GIG: AYRIA (Sheffield)

I saw Ayria in Sheffield with Rich in 2014, in the small room at the back of the Corporation, and it was brain meltingly hot. It was a fantastic show though, so with the weather being so hot, I had mixed feelings about returning to the same room...

And it was hot this time too, but not as hot, because there didn't seem to be quite as many people (although apparently it was sold out, so I'm guessing maybe that the people by the bar stayed there this time rather than trying to cram onto the dance floor?) and possibly also because the temperature dipped a bit (and in fact it rained) during the evening. In fact the drive up was pretty awful, due to some torrential rain around the Donington junction (pity the poor sods watching Black Sabbath - nothing to do with the rain, everything to do with Ozzy's voice) and at one point I was seriously wondering about pulling over (then again you can't really do that on a motorway!).

Still, we got there in the end and only had a short wait of about 20mins before the band came on. On the way to the merch booth we saw Tina from Resistanz (Silence... silence is my enemy) at the bar, complete with head full of pipes and buckles. I picked up the new CD and also Hearts for Bullets, Rose was after a T-Shirt but the logo on it looked a bit like a toilet door sign, so decided against it!

Ayria opened with 'Feed Her to the Wolves' (which pleased Rose no end, and got the night off to a good start) and then 'Hunger' (from Plastic Makes Perfect). The next two songs I didn't know at all, I'm not sure if they are off 'Debris' or 'Flicker', but thankfully after that I knew pretty much 

everything.

Jen and her band were very endearing and played with a lot of energy, and looked very happy to be playing live (even after a good week of playing similar places every night). Songs I remember include: Missed the Mark, Hunger, Underneath the Water, Feed Her to the Wolves, Six Seconds, Blue Alice, Games, The Gun Song, Bad List, Deconstruct Me, Sticks and Stones, Plastic Makes Perfect and Crash and Burn..

Despite the heat, it was a fantastic gig and second only to Faderhead (which I think its pretty safe to say is going to be Gig of the Year). It's strange how the first time I heard Plastic Dolls I thought it was utter shite (apart from the songs off the EP), I mean it was a HUGE disappointment, and now I think its easily Jen's best album.