LIVE REVIEWS
Django Django/Miles Kane/Palma Violets/Peace
02 Academy, Newcastle, February 7 The stage is wired. The bands are wired. The crowd is wired. Everybody is wired. Behind the scenes the bands try to play it cool while sizing each other up. Everybody’s got that nervy feeling, shuffling their...
With his long grey hair parted down the middle like a biblical sea and his world-weary demeanour, J Mascis is basically the grunge Gandalf. Swap the staff for a Fender Jazzmaster, amend the hobbit-herder’s trademark shout a little (“You shall...
If you’ve ever asked yourself what really happened to James Allan when the Glasvegas frontman transformed himself from all-in-black rock’n’roller to born again dressed-in-white angel at some point at the beginning of this decade, the...
And so 2013’s NME Awards Shows begin, with Toronto’s Metz not so much kick-starting the event as providing it with a brutal smack to the cerebellum. But they’re not doing all the fighting. Before the trio hit the stage, the night is softened...
"Like the movie?” asks Merchandise frontman Carson Cox of the stock-still crowd, gesturing at the video screen behind him and his band. The punters shrug and carry on Instagramming their free drinks. “Come on,” he urges with a twinge of...
Mykki Blanco doesn’t know who she is. This isn’t speculation: she yells it out tonight, at her first ever UK headline show, and the facts would seem to bear the observation out. It’s been quite a journey, from New York poet and performance...
"I blacked out for a couple of seconds up there,” guitarist Freddie Cowan tells NME , as he sweats profusely from places we didn’t even realise contained glands. “It was OK though, I caught myself just before I fell over.” Having just...
"All of you, I want you to give me the peace sign. But not so fast!” bellows Ghostface Killah. Dressed in a bright white tee – in contrast to his dark, coruscating brand of East Coast rap – the Wu lynchpin hits London tonight with fellow NYC...
Alt-J may have already scooped up some coveted silverware in their short lifespan, but they’re winning no prizes for sartorial splendour. Tonight, London is adorned in the elegant white cloak of winter, but inside Shepherds Bush Empire it’s a...
A weekend at Butlins is the perfect antidote to the January detox. Instead of a ‘dryathlon’ you get double spirits for just over a quid. The fried breakfasts are all-you-can-eat, and even though there’s snow, hotpants outnumber coats. And a...
