The Bottom Line, Landmarks, Falling for Grace, Empty Space, The
Molatovs and Koal
March 2nd and 3rd, 2014
Retro Bar Manchester and The Brink Liverpool.
In April last year I had the pleasure of
encountering the Bottom Line during the 8 Bit Frenzy Tour, but unfortunately
because of the dates that I attended I didn't get the chance to hear them play,
however, I bought their CD and really enjoyed it. Now almost a year later I finally got to hear
them play live!
The Bottom Line are currently doing an
eight date UK tour and are changing the support bands for each date of the tour,
as they are being supported by local bands from each of the cities they are
visiting.
We first caught up with them in Manchester
at the Retro Bar Basement. It was my
first time at this venue which is a small pub/club on Stanley Street. The basement venue is a small room at the
bottom of a couple of flights of very narrow stairs and boasts a bar and a small
stage.
The Liverpool venue however was much bigger
and brighter. The Brink was also a
unique venue in itself as it is a 'dry bar'.
It was set up as a recovery venue to support people who have suffered
through alcoholism and addiction, and therefore it has no alcohol on the premises
policy. It is a very light room and the
complete opposite from the dimly lit room the night before. Not your usual setting for a punk rock show!
I am only going to do very brief reviews of
each of the supports as there were so many across the two nights.
First up tonight were Koal. These guys had a good sounds and some good
guitar riffs. They played original songs
and last song they played had me tapping my foot along and sounded great!
The Molotovs were next and unfortunately it
was not their night. Their set was made
up of covers including Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name Of' and
Blur's 'Song 2' and they didn't do a very good job. The young lady singing was
flat and out of tune on many occasions during the set and it seemed a little
under rehearsed.
Empty Space where next. These guys only played four songs, consisting
of two instrumentals that I really enjoyed, and covers of Bowling For Soup's 'When
We Die' and Patent Pending's 'One Less Heart To Break', (which are two of my favourite
songs by those two bands). I openly
admit that I am not a fan of female fronted bands as they can be too high
pitched for my liking, and therefore I would have been happier if the young
lady singing had dropped an octave or two as she seemed to be singing a little
high for her range and it sounded strained in places. From the style of their instrumental pieces
they would really benefit from a good male singer.
The Landmarks played support at both the
Manchester and Liverpool shows. These
guys had more of a metal feel to them, even if they did open their set with their
metal version of 5ive's 'Keep On Movin', which strangely worked. The rest of their set was made up of original
material which if I'm honest had a much better sound at the Liverpool show than
the Manchester show, but I think that was because of the venue, as the
Liverpool venue seemed to have much better acoustics.
Also supporting in Liverpool were Falling
For Grace. These guys had a rock feel
and did covers of You Me At Six's 'Save It For The Bedroom' and Taylor Swift's 'We Are Never Getting Back
Together' as well as some original material of their own. These guys had a good presence and a great
sound.
For me the highlight of both night's were headliners
The Bottom Line, who are a three man pop punk band from the UK's south coast
consisting of Callum on guitar and vocals, Max on bass and vocals and Matt on
drums.
The Bottom Line hit the stage with album
title track 'Role Models?' and continued to play through songs from their album
such as 'When You're Around' and 'Life Of The Dip Guy'.
At the Manchester show we were treated to
two of my favourites, 'Thursdays Bad Luck' and 'I've Gotta Quit Kidding
Myself', whereas at the Liverpool show we got to hear 'Drive Thru Night', and
both shows got a very energetic version of 'Teenage Dirt Bag' (originally by
Wheatus).
The Bottom Line guys had loads of energy
and looked as though they were really enjoying playing. They had a great
rapport with the audience and had the whole crowd smiling, bouncing and joining
in.
I may have had to wait almost a year to
hear them play live but they were definitely worth the wait!
Glamour of the Kill played a full on
rock/metal set including songs 'A Freak Like Me' and 'The Only One' from their
new album 'Savages' and 'If Only She
Knew' from their previous album 'The Summoning'. We were also treated to a
great cover of Kiss' 'Lovegun'
These guys played a very high energy set
consisting of songs such as 'Jump Back', 'Fire, Fire' and 'Heartbreaking Son of
a Bitch' from their 2013 album 'Filthy Empire'.
Midway through the set they slowed things
down a little with 'Price We Pay', which
sounded great. Sid then took over with a rendition of 'Paranoia'. The last song before encore was 'Reign on my
Parade' and saw Aaron jump down from the stage and walk across the top of the
crowd. 
