Tag: Eventim Apollo

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Live Reviews Music

Hell Is For Heroes can still climb mountains

“London, I’m coming for you,” declares Justin Schlosberg. Like a football player about to take a penalty, his posture changes. And, as the rest of Hell Is For Heroes rage through the remainder of Five Kids Go, the singer jumps from the stage. Of course, the Hammersmith Eventim Apollo audience catch him. It’s the kind of behaviour they’ve come to expect from the frontman. He’s already crowd surfed while singing, with corded mic and all, having emerged from the audience during To Die For’s instrumental intro. He’s already done an almost handstand on Joe Birch’s bass drum and leapt over it like an Olympic hurdler. 

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Live Reviews Music

PVRIS are big and bold in London

Too often live shows highlight a band’s shortcomings. Especially if that band’s carefully crafted albums favour a big, slick production style over capturing the raw energy of real people playing together. Without the studio trickery to hide behind, on stage their limitations as performers, musicians, or songwriters become glaringly obvious.

That’s not the case with PVRIS. Instead, their big, bold performance at Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo highlights several things not immediately obvious from their records. Their songs, which mash up rock, electro, and hip-hop elements, are actually more substance than style. Singer/songwriter Lynn Gunn is no slouch as a guitarist. And her voice is far more powerful and — with rich soulful, bluesy hints — far more nuanced than some of the autotuned studio recordings suggest.

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Live Reviews Music

Fontaines D.C. show off their immense power

Selling out three consecutive nights at Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo is a pretty good hint you’ve made it as a live act. So is having a sea of people in the stalls — sometimes surging, sometimes raging, always moving.

But the real sign is an audience that doesn’t just shout back every word; they sing along to melodies with such gusto it almost renders the musicians pointless. The Cure have Play For Today. Iron Maiden have Fear Of The Dark. On the last night of their London residency, Fontaines D.C. have A Lucid Dream and Big Shot.

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Live Reviews Music

Jack White’s evolution continues

When Jack White joined his first group, Goober & The Peas, playing drums was just part of the gig. They dressed like Grand Ole Opry cowboys, so he was forced to wear the whole Hank Williams getup, from the Nudie suit to the 10-gallon hat. It wasn’t an easy fit for a kid from Detroit. But White soon realised that the band were getting noticed purely because they’d swapped out the predominant uniform of jeans and T-shirt. At that point in the early ’90s he learned that, even through something as innocuous as an outfit, he could decide what message he wanted to project.

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Live Reviews

Pat Metheny gives Hammersmith the Side-Eye

On stage, Pat Metheny’s almost always stationary. He’s either looking down, face obscured by hair, coaxing his Ibanez PM signature model to sing with impossible beauty. Or he’s sitting, finger-picking an acoustic guitar with the utmost precision and grace.

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Live Reviews Music

Elbow bask in hope and elation

The first words out of Guy Garvey’s mouth suggest that something’s changed. “And I don’t know Jesus anymore,” he declares over the grimy guitar riff and glitchy stop-start rhythms of Dexter & Sinister. “How do you keep your eyes ablaze, In these faith-free, hope-free, charity-free days?” the Elbow singer asks.

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Live Reviews Music

Of Monsters And Men: joy will prevail

Of Monsters And Men are about so much more than songs with irresistible “la-la-la” choruses, impossibly sunny melodies, kooky lyrics about pet dragonflies and talking trees, and sudden jubilant outbursts of “hey!”. Of Monsters And Men are about spreading joy.

For 90 minutes, the Icelandic band cast their spell over the masses packed into a sold-out Eventim Apollo, resulting in almost involuntary behaviours: mass singalongs, synchronised clapping, arms-raised sway-dancing, and 5,000 voices shouting “hey!” as one.

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Live Reviews Music

The Cult rebuild a Sonic Temple

Sonic Temple isn’t just The Cult’s highest-charting album (#3 in the UK, #10 in the US). It’s the one that gave them three bonafide Top 40 hits that they still play almost every night.

It’s the one that saw them double down on the all-out rock approach of predecessor Electric and (with titles like New York City and American Horse) take a big swing at the American market. It’s the one that convinced Metallica to hire producer Bob Rock.

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Live Reviews Music

Eddie Vedder finds intimacy in Hammersmith

London’s Hammersmith Apollo isn’t what you’d call intimate. And yet Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder makes the 3,600-seater venue feel like a living room, or a cosy campfire singalong. And it’s not just because he’s surrounded by a vintage radio, reel-to-reel tape player, battered suitcases (complete with The Who sticker), various old-timey speakers, assorted instruments, and, later, an actual campfire complete with starry sky backdrop.

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