Terrorvision 23/05/2008

Right, this was at the Carling Academy in Bristol again (the last there for the foreseeable future) and because of the venues silly curfews (I think I might rant about that soon, maybe even at the end of this glog...) it opened at 18:30 to finish for 21:45(!). The support slot started at 19:00 and was taken care of by The Sound Explosion. These guys were great! You know all those 'how to make your band successful' advice things? They had it all down to a T! From a high energy performance, with some banter with the crowd, right down to giving away free album samplers and selling their merch cheap (£8 T-shirt, which I didn't buy, and a £5 album, which I bought).

Not only did they have the whole PR thing sorted, but their music fully rocks! They have a kind of old school metal/hard rock sound, but a bit more modern, or something - I'm a bit rubbish at pigeon holing... Basically they have fat riffs and big solos, and pretty kickass drum parts (I kept catching myself focusing on the drum beat, and missing awesome guitar parts!). They had loads of energy, and deserved a more energetic response from the crowd, as they were going all out - one guitarist climbed over the crowd barrier and soloed in amongst the audience, and then climbed back on stage and on top of one of the speaker stacks at the side of the stage! The other guitarist wasn't gonna let him have all the lime light though and 'joined' him on a different stack before they both jumped down again... They played for about half an hour, and managed to get quite a (well deserved) good cheer when they left (in a good way! ).

Quick disclaimer - I'm gonna assume no-one actually at the gig is gonna find this and take an educated guess at the play order - there's a few I know for certain, and I know the songs they played for certain (except for one), the order is just a little fuzzy... Also these guys are an old favourite, that I've been wanting to see live for YEARS. I was very excited before hand, and will be buzzing about it for ages afterwards!

Terrorvision finally made it on stage sometime past 20:00 (maybe quarter past) with a little intro of lights out and four fire engine style revolving blue lights going (cue excited crowd, obviously) and then the band came on and launched straight into Celebrity Hitlist, a personal favourite of mine, which got everyone down the front jumping up and down - a trend that happily continued for the rest of the gig pretty much! One of the great things about Terrorvision (TV from here on to save my keyboard!) is that they have innately sing-a-long-able songs - like Offspring - everyone knows the words when they're at a gig! The crowd was in full throat from the very start, and with a well chosen set list they only encouraged it. I'll say here there was one slightly dud choice in the set, 'Fists of Fury', which I think would have been better replaced by 'Stop the Bus' (there was a chant started before the encore of "Stop the Bus, Stop the Bus" in place of the more usual 'we want more'). Other than that I don't think I would disagree with their choices, I would have liked other song to be played, but then I would have liked them to do a 2.5 hour set...

The band had (have?) a great look live (everyday?!) - full on 'arena rockers', made me think of U2, but more sleazy! The guitarist had red trousers and red/white striped shirt with slicked back hair, and the bassist was decked out in a pair of Bono style sunglasses, with equally oily looking slick hair. The singers trousers were a little on the tight side as he managed to tear them down the 'butt-seam' about half way through the set! (The people right at the front were loving it, and coaxed him into waving it their direction a few times...). There was general good humour among the band, and they seemed to be really enjoying themselves, and after getting the crowd to do most of the chorus for 'Fists of Fury' (I think - regardless it was a good sing-a-long "Party over here F**k you over there!") Tony was bowing down to our vocal roar.

When they left the stage after 'Oblivio-uun bop, ba, ba, doo wop' (or 'Oblivion' as it's more usually known, but impossible to say with out the rest) the crowd were roaring for more before they'd even half left the stage, and there was only one very short quiet moment before they returned, everyone was dieing for more. On their return they had seats(!) and sat down to down an acoustic section! One of the last things I had expected, but it was really good. I think it;s a shame they didn't play 'Desolation town' cause it's an great song that I love, but their choice was good - especially the acoustic versions of 'Tequila' and 'Discotheque Wreck'. Apparently Tequila was originally intended to be acoustic, which having seen it done so I can fully believe, in fact I intend to either see them peform it in a small, dingy, pub, or I will cover it in one myself, cause I think it would work great! After 'Discotheque Wreck' they grabbed the electric guitar again and launched into 'Pretend Best Friend' (which I had been worried they'd left out) followed by the classic, and excellent fun live, 'Perseverance'.

To sum it all up: AWESOME! I think I'm gonna hurt tomorrow, but SO worth it. I just hope that they weren't entirely joking when they mentioned possible new material in a little while - Terrorvision needs to make a proper big come back, nuff said!

Pictures here. Sorry about the quality, but I was too busy killing my calves jumping around to get many good shots...

And for those that care here's a rough hash of the set list (if anyone who was there reads this and disagrees, please let me know!):

Celebrity Hitlist

New Policy One - one of the pleasant surprises.

My House

Discotheque Wreck

Friends and Family

Hide the Dead Girl

Fists of Fury

Sometimes I'd Like To Kill Her

Josephine

Middleman

Enteralterego

What Makes You Tick

Dog Chewed the Handle

If I was You

D'ya Wanna Go Faster - I was worried they wouldn't play it, it was great!

Alice, What's the Matter?

Oblivion - I really wanted them to do like the album and kick straight into Stop the Bus here .

Encore:

Killing Time, Acoustic - I'm not 100% this ones right, but meh.

Some People Say, Acoustic

Tequila, Acoustic - worked surprisingly well!

Discotheque Wreck, Acoustic - Also very good acoustic!

Pretend Best Friend

Perseverance