EXODUS/Evile/Gamma Bomb –
Corporation, Sheffield, Saturday 12th April, 2008

To say that I was heartbroken when I had to sacrifice Exodus’s headlining slot at the Bonded By Metal fest here four and half years back in order to catch the last bus is a mere understatement. So my reaction to seeing adverts for this miracle reappearance by the Bay area legends pinned up round my favourite rock n’ roll nightclub could be left to the imagination.

Bringing two promising new British acts on tour hasn’t exactly transpired that bad an idea itself even if Evile and Gamma Bomb look at some stages during their sets like winning more attention than their American chums. Northern Ireland’s Gamma Bomb have a name that will get a certain German power metal act I might mention coming over for a ‘vord vith ze boys’  but that said, don’t sound far removed from Kai Hansen et al’s twin guitar assault, and of the punters making noise only a mere fraction are actually their family and friends.

Evile are, bless ‘em from t’county o’Yorkshire and hell do they go down a storm.  Their debut album has been whipped up like the proverbial bakery product cooked at very high temperature, and for once we have a support band whose songs I already know the words to. Sadly only allowing for five numbers, ‘First Blood’, ‘Thrasher’, the pulverising epic ‘We Who Are About To Die’ and ‘Bathe in Blood’ all fall amongst the favourites. 

Closer ‘Enter The Grave’ goes down a treat in particular as do the performances by some lad aged about fourteen who guests on rhythm guitar, allowing frontman Mat to detatch his mike from its stand and indulge in some good ol’ eighties thrash vocalist stage poses for a few minutes.  A decent Tom Araya-esque range emanating from this geezer’s pipes pushes this band’s future potential even further up the slope and given the ferocity and by-the-book bludgeon this well touted young act deal in, we’ll be hearing a second album pretty soon.

Time for the ‘E’-men themselves to stake centre stage, the speculation as to who is in the line-up - for those with access to the internet - is duly revealed although most are aware that they have a new singer on board.  Looking like an overweight Ripper Owens or some bloke who just got kicked out of Crowbar, their current vocalist obviously has had a ball so far with these boys but that says less than it does for the three hundred with the confines of the Corp this evening.

With a new album –yes, they’re still banging them out – to promote, these lads are still no idiots in registering the preferred choice of catalogue to dominate their live set list, hence nearly three quarters of ‘Bonded By Blood’ being included. Moshpits are still a hardy machine, that said, so later tunes like ‘Death Amphetamine’ and newie ‘Shovel Headed Killing Machine’ and a good two or three classics off ‘Fabulous Disaster’ still seem akin to that ordered by the doctor. 

I couldn’t think of a better way to warm people up for the vintage onslaught of ‘Lesson In Violence’, ‘Piranha’, ‘Metal Command’, ‘And Then There Were one’, and ‘Strike Of the Beast’. The new chap’s throat is as far removed from messrs Balloff (RIP) and Souza as it gets but our admiration of the latter’s likeness to a young James Hetfield is recognised by a brief cover of ‘Motorbreath’ (remember someone ELSE who was once in the Exodus ranks, folks?) .  Sandwiching said classic come the other two that no Exodus set list can ever (almost legally speaking) be played without but this time of night, a room full of sweat-drenched metalheads, be their age 19 or 36, only see the title track from the their classic debut as a generous appetite wetter for the inevitable finale.

The immortal anthem of many a metal club dancefloor worldwide, ‘Toxic Waltz’’s opening chords are attack and anyone who’d rather watch a gig standing still with arms folded and beer in hand is provided with a strong incentive to retire swiftly to the back of the room for the following five minutes. Quite why they don’t have the chorus again at the end of the song is still something I’ve never got around but it’s just as well - we are all a little bit cream-cracked after the preceding hour-and-half. 

A show worth waiting nearly another half-decade for, Exodus obviously were aware someone had missed out last time they’d visited Blighty but those to didn’t show up this time missed out six-fold with the blinding support sets that Evile and Gamma Bomb treated us to (hope to see you guys back as headliners before long) .

A beautiful night for metal.

9.5/10

By Dave Attrill  

Curtis Eller -

The Washington, Sheffield, Wednesday April 5th, 2006

A small pub for a small guy and his lonesome bango but what a packed audience it was here tonight - like it was last October - the 20th, to be exact.

Curtis Eller is an essential piece of Vaudevillian, original & authentic entertainment who is around in this painfully negative world today. He has the old fashioned elements of the silent movies in both looks and style (even having a song dedicated to one of his heroes 'Buster Keaton'). The humour is kinda unique as well - imagine quirky Woody Allen silliness with words and songs vibed up in a musical mesh that has elements of Ronnie Lane, John D. Loudermilk, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and Loudon Wainwright III.

I have never seen anyone command a crowd quite like Curtis - he enlightens all present in the pub with his dearful & tearful ditties such as 'Sugar in my coffin'; the 12-bar Cajun/Lane like 'Hide that Scar' and other songs about such subjects as Abraham Lincoln, Cocaine, Charlie the Chimp, Coney Island (which as he explained is fast dissappearing - so see it while you can - before they put a shopping mall on it), Pigeon Racing (complete with coo's that he invites us to do), Serpents & Performing Elephants.

He plays and sings away throughout his set not to mention, performing high kicks without missing a note or beat, jumping around on his stool, wandering around the audience and asking us if he want a sad song or a happy song or if we wants him to swear during his songs - now not many would do that would they? He has built a decent cult fanbase in the UK over the last half a decade or so and comes back to see us at least twice a year.

Curtis is such a friendly guy with an honest approach and I urge you to go see him wherever he happens to be playing, buy his cd's and one of his homemade pressed t-shirts too. He's a living legend, a New York City hero who is loved wherever he plugs in that bango and gives us a good old tune and a few yodels too - he will even get you singing along with him to that old standard 'The Red, Red Robin' and not many would manage that in this day and age.

Curtis Eller is quite simply brilliant.

10/10

By Glenn Milligan

Not the first time I've seen Enuff Z'nuff twice in the same year though this time the two occasions are six months separated rather than six days. And as at the LA Guns show in April, Donnie Vie is again absent - has he actually left the band or what? - leaving lead guitarist Monaco as their new frontman.

Having three support acts does its bit to compensate for the brevity of their set but even then Rotherham AOR sensations Deadline should have qualified for more than 20 minutes of set space. With singer Steve also now wielding a guitar on one of the numbers and the new material aired tonight impressing like the older material, from the off, the only let-down tonight is the non-inclusion of 'Love's a Battle' and that their talent seems wasted on the 10-15 so far inside the building at this time.

Following Deadline onstage is another British act. Londoners, Drugdealer Cheerleader certainly make an impression for a band no one has heard of before and their formulaic but likeable sleaze metal makes them some friends tonight, their Keith Chegwin look-a-like frontman inviting an interesting bit of crowd participation along the way.

Canadians Crash Kelly were only here two months earlier with the Quireboys and I can't help but wonder if their return is a tad demand-related. Though a four-man act tonight - the missing one of their three guitarists plays in Honeymoon Suite singer Johnny Dee's solo backing band, so that's a possible reason - they pull off a short but sweet set of cock n' roll proportions. If you still think you recognised that bassist of theirs but couldn't quite put a finger on whence from he came, he's the guitarist from fellow Canuck newcomers Robin Black & The Intergalactic Rockstars, who also came over in a with Zodiac Mindwarp (review on that gig soon). A busy time for all things Canadian and glammy.

Finally after two an a half hours, Enuff Z-Nuff arrive and simply pick up [their instruments and get on with it, delivering a set of classics culled from their whole catalogue, including new, and all of the ninety-odd crammed inside the matchbox-sized Room 1 lap it up with glee, singing along all the way. Owning only two of their albums myself doesn't help matters too much but I still manage to enjoy those less familiar selections, if not only to fit in. After fifty-five minutes, the Chicago boys are gone, an encore is yearned but never happens and everyone leaves, disappointed but at least they still played. One of Americas' best rock n'roll bands, Enuff Z'Nuff have made a lot of friends in the UK in their eighteen year existence but with sets lasting only this long I'm wondering how long they'll keep all of them.

8/10

By Dave Attrill

- BRADFORD RIO'S, September 2001

As we arrived in Bradford Rio's car park at 6pm, we were greeted with one tour bus and a sound check that was blasting out of the side entrance, then a little man by the name of Bobo shook our hands and said 'I'll see you in a minute' to return and lead us onto the tour bus of Entombed. As we entered the bus we were kindly greeted by the members of Entombed as Bobo sorted out our passes for the gig, we sat talking to Jorgen and Peter who made us very welcomed.

Entombed had arrived in Bradford the night before the gig as they had their previous gig cancelled due to a flooding. Peter was telling us that they spent the night in the night club where they all got wasted, they were all hung over tiered and slightly bored, the toll of touring was starting to get to them.

As we entered the dark dingy realms of the Rio's club, we stood back to watch an unknown band who played to about 50 people, I thought then either the people in Bradford aren't interested in watching backing bands or it's going to be a very quiet gig. As they left and Cathedral came on, there were still a lack of supporters - this was strange, it's Saturday night and where is everybody? The loyal supporters of Cathedral were shacking their heads and playing their air guitars in the middle of the hall to the slow hard hitting beat of this legendary band who churned out their favorite tracks to these select few supporters. The members of Entombed were also at the back of the hall watching, as Peter had told us earlier, 'I love watching Cathedral, they are one of my favourite bands'. Cathedral played for about 45 minutes and played really well as they tried so hard to get through to the brick wall, the problem was the crowed; they may as well have been manikins.

Then came on the infamous Entombed, with seeing them earlier and talking to them, I wondered if I had wasted my time, the energy in the tour bus wasn't their, but hold on what was this, Entombed exploded into action waking the dead with 'Chief Rebel Angel'. Had someone pumped them up with a bit of whiz, was these the same guys who hadn't got an ounce of energy between them? It sure was.

They ripped through tracks as if they were going out of fashion, with a selection of old classics and new material that got the avid fans kicking the sh*t out of each other. What started off being a slow boring start to a show, finished off with one of the best thrash metal acts showing Bradford why they are still going strong.

If it wasn't for such a small sh*t crowd who don't know how to enjoy themselves and an even poorer venue with the sound quality of a tin can this would have been an excellent gig.

Entombed and Cathedral both put on a good show for what seemed to be a hand full of people, what a shame.

7/10

By Tony Watson