilence!
All in all it was a great gig, just very very loud... and so far the second best gig of the year after Geoff Tate's performance of Operation: Mindcrime last week.
Three years ago Geoff performed 'Operation: Mindcrime' in full at the Queen's Hall in Nuneaton and it was the slam dunk, no question 'Gig of the Year'. Three years later he was back, this time at KK's Steel Mill, the question was, could he do it again?
Rose hadn't been to KK's Steel Mill before, so this was new to her, whereas I went there with Rich a few years ago to see Destruction, Whiplash and Enforcer. It's a great venue, and bigger than I remembered it I think - probably 2000 capacity I'm guessing?
We got sent the wrong way by Google maps on the way, but still arrived in plenty of time. The car park ticket machine wasn't working and I wasn't about to download a stupid app to pay when I could park in the street for nothing. It's not like open air car parks offer anything in the way of security and it was totally fine.
The support band (XIII something.... was it Doors? Hours? I don't know) were very average, playing the sort of 90s Metal that Hair Metal bands started playing when they couldn't be Hair Metal any more. I guess it was competent and I'm sure a fair few people in attendance enjoyed it, but it ain't for me.
We took a stroll to the merchandise desk and I noticed a neon sign saying 'Meet Geoff Tate' with a piece of card next to it saying '£50'. I wondered if it was '£50' to meet Geoff or was it '£50' for the sign? I'm guessing it was the former. Bit of a cringe moment when a roadie walked across the front of the stage holding said sign right before the show started, I didn't see any takers...
So the time arrived, and I did wonder whether it could possibly have the same impact as last time, I mean it was 33 years since I'd seen Queensryche do it when we saw it last time, but now just three years later...
Well I needn't have worried, because OM is as perfect an album as you could imagine and those songs (even played by other people) still sound as fresh today as they did when I was 18 years old. Just incredible, and a testament to the talent of Queensyche really... it's a pity they went downhill from here (but then again, the only way was down, wasn't it?).
I'm not quite sure why Geoff needs three lead guitarists and a keyboard player on stage with him... that seems like overkill to me, and surely must add significantly to the cost of touring! But it worked and they certainly put on a show, running around like toddlers on the huge stage, they certainly weren't phoning it in.
Geoff is the quintessential enigma wrapped up in a conundrum wrapped up in a mystery. He's so intense on stage, but at the same time it almost seems like he's taking the piss... I'm sure it's all an act, and if he was a massive arse I doubt he'd be okay with his band jumping up and down and disrespecting his legacy...
Wearing a hat does not make you Chris DeGarmo, sadly.
Wisely, the set started with Mindcrime in full and immediately the place was electric. Highlights were plentiful, Revolution Calling, Operation: Mindcrime, Speak, Suite Sister Mary (obviously), Spreading the Disease and my personal favourites I Don't Believe in Love and Eyes of a Stranger all rolled by like a majestic wave of polished metal and my only real gripe (if I'm being super picky) was that 'Waiting for 22' could have been played better. I know it's just a short instrumental, but the guitar solo on that is perfect and I want to hear it EXACTLY like it was played on the album.
'Mary, Mary.... You're just a whore for the underfed!'
After Mindcrime concluded we get a selection of Queensryche classics (starting with Empire) interspersed with songs from Geoff's new O:M3 album. Actually after a slightly ropey start 'The Answer' was actually okay, but the other one was a bit too Spanish Lullaby for my liking, and I can't help but think that maybe it would be best not too. Though it probably can't be any worse than O:M2 was.
Jet City Woman, Silent Lucidity and Queen of the Reich wrapped things up (with more hilarious running and jumping about, even Geoff was pogoing during Jet City Woman - WTAF?) and indeed one of the funniest moments was Geoff's intro to Silent Lucidity, check it out on the video below.
Geoff's rap - 1:33!
I Remember Now / Anarchy-X / Revolution Calling / Operation: Mindcrime / Speak / Spreading the Disease / The Mission / Suite Sister Mary / The Needle Lies / Electric Requiem / Breaking the Silence / I Don't Believe in Love / Waiting for 22 / My Empty Room / Eyes of a Stranger / The Answer / Empire / Jet City Woman / Take Hold of the Flame / Do You Still Believe? / Silent Lucidity / Queen of the Reich
