ALCEST with Heirs and Nekrosov

My sis and I travelled to a town about an hour away that has a small airport. After some very annoying stoppages, we arrived at the airport with only 5 minutes before boarding time. They told us we were lucky, as we would have missed our flight if it wasn't delayed. After a half hour wait, we were on our way to Melbourne. We had to stay in the air for an extra half hour, as Melbourne was covered in misty rain. We thought What a nice atmosphere for such a gig

The next night we arrived at the Toff In Town, a small pub on the third floor of a building. The room was dark, lit only by candles, perfect atmosphere

Then Nekrosov appeared. What a waste of time, complete disappointment. What was meant to be ambient/noise was a guy sitting behind a laptop We left, along with almost everyone else

We arrived back, later on as Heirs (another band I had never heard) were just about to start. After the terror of Nekrosov, we had very low expectations, but were extremely suprised by how great Heirs were. So great, that we went and bought their 2 cds and a shirt each Think, an instrumental noise/post rock band ala Isis, later Neurosis even, some Godflesh with a live theremin player. Very impressive

We eagerly awaited Alcest, the band we had travelled hundreds of kilometres to see. Glad to say that Niege and co were in perfect form with a great sound. Niege's harsh vocals were spot on and his soft, soothing vocals beautiful. The guitar tone was great, backing vocals at good volume and drumming was amazingly detailed and delicate, especially the cymbal work.

My highlight songs were Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde and Persees de Lumiere

supurb- would like to have been able t be there - with you both, got my first gig of 2012 next month, i'll hope I can be as descriptive

It was a strange experience the Alcest gig, mainly because of the croud decked out in Darkthrone, Ulver etc shirts just listening, eyes closed, swaying except for the more extreme songs

Moved back to my home town in NZ, no gigs here :(

Getting Shihad here in a month or so. Might go might not. But thats about as big as we get here lol. Its tolerable but at the end of the day its just generic radio rock. Might go to the pub next door and try my luck

We arrived at our destination exactly one hour prior to the schedualed opening of the venues doors. The venue? ''Fibbers'', me neither, resembling more multi story carpark then a music venue, though proved to be an excelent neon lit and intermate venue painted in the tradition of wall to wall black. Though externally, in my rather predjudiced opinion, a hidious eyesore in comparison to the beauty of the historic architecture that shares it's city postal code. The city in question, the finest England has to offer, lays in the heart of Yorkshire, infact, it gave this shire it's name, thats right, Yorkshire the Shire of . .you guessed it, YORK, for those unaware, a city that unlike many a major city,at its centre still retains many of it's Tudor period building and streets, and arriving as early as we did, left plenty of time to satisfy my quaint desire go walkabout, under the pretence of finding the venue, eying some architecure, such as the minister, however, dispite it's size and obvious alround impressive standing and grandure, is still just a overly fancy church, of which york has plenty and fails to excite me in the way the simpler and more organic Tudor buildings and the towns medeival defensive structures do. Anyhow, York, incidently, the birth place of Guy Falks, so a plaque screwed to a wall tells. .is a City which was once Viking occupied northern Englands stronghold of Jorvik. .from which it fittingly inherrits its name. And this segway brings us to why we ventured to the north in the first instance. But before the headling act is given voice, it would be rude not to give mention to the supporting acts. Firstly Maelstrom: a ''progressive black metal'' 5 five piece hailing from Glasgow. .and totally unexpecteded on my part, strode on stage white shirted and black tied, with expected harsh lead vocals, and crisper backing curtesy of the guitarist. .who for my liking could take over the lead and subdue the lead into backing and make a decent band. .granted thats a personal bias on my part, and maybe im unduely harsh, to be fair they were ok, but im fussy and not easily excitable. .so, dont take my word for anything. Next up. Ravenage: Black Metal in the Folkish vein with a smidging of power metal. .well, maybe, I shalln't elborate further as ive never been adapt at identifying genre, lets just say. . .i blood loved it! Anyhow, they set their stage while wearing the period re-inactors dress they were to perform in. . .nocking down the headline acts banner in the process, and after several failed attempt to put it back in place, out came the sticky tape. .so in full period dress, complete with wolf and fox pelt, which narked me a bit, Glyn, the bear of lead began to introduce the band, explaining that their usual keybordist defected to play with ''Alestorm'' and the ''boo's'' rang out loud and unprompted, he went on to express his gratitude in being asked to take part , which seemed quite sincere. .they played a great set, every song a new gem awaiting descovery, closing with something even I knew all the words to . .that timeless classic sea shanty ''what shall we do with a drunken sailor'' . .which amused me greatley, and fore shadowed what was to follow. I may have even raised a smile. Next up, in what im told their first headline UK gig, the reason tickets sold out, and fittingley, that was TYR: Tyr as im sure all are aware Faroeic Viking/Folk metal, and are giants at what the do. As with each of the growing handful of gigs ive relished, I managed to secure myself a possition stage front prior to the support taking to the stage. After several sound checks and ajustments, and the shout of 'behind you' as the Tyr banner that was cause of some fuss and bodge it and scarper early on came unstuck, during the drum setting, promting said drummer, Kaeri, to tear it down and launch it to the wings. After a few songs, the crowd, as it often does, surged forward, dislodging me from my favoured possition and placing some lanky long haired gangley fellow infront of me, obscuring my veiw, of all but his arm pit. .and im 5ft 11 and a bit, . So I worked my way further inward, just to the right of what is affectionately know as the pit. But not before Gunnar posed for a photo with a head shake and a show of teath. .and all was well, until that is the crowed went mental during 'hold the heathen hammer high' sending my eyes, to my despair, on a trip skywards, several helpful audience member to time to point their phones and cameras to the deck, in hopes of illuminating them, but to no avail beneathe the mass of feet. .thus, search was abandoned. . .and when all hope seemed forelorn, I resive a nudge on shoulder and have my glasses returned to me, Undamaged. .on a side note, who ever you were, immence gratitude. Thankyou. .she was cute too, anyhow As I seem to have drawn this 'review' (a word I use loosely) out beyond hold intrest, i'll cut it short. .and just say it was a blinding set, with me in full voice for a number of classics, old and new. .clossing with The demanded encore of Wild Rover.

sorry bout the lack of paragraph spacing and such, only it appears ive been absent long enough to forget how

That was great, thank you!

I only can go to the cover bands gigs here, you guys are very lucky over there. I would love to see Alcest alive, sounds really incredible there...

Travel is the only way vampboy