inthepit issue 003

contentswelcomew w w . i n t h e p i t . c o . u k

ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK 04

PHILIDELPHIA GRAND JURY 16

AVERMAN 24

WILCO 30

ANGELUS APATRIDA 36

WARBRINGER 40

SKELETONWITCH 44

ELLIOT MINOR 48

WALTER TROUT 54

FAILSAFE 60

WORLD IS STATIC 64

FIRST OFF HOW AWESOME IS OUR COVER IMAGE BY CRAIG FERGUSON?

SECONDLY, ISSUE 3 ALREADY? A HUGE THANKS TO ALL THE CONTRIBUTERS AS WELL AS THE BANDS THEIR MANAGEMENT AND PROMOTERS.

iM GOING TO KEEP THIS SHORT SO YOU CAN CHECK OUT THE AWESOME IMAGERY AND OUR REVIEWS OF BANDS TOURING OVER THE LAST MONTH.

ANY UNSIGNED BANDS THAT WOULD LIKE TO FEATURE IN THE MAGAZINE P0LEASE CONTACT CHAN AT [email protected]

CHRIS XOXO

ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK

SUGOI INDEED!IMAGES/INTERVIEW/REVIEW BY THE MULTI-TALENTED CRAIG FERGUSON

In The Pit – Hey guys, thanks very much for taking the time to talk to us!Aki – No problem!Kazuto – Thank you!

In The Pit – So how are you finding Scotland so far?Aki – Good! We have just finished our Aberdeen show last night.In The Pit – Yeah! How was it?Aki – It was our first show in Scotland on this tour. It was a really great show. Rock n Roll, crazy!In The Pit – Rocking?Aki – Yeah! Rocking! Really!

In The Pit – So with all this touring you’ve been doing, have you had much time to Rock n Roll fish?Aki and Kazuto – Fishing! Rock n roll fishing! *laughing*Aki – Yeah, I was fishing in London! Already I got this size of pike *Aki stretches his arms out to a good distance apart* and parch and brown trout. Lots of fish.In The Pit – So what did you use as bait? Girls, explosives, rock n roll? Which was it?Aki – None! No more fishing! *laughing*

In The Pit – When you came across the massive fish that bit you in two, how did you piece yourselves together?! Kazuto - *Pointing to Aki* Actually, he never got bit. In The Pit – Oh yeah, he got swallowed yeah?Kazuto – Yes!

In The Pit – So have you got anymore Rock n Roll fishing videos com-ing up?Aki and Kazuto – Aaaaah!Kazuto – Maybe! You want to see?Aki – You want to see?!In The Pit – Oh yeah! Definitely!Aki – I will try!In The Pit – We really need more ideas. The fish in the UK are sort of catching on to the previous tactics.Aki – Send me and email with a script then!

In The Pit – Out of curiosity, which member gets the most ladies on tour?Aki and Kazuto – Uhh...In The Pit – Girls!Aki and Kazuto – OH! Girls!Kazuto - *Points to Aki* Kazuto – Yeah, he got a girl in Glasgow. Long time ago

In The Pit – Was she nice yeah?Aki – Glasgow lady? Beautiful.In The Pit – The Glasgow girls aren’t usually beautiful. Some can be quite rough!Kazuto – *Laughing* Really?!Aki – No, she was beautiful!

In The Pit – So, how’s the tour been so far?Aki – Good! We tour in a really tiny van, so, tiny, males...Smelly.In The Pit – You all smell yeah?Aki – Yeah, we have a soy sauce smell!In The Pit – Soy sauce and fish yeah?Kazuto – And miso soup!!In The Pit – That’s just racist!Kazuto – Exactly!In The Pit – Oh, and fish hair gel?Kazuto - *Laughing* And fish gel! Oh my god!In The Pit – How long ago was it that you filmed that?Kazuto – Uhh..Maybe 2..Aki – No more..Kazuto – Three?! Four?! Yeah four years!

In The Pit – Who was the dancing girl that you got to fish with you?!Aki – Ah! The Japanese lady!Kazuto – *Pointing to Aki* His friend.Aki – Yeah. That was filmed in Japan but the first episode was actually in London!

In The Pit – So, what do you have in store for tonight’s fans?Aki – Uhh, we will play a lot of new songs from the latest album!In The Pit – From ‘Sugoi Indeed’ yeah?Kazuto – Yeah!Aki – And of course the old songs. Our fans want to listen to them so we’ll play them. I’ve had a lot of requests from the audience. It’s gonna be a fun night!

In The Pit - What do you have planned after this European tour?Aki – Already we have a few Japanese shows til the end of the year. So maybe we will re-at-tack Europe next year! We will be recording our new album after this tour.In The Pit – A new album yeah?Aki – Yeah! Hopefully next Spring or Summer we will be back.Kazuto – We will bring our new album.In the Pit – To Scotland yes?!Aki and Kazuto – Of course!Aki – King Tuts!! We have played this venue many times!Kazuto – This is the fourth or fifth time here in King Tuts.

In The Pit – So what will your next album be like?Aki – Nothing! We are only making the songs just now. Kazuto – Not really half way yet.Aki – It is just a plan.

In The Pit – Have you got an album name yet?Aki and Kazuto – Uuuhhhh...Aki - *points to Kazuto* You have a name?Kazuto - ...Haggis?Aki – Haggis!In The Pit – Yeah! You should definitely have that as the album name or at least a song name!Aki – Yes! Haggis..Or maybe ‘Deep Fried Mars Bar’?In The Pit – You know about deep friend mars bars?!Aki and Kazuto – Yes!In The Pit – Have you tried them?Aki – Yes!In The Pit – The Scottish tend to deep fry everything!In The Pit and Kazuto – Pizza!Everyone - *Laughing*Kazuto – Unbelievable...

In The Pit – So, do you have anything to say to the UK fan?Aki – Yeah! We feel sorry we didn’t tour the UK more often but we will never forget the UK. So don’t forget us! We will be back with our new album! Just keep checking out our site electriceelfish.com!

In The Pit – Well thank you very much for answering our questions! Have a great show tonight!Aki and Kazuto – Thank you!

Electric Eel Shock are Sugoi Indeed!

Since the late 90’s, a particular band have been touring the world and bringing us rock and rock in their rawest forms, all the way from Japan.Electric Eel Shock, a 3 piece garage metal band, sporting a history of arrests for nudity, are in Glasgow tonight and they have in mind to show the people at the ‘King Tuts’ venue the power of rock.

Before the show, I managed to sit down and have a chat with two of the members of the band. Vocalist Aki, rocking a classy glass of wine and bassist Kazuto were more than happy to take the time out to answer a few questions of ours.Not only were they polite, but they were hilarious and a joy to talk to. There was no doubt in my mind that the show they were about to play would be something not to miss.

On this particular date, Electric Eel Shock were supported by the bands ‘Paws’, ‘Agusta Fireball’ and ‘Bronto Skylift’. Each band brought a different style of music to the venue that was quickly becoming crowded as time went on.By the time Bronto Skylift had finished their set that caught the attention of many people, the venue was packed and people were eagerly awaiting the boys of Electric Eel Shock.

As the start of Electric Eel Shock’s set drew closer, many fans armed with tour merchandise, beers and metal haircuts gathered front stage in anticipation.The lights dim and Aki walks on stage to the fans delight. Almost immediately, he goes into the crowd to pose with fans for some photographs. The madness is quite clear from the beginning and as the band begins to play, the madness is continued.

Electric Eel Shock over the years have created their own unique style. Their approach to rock/metal while clearly inspired by such bands as Black Sabbath, remains different and very much their own.The band play a fantastically rocking set including ‘Bastard’ and many other fan favourites.

To watch Electric Eel Shock is to experience something truly brilliant. Not only are you spoiled with a vast array of guitar licks, solo’s and blistering rock songs, but you get to witness the crazy antics of the band. When Aki wasn’t lifting his Flying V guitar into the air with his teeth alone, he and Kazuto were moving about the stage giving the fans every penny’s worth for their tickets.

While their regular drummer Gian was not on tour, they had a more than capable cover drummer to keep the music fast and powerful.All of this added up resulted in a truly spectacular show that should never have been missed by any rock or metal fan in the proximity of 100 miles of the venue.

If Electric Eel Shock are playing at a place near you any time soon, I would make sure you don’t miss it to truly understand what the band are like to experience live.

They’ve promised to come back to the UK soon, and we’ll be ready to rock!

Philadelphia Grand JuryREVIEW : CHANTELLE JADE BURNS

IMAGES : CHRISTEENY.COM

Philadelphia Grand Jury [Going to the Casino UK Tour] @ O2 Academy 2, Newcastle 12/09/2010

Recently we had a great little band called Philadelphia Grand Jury on at the O2 Academy Newcastle. The Philly Jays are an indie rock/punk soul band from Sydney in New South Wales, Australia and consists of Joel on bass; also known as Mc Bad Genius, Simon on guitar; also known as Berkfinger and finally Calvin on drums, who is just known as Calvin. The band are nearing the end of their UK tour, which has been nearly 2 months long, and here’s how the show at Newcastle went! The band didn’t really have a sound check prior to going on, they played a song, ok’d it with the mixer at the back and continued to play, which is an unusual way to start a set. Straight away you could see the preppy band member’s personalities shining through their performance; they weren’t static performers, which is always fun to watch. Within a minute or so of the first song, there were members of the crowd; which may have been little but was certainly energetic, were dancing away to the music. The riffs were groovy and fun, which was definitely reflective of the band’s personalities. I love the vocalist’s sound, it’s really unique and he sounds really sweet. The drum kit that Calvin used was really quite small but the sound was great, the sound melded in with the guitar and bass throughout the set and occasionally Calvin did the odd little drum solo, they were great and Calvin’s definitely skilled and can keep a good beat. After a few songs, Berkfinger said “Thank you Newcastle, we’re glad to be in the party capital of the UK.” The party people toward the back of the room cheered at the comment and continued with their dancing. When listening to the music, I think that there was a beach party feel to the music, the drums and funky riffs just went really well together, definitely party music! It was easy to move to and there were also dramatic points, like when the bassist appeared frozen, and both Berkfinger and MC Bad Genius were making sharp movements to go with the abrupt stops and pauses in the songs.

The band played The Good News, which Berkfinger said was his favourite song, and for this song, he came off the stage and moved his microphone closer and closer to the dance floor, and ended off stopping just next to me, at the top of the stairs. It was great to see the amount of effort going into the performance, as well as the vocalists smiling face as the crowd cheered at the movements onto their patch of floor.

The bassist – MC Bad Genius, also played the electric piano on stage, and lead vocalist Berkfinger is also the guitarist, but a fair way through the set, they swapped instruments totally, Berkfinger on bass and MC Bad Genius on guitar. Both guys were smooth in playing the opposite’s instrument, and I was shocked to see that you’d think it was their regular stuff. Drummer Calvin played the smooth man, jiving to the electric piano which Berkfinger also took over, spur-ring the audience to clap along and cheer. The bassist sure likes to move, jumping and constantly throwing himself toward Berkfinger which was pretty humorous to watch. Berkfinger was pretty good on the piano, playing quite jazzy stuff and sounded awesome.

After this, MC Bad Genius went on a tiff, throwing his bass to his ankles and hurling himself across the stage, then hitting Calvin’s symbols and totally shocked the audience. Whilst he was walking off the stage onto the floor and shouting ‘I Don’t Wanna Party’, a song of theirs, Calvin did an awesome drum solo and got applauded thoroughly. Then came in the song ‘99 Problems but the Bitch ain’t one’ and Berkfinger appeared to be totally enjoying himself, especially since both him and MC Bad Genius had dragged their equipment over the barrier and used the floor as their own personal stage. At this point Genius was again playing gui-tar.

Overall great performance, these guys were really exciting to watch and fun lov-ing characters in general, rating of 9/10 from me. Only fault would be on behalf of there being a lack of people there to watch so the atmosphere was a little tight.You can check the guys out on their website or MySpace below:

http://www.philadelphiagrandjury.com.au/

http://www.myspace.com/philadelphiagrandjury

AVERMEN

REVIEW : CHANTELLE JADE BURNS


AVERMEN

Avermen @ O2 Academy 2, Newcastle

Having already met the band before the gig, and seeing how lovely these guys were, I was hoping for an exceptional performance. We got that, and more. The local band consists of Matt on piano, guitar and doing vocals, Michael on lead guitar, Jonny on drums, Ed on bass and Simon on synthesizers. The hall wasn’t overly packed but it was a snug and intimate gig, which I found was much better with this genre of music. My best way of describing them would be similar to Temper Trap with a Coldplay like twist, which is an unusual style in the current music industry, but good both on an album and at a gig.

The band started off by playing their song titled Misty Mountains. Right away I detected a soothing sound to their music and a mellow mood throughout. The song was easy for the ears and the crowd appeared to enjoy Matt’s lovely vocals. The drumming was reminiscent of a marching band, the sort of constant beat with the off scattering sound. Quick playing helped this and made it easy on the ears. I loved the synthesizer’s role in their music; it had great use of chords and some unusual sounds too. It’s clear that the vocalist has talent, Matt not only sings great, as well as playing the piano, but he moved from piano onto playing an acoustic guitar for the song 3 2 1. This band is super melodic and their stuff is great to relax to.

The guys in the band are up for a laugh, making funny comments and replies to the crowd’s pleas. Someone from the crowd shouted “Take you top off Jonny” and Matt responded with “Don’t tell him to do that!” in a tone that would make you think you’d be horrified by the circumstances.

Midst performance, Matt ended off playing his guitar with 5 strings because one of them snapped for no apparent reason. It’s not like he was beating the guitar to death or anything. Matt introduced Simon to the audience, he’s the newest member of the band and he did well at the academy and performed superbly.

Blood Red Sky came on and everyone was tapping along to the catchy music, security in-cluded! I noticed that some songs end quite suddenly though, so you never know what to expect. The band is very commercial without being cliché. Matt talked to the crowd and was great with them, and his speech showed a little bit of personality, which was great!

The final song played, Everything, was my favourite song of the night. Definitely one to lis-ten out for! All in all an awesome band with epic music and fab personalities to boot!Here’s a link to their MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/avermenband

WILCOIMAGES AND REVIEW : KASSY HARRIS/ILLUSION AND DREAM

Wilco are; Jeff Tweedy (singer and guitarist), John Stirrat (bassist), Nels Cline (guitarist), Pat Sansone (multi-instrumentalist), Mikael Jorgensen (multi-instrumentalist) and Glenn Kotche (drummer)

Having only been introduced to the band a short time ago, i hadn't really looked too much into them, i didn't know much about their back story or even what they looked like, so to see them live was really a great experience which has made me even more interested in them. Before i saw Wilco live, i went on a complete binge listening to A Ghost is Born (2004) and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and was pleasantly surprised to see, and hear,that they out do their studio albums, they are amazing live. Jeff Tweedy’s voice is even more incredible live.

Wilco performed at the O2 Academy, Newcastle, 21:00 opening the show with their self titled song, Wilco, from their Newest (also self titled) album, Wilco.At the end of the first set, the lights dimmed. We were introduced to each of the band members with a female pre-recorded voice, a spot light on each of the members at the mention of their name. They then continued onto their next song.

"There's somthing about Newcastle that makes me want to say INDEED after every song. Anyone know the reference? Venom. Venom are from here, right? INEED!" Jeff Tweedy when on to say, after performing the next song. This got the crowd involved and after a few songs had some of the audiance screaming INDEED.

The singer, guitarists and basist, gave a wonderfully enthusiastic and energetic performance. Their performance completely out did their studio recordings. To share the same room with such sounds, fantastic lighting and the sheer ex-hileration everyone felt, was such a delight. The stage illumination was fantas-

If you ever get the chance to see Wilco live, i would deffinitly recommend you go, they do not disappoint. Even if you haven’t heard their stuff before, if you like alternative rock, alternative country and or experimental music, these guys are for you.

Songs that were performed: WilcoHumming BirdHandshake DrugsTheologiansThe Late GreatsI Am Trying To Break Your Heart, Jesus Etc.Heavy Metal DrummerI'm The Man Who Loves YouI'll fightYou Never Know



Angelus Apatrida

Angelus Apatrida [European Bangover Tour] @ O2 Academy 2, Newcastle15/09/2010Fortunately for Newcastle, the fabulous Spanish metallers Angelus Apatrida decided to stop by on their European tour along with the awesome bands Warbringer and Skeletonwitch. Angelus Apatrida released their third album in June this year and at the gig played a few tracks from it, including the title track CLOCKWORK. The band came on stage to a packed academy, no space left to do much other than head bang, because in a crowd like this they make the space for that sorta thing! Straight away I noticed that the band was no longer what you’d regard as ‘power metal’; which was a dominant sound in their first album, but in fact a thrash metal. Comparable with the likes of Anthrax or Megadeth, these guys have a great sound. The band all had fantastic hair, which was forever twirling and being thrown into the frequent lengthy periods of head banging. The whole crowd clearly loved the performance and were bouncing along to the set. By the time 4 songs had played, there was a moder-ately sized mosh pit in full swing near to the bar, which was quite impressive considering not many members of the audience appeared to know the band. During the newer stuff that they played, the whole breadth of the barrier was being hurled forward by the rowdy people in the mosh pit but still continued with the harsh nodding along to the music which they had done for the evening. The people toward the back were thrashing thoroughly to this style of song. This band was certainly easy to get into and there was plenty of energy to keep you entertained. The mosh pit grew in size as the bass became heavier and more dominant throughout the set. The vocalist had a canny set of lungs on him to say the least, and wasn’t too tired to thank the fans for coming out and seeing them play their set, which might I add was ferocious. They were definitely crowd pleasers and put on a decent show! I’d rate them a 8/10.Below are links to their website and MySpace, I recommend you give them a glance, even if you’re not too fussed on the genre!http://www.angelusapatrida.com/http://www.myspace.com/angelusapatrida



Warbringer

Warbringer [European Bangover Tour] @ O2 Academy 2, Newcastle15/09/2010

After the smashing performance by Angelus Apartida, we were all anticipating an awesome show by the main support, Warbringer. These metallers originate from Ventura, California, in the United States of America. They’re regarded as thrash metallers, and have toured a hell of a lot within the past two years. The band has released two full length studio albums, the latest of which is ‘Waking into Nightmares’ which was released in 2009. With their meaningful lyrics and genius riffs, Warbringer are conquering the world one country at a time. The band has many a time been associated with the ’thrash revival’, and they’re continuing to try and distance themselves from mainstream’s general group-ing of music genre. When Warbringer came onto the stage, they had a whole different stage presence to the previous band. John Kevill, the vocalist, can easily draw your attention, whether it is with his aggressive energy or his shrilling screams. Straight away I noticed a different energy in the audience, more excitement and activity. You could see that John loved the set, especially the fact that a mosh pit was going within the first song! ‘Living in a Whirlwind’ was a fantastic choice of song, nice and heavy and easy to get into. The rows of head banging fans clearly loved the choice too, and in no way shape or form were going to stop this mad rush of energy that had built up. As soon as the vocalist leaned into the crowd, he was being groped by the people on the barrier; it was pretty funny to watch. The fans proved that they most definitely enjoy Warbringer more than the previous bands.

The drummer – Nic Ritter, was in a little world of his own whilst playing, he didn’t appear at all phased by the audience or anything else for that matter. The audience were giving plenty of ‘horns’ to the band and it was obvious that they were enjoy-ing themselves. The vocalist appeared to like toying with the fans, spurring them to cheer and clap. Luckily for the bassist, it was his 21st birthday! And he got to play in front of an awesome, supportive, energetic crowd. For the song Prey for Death, John asked for a circle pit to be made. Low and behold a circle pit formed, quite a large one at that! It took up at least 2 3rds of the floor. ‘Let’s see some horns in the air’ shrieked the vocalist. The next song was ‘At the Crack of Doom’ and it received an ex-ceptional reception; the usual moshing and head banging that had been used frequently through-out the night! ‘Systematic Genocide’ was another song that Warbringer played in their fab set, I certainly couldn’t believe that people could still hold their heads up at that point, let alone head bang. ‘Combat Shock’ was played well and was definitely an audience favourite. Kudos to the band for using such a great song in the set they played, it had savage riffs and fantastic vocals throughout.

You can check these guys out on MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/warbringer

Definitely recommend for you all to see these guys! Very energetic and a treat to the eye!REVIEW : CHANTELLE JADE BURNS


skeletonwitch

Skeletonwitch [European Bangover Tour] @ O2 Academy 2, Newcastle15/09/2010

Well Skeletonwitch certainly brought two great support bands on their tour. Now for their set, probably my favourite of the night, thought Warbringer did follow with a close second. The crowd was pretty small when Skeletonwitch came on, probably because people were still outside finishing smoking and some people literally only come in for Skeletonwitch. Skeletonwitch are a thrash metal band from Athens in Ohio. Skeleton-witch’s vocals are characteristically in the death metal sort of genre with Chance Garnette performing really low shouts and growls as well as the high pitched metal screams that he’s most commonly known for.

Skeletonwitch could well be the LOUDEST band I have ever seen live without the music sounding distorted. The crowd were going totally mental within the first song and there was a clear air of excellence. These men are fantastic musicians, some of the best shredding by a band that’s finely aged; there is no way that the band is or could be slipping in form. The band often stopped for a breather between songs and a little crowd interaction. This gig had absolutely everything, mosh pits; which included kids that looked about 14 as well as full grown adults, head

banging, rowdiness, you name it, it was probably happening. There wasn’t a specific age group at this gig which was pretty cool, it meant that you could have fun whilst enjoying the music, whereas some up and coming bands just have teenagers who are out to get drunk and throw themselves about.

As soon as Skeletonwitch started playing The Despoiler of Human Life, the biggest mosh pit of the night had formed, pretty much everyone getting dragged into it. It’s a pretty heavy song but the crowd lightened it up a little with their lyrical chants and occasional shouting. I must say it was one of the only times I’ve saw all of the ladies in the room thrashing AS MUCH AS the men. It was quite surprising to see and was definitely funny to watch.Next up was Strangled by the Unseen Hands, which the band appeared to thoroughly enjoy, especially the vocalist who, at this point, was screaming directly into the crowd and giving people the evil eye.

An enjoyable night and a really cool band, I would definitely recommend that anybody would go see them on their tour, if you missed them, maybe the next tour!

There is actually an online video blog of the European Bangover tour which can be found on www.metalinjection.net

The band’s MySpace is:www.myspace.com/skeletonwitch Or their website is:www.skeletonwitch.com



elliotminor

Elliot Minor – O2 Academy 2, Newcastle 16/09/2010

There didn’t even need to be a band member on stage for the crowd to start shrieking. About 20 minutes before their set, one of the drums was moved onto the stage and the screams started. You can tell that their fans are dedicated, maybe a little bit fan-girl-ish, but as long as they’re supportive that’s all that counts? A few minutes before the set the room was completely full, without any room for anyone to move around. I noticed that the song Tethered was originally on the setlist but was quickly scribbled out. Unfortunately for Teddy fans, he wasn’t at the Newcastle show because he was moving house down south and needed to be there. But the person who replaced him for the night did pretty well! As soon as the lights went down there was a house chant of ‘minor’, which lasted a good 5 minutes or so until the band leaped on stage. As soon as Alex hit the stage the screams increased in volume and he started to sing She’s Getting Around to the crowd. It only takes Ed Minton to stand with one foot on the barrier and already the fans are grabbing at him, generally missing or hitting his knees.

The crowd at the gig were certainly a merry bunch, jumping around and being all energetic and such. Arms were waving frantically to the choruses throughout the first song, and as soon as Alex got into singing Still Figuring Out, I noticed that not a single person was stood still. Ali was active, as usual, jumping around and really getting into playing keyboards. With this being Ali’s last tour with the band, he no doubt put his all into the performance, leaving the fans happy with his contributions to Elliot Minor and all the band is.

This classically influenced rock band know how to grab the crowds and draw them in, the guys from York managed to have the full academy singing along to Electric High and quite unusually, I noticed that Ed was playing guitar whilst on his tippy toes. Bit random but I thought it was fairly funny. The whole floor boomed and shook as the set continued, it was clear the excitement wouldn’t fade away from the fans any time soon. The crowd clearly couldn’t get enough and it was evident that they loved how active Elliot Minor was on their Newcastle tour date.

I noticed that the crowd were particularly excited when Alex introduced the song Jessica. The crowd were throwing all of their energy into bouncing around. Ali seemed particularly happy during this song, probably for no specific reason though, as he tends to gleam at the crowd whilst performing. Alex reaching for the crowd ended up in him being grabbed at by the people on barrier, hopefully he wasn’t harassed too much during the performance, it is clear that the fans are excitable.

During the medley I noticed that Alex joined Ali in playing keyboards, I’m unsure as to which song he was playing to though.. it could well have been time after time? Alex later in the Medley battled out chords with Ed, pretty thrilling for the fans who gazed fanatically.

The whole crowd was swaying throughout the intro to Lucky Star, no doubt running out of energy after all of the previous exertion on their behalf. The fans were putting their heart and soul into singing along to Lucky Star, as well as Solaris which was played directly after. The crowd chants were amazing and it was clear that the band were living it up, smiling away at each other. They may just have been surprised by the turn out? Who knows.

“Having fun Newcastle?” was a question that Alex asked nearing the end of the performance. What a silly question it was! These people were ecstatic and most definitely enjoying themselves. Alex came off the guitar throughout Discover. Alex leaning into the crowd would never be a good idea if he wasn’t prepared to be pulled at! The crowd sang the whole chorus, not a word out of line.

I would be extremely astonished if anyone came away from the gig saying they didn’t enjoy themselves, unless they were at the back, because let’s face it, you can’t see the stage due to the other fans waving their arms around wildly. After seeing them in November last year at Newcastle University, I feel this was the better performance. The crowd was more fun and the fans weren’t as arsey as they were at the Uni. The audience even SCREAMED the chorus to ‘The White One (is Evil)’. Alex played by Ali’s side again throughout the song, which was great if you were looking at the audience because their expressions were priceless.

The setlist for the gig was as follows:

She’s Getting Around Still Figuring Out Electric High Jessica I Believe MEDLEY Lucky Star Solaris Tethered Discover White One New York Shiver Parallel Worlds The Courtroom

All in all a fantastic gig, it’s sad to say that Ali Paul will be leaving the band after this tour, but InThePit wish him the best of luck for the future! Anyone who hasn’t already seen these guys, needs to. I might add that their merchandise is always pretty funky… Thanks to Ali’s amazing design skills I now have a red pompom hat with Elliot Minor on from the November tour.

Here’s a link to the band’s MySpace and their website:www.myspace.com/elliotminor www.elliotminor.com

wa lt e r t ro u t

Walter Trout @ O2 Academy Newcastle9/10/2010

Walter Trout decided he would hit Newcastle on his latest tour, the tour of the UK alone being spread right across October. To be honest I didn’t really know what to expect from the band, after noticing that this was Walter’s 19th solo album. I didn’t expect was an ener-getic performance full of funky riffs and catchy keyboard work. Walter Trout is a band from the U.S formed by Walter Trout, who does the vocals and plays guitar. The current line-up also includes Michael Leasure on drums, Rick Knapp on bass and Sammy Avila on keyboards. The band have had many different members come and go but the current line-up have been going for a full five years, the latest of the members join-ing being Rick. The latest album ‘Common Ground’ includes multiple lengthy tracks, many being around the 5 minute mark. The success of the album just shows that Walter Trout’s appeal hasn’t lessened over the many years of work.Straight away I noticed the age group variety, seeing people aged around 16 varying all of the way up to people of about 60 years of age. It’s fairly unusual to attract such crowds and be able to appeal to the diversity. The crowd seemed preppy and ready to rock just prior to the band’s stage entrance. The academy was really warm so I was surprised to see that no one looked fatigued. I didn’t expect the energy that these guys used during the performance - no part of the stage was free of Walter’s stomping foot. Rick was quite active too, using the full stage also. Sammy had his own little thing going on by his keyboard, in a world of his own and forever smiling at the crowd. Drummer Michael was very rhythmic and kept out well throughout the full performance – I was pretty surprised his arms hadn’t dropped off from the thoroughness of his skills. Although the gig was in the larger academy, it was pretty intimate; all of the people there were spread out though which made the room appear full. The music was light and pretty slow but bluesy with an element of jazz. The drums were very dominant throughout the set. “We’re gunna have some fun down here tonight. You gonna party with us?”The song Living in the Danger Zone went down a huge hit with the crowd – plenty of dancing along, aswell as singing and chanting of lyrics! I didn’t realise how popular these guys were until I heard the crowd reactions. After Walter dedicated the song “Been Gone too Long” to his brain cells, the crowd went absolutely crazy. All in all they’re a great band to see live, plenty of energy on their behalf and in general the crowd’s, and good on the ears. 4/5 for their performance and you can check out Walter’s website here:

www.waltertrout.comor their myspace:www.myspace.com/waltertrout

failsafe

Failsafe @ O2 Academy 2, Newcastle26/09/2010

So most of you will have probably tuned into the new series of The Inbetweeners, some of you may even have wondered “Who were that band who were on doing a performance? Well I can tell you now that the band are called Failsafe and they came to the O2 Academy and rocked the crowds socks off.

The gig was fairly intimate, but nonetheless energetic and enjoyable. The vocalist asked for the audience to close in a bit with there being a fair bit of space. They weren’t the sort of music I like to listen to usually but everyone was definitely enjoying themselves. The audience was pretty young, with an average age range of about 14 – 25. The audience just wouldn’t stop moving, dancing along and all.

The band played a great new single called Every Cycle Has an End and it was a huge hit with the crowd, the vocalist was super energetic and the band appeared to love performing the track. The vocalist got the whole crowd to clap leading into some super speedy guitar work and the whole band going into hyper mode. As soon as they started playing Mirror Mirror the performance was brimming with activity, no area of the stage was unused and no member of the crowd was inactive. The vocalist played a few funky keys on the piano/synth.

The band played songs that were easy to sing along to with catchy hooks and fun riffs. They mentioned their Inbetweeners performance and then sang the first song from their second album, Only If We Learn. The crowd appeared to enjoy this song, a few of them singing along and such.

“Thanks for coming out, even on a Sunday.” Was what the vocalist said to the audience before cantering across the stage in a horsey fashion. Newcastle was the last date of their tour and it was clear that the band found the performance went well and they loved the crowd interaction.

Overall a good performance and if you like to see an energetic show then these are the bunch for you! Here’s a link to their MySpace:

www.myspace.com/failsafemusic

world

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nick murphy

Nick - How did you guys meet?

Simon - I met Heather through a mutual friend. We met drummer Chris through gigging as he was in another band at the time & bassist Chris is Heather’s brother.

Heather - I met Simon many years ago through a drinking buddy, we got talking music and our tastes were quite similar. Simon sent me some tracks that he’d been working on and we decided to get together and give them a go! We were very lucky to get Chris M to join the band as we had seen him in bands before and loved what he was doing, we were chuffed to find out that he was also interested in our work and Chris is my brother!!

Chris Myers (drums) - I joined the band in 2008 and had been interested in the band since first hearing Magic Bullet in 2006. I managed to catch them live in Trillians, New-castle and I was very impressed with their set. I promptly expressed my interest in the band to Simon and Heather telling them they had been exactly the sort of band I had been looking to drum for. Shortly after auditioning I was offered a place amongst Team Static

Nick - Has it been a busy year, band-wise?

Simon - It’s been quite a quiet year this year for gigs. We’ve been trying to concentrate on writing new songs. We’re not the fastest song writers in the world, so tends to take a bit of time before we find something we like.

Heather - Not so busy gig wise but we have been working on some great new tunes. It’s starting to get quite heavy!

Chris Myers - The beginning of the year saw the release of our Self Titled EP and vari-ous gigs around Newcastle/Durham area. However, it seems to have quietened off over the summer so we’ve been taking the opportunity to play around with some new ideas, and so far its looking good Nick - Who would you say were your biggest individual inspirations, and inspira-tions as a band?

Simon - My inspirations tend to vary on my mood, but my main ones would have to be Nuno Bettencourt for inspiring me to pick up the guitar (I wish I could play like him) & Trent Reznor for generally being awesome & writing some quite dark songs.

Heather - My favorite band is Placebo, I have loved them since I can remember but I wouldn’t say that they were my inspiration. I like all kinds of music and get inspired by it in different ways but I mainly get inspired by everyday things and seeing other local bands play live. I also tend to get inspired by movies and books, alot of our song ideas come from all kinds of films. Mainly horror.

Chris Myers - I’m influenced by many types of music, but in terms of World is Static’s style I tend to find influence mainly among alternative and nu metal bands.

Nick - If you could tour with any current band, who would you choose?

Simon - If we’re going big then touring with Muse would be amazing, but if we’re talking something marginally more realistic then I’d say The Birthday Massacre. We played with them when they were in the UK last year & really nice people. I think they’d be fun to hang out with on tour.

Heather - I recon it would have to be The Deftones, I would love to do guest vocals on Passenger with good ol’ Chino!

Chris Myers - Definitely The Birthday Massacre! We supported them on their last visit to Newcastle in 2009. We had such a great time at that gig, the crowd was so receiving and supportive especially of a local band that most had never heard before. The Birthday Massacre put on an amazing show too, I’d totally recommend them to anyone of any musical persuasion

Nick - How does playing to someone else’s fans compare to playing to people who’ve come to see you?

Simon - As long as the genres of the bands on the bill on reasonably close it’s not too much different. I think the age of the crowd seems to make a bigger difference to their reaction. Going back to The Birthday Massacre, when we played with them it was quite a young crowd (it was an all ages show) & started cheering & clapping the second we set foot on stage. We played with Tragedy a few months later at the same venue to an older crowd made mainly of lads in checked shirts. While they still enjoyed it they didn’t have the same level of energy as the younger crowd.

Heather - I enjoy it as I like to try and win new fans over all the time and get new people into our music. It is a lovely feeling to see familiar faces of people who have come to see us before though, we are really thankful for that.

Chris Myers - It’s hard to compare as you never know what to expect, and it can depend on the type of band we play in front of or even the venue. Generally, local venues are harder to play as the fans are there to see a particular band, usually their friends band etc if their not there to see ourselves already. The bigger gigs are much better in that we tend to gain a lot more interest in the band, no matter who we’re sup-porting etc.

Nick - You’ve been together for a good few years, what would you say was your biggest achievement since starting World Is Static?

Simon - Hmmm, for me it was probably recording the World is Static EP. It took us about 2 years to save up enough money to put it together & it was my first time in a proper recording studio. I really enjoyed it.

Heather - I would say playing with The Birthday Massacre! The audiance really en-joyed our stuff and I recon we probably gained a lot of new fans that night.Chris Myers - I’ve only been with the band 2 years but in that time I’d say our biggest acheivements are supporting some great bands at the O2 Academy and the recording of our 3 track EP.

Nick - Do you prefer cakes or more savoury snacks?

Simon - Whilst I’m not one to ever turn a cake down I’d say I’m more of a savoury kind of guy.

Heather - I just like FOOD. I love cupcakes.... But nah, savoury. Packet of Monster Munch over a choccie bar any day...As long as I can have the choccie bar after.Chris Myers - You’re asking a drummer this question? I’ll eat anything that comes my way!!

Nick - What is your worst gigging experience?

Simon - We’ve been pretty lucky so far. I think the worst ones have been when we’ve played out of town & the promoters haven’t promoted the gig & you end up just play-ing to one person & he’s only there because he came with you.

Heather - I’m gunna have to say singing whilst I didn’t know I had tonsillitis! I was in so much pain!! Got a shock when the doc the next day said it was tonsillitis! Hope I didn’t infect the singer who used the mic after me!!

Chris Myers - For me, probably one of the worst was a set we did in at World Head-quarters in Newcastle where my drumkit fell off the stage! It was sliding all over the place. The strange thing is one one seemed to notice! I managed to catch it just before it fell, luckily enough at the end of a song. The rest of the band will argue that that was one our best gigs haha!

Nick - What does 2011 have in store you you?

Simon - Good question. The short answer is ‘I don’t know’. The slightly longer an-swer is that we keen to get back in to the studio to record a few more songs, so we’ll probably gig more than this year to raise money for that.

Heather - 2011 will hopefully mean more gigs and hopefully get a chance to record some new tracks!! We have written quite a few good ones I’m looking forward to get-ting recorded down!!

Chris Myers - We’ll be looking at finishing some new song ideas and getting some of the newer songs recorded then back on the road again and gigging as much as possible. Truth is, we just dont know whats in store just yet, but keep watching this space

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