The King Lot kicked things off with some U2 style rock, but without forcing you to have a shit album! The band were clearly into what they were playing as they danced about in time with their song's rhythm’s, and had some nice songs that, if more people knew the lyrics, would have been sing-a-long hits. Actually, there were a couple of women dancing near the stage and singing along, who must have seen them many times before.
If I'm honest, I don't remember too much about the sound of The King Lot, they just had some good songs that pretty much allow you to do whatever you want. Dance to their songs, headbang to their songs, drink to their songs, and I don't know, masturbate to their songs, it's all acceptable (so long as you do the last one in the comfort of your own home ;) ) which is something not many bands can do.
The King Lot kick things off
So after about 5 minutes the next band came on (which is a lot quicker change over than most bands pull off), The Amorettes (no, I still don't know how to pronounce their name), who were bloody fantastic! They really remind me of pre Caress of Steel Rush, with their bluesy hard rock style of music with lyrics of lust.
The band's singer/lead guitarist Gill was amazing, at point squealing her lyrics into the mic, with the effect of her voice sounding like it was right in your ear. This might have been a technical difficulty, but either way, it was fucking cool. And as for her guitar solo's! I'm still amazed that her skinny fingers can grab the strings, let alone the way she plays, with fast yet soulful playing, and power chords using the first three fingers (which is very awkward) instead of the index, ring and pinky!
They also had some very nice call and repeat chorus's which they got the crowd singing (even if we didn't have a clue what we were saying)
The Ammorettes shake things up (including my camera)
And then we had Die No More who, as usual, blew me away. They played most of the songs from their new album with the exception of One In The Chamber, which they cut from the set (Yes, I did cry a bit when I saw the song had been scribbled off of the set list). They also included Conscious Indecision from their EP, an old song called Electric Crown (not that I'd heard it before) and a new song (at least I think it was a new song, could have been an old song though) called Neighbour, which Marc dedicated to Hannah, the drummer from the Amorettes (make of that what you will ;)
It's a shame that roughly three quarters into their set a lot of people started to leave, probably to go to the nightclub part of The Venue, but it's their loss. It's also annoying that they didn't play an encore despite chants of one more song, but then again their final song of the night was Council Of War (the one with Die No More as the main lyric) so they may not have been able to top that!!!
Die No More bring their metal to the table!
What a brilliant night of music that was, and all for just £4!!! And afterward I even got the Die No More lads to sign a set list, and bought a shirt (FAN BOY ALERT) .
