South Coast Entertainment Wednesday 13 Review

With the balcony and the closeness of crowd to band, The Brook in Portswood, Southampton can always produce phenomenal performances from all types of bands. This night was no exception. With support from The Chelsea Smiles, a largely upcoming band from Hollywood and Glamour of the Kill, a band hot on everyones lips, it had the promise of a great night even before a note was played.

The Chelsea Smiles kicked off the evening with their funk rock and roll. The sounds of songs including Nowhere Ride and I Want More echoes to uptempo Rolling Stones and bands like the New York Dolls and to a certain extent the Ramones. The lead singer had a high energy throughout the performance, making himself known to the crowd from the off so producing many interested and viewing members of the audience. The rest of the band were technically sound and produced a fantastic sound of which few bands are attempting these days. Rock and roll lives! Even with the balcony shut upstairs at the Brook, the atmosphere was already building nicely from a strong rock and roll/metal crowd.

Glamour of the Kill are building a nice big base of fans across the UK at the moment. Having opened the Download Festival at Donington Park last year, a rise similar to Trivium, who took off following the same slot a few years ago hasent quite happened. But tonight, it is clear to see why many have backed them to progress through the metal ranks and become one of the bigger bands. The thumping drums and songs packed with downtuned riffs and a few guitar solos made this band capable of getting everyone in The Brook head banging in unison. The high pitched singing grates a little, but the deeper, more throaty lyrics packs an almighty punch. Songs on show tonight include World's End, Rise From Your Grave and A Hope in Hell. All will have had the audience members getting on the myspace before bedtime if they didn't know them already. The band again have a good rapport with the crowd and look to incorporate the energy gained from them into their performance at all times. As luck would have it, Download is around the corner again and hopefully we shall see Glamour of the Kill onstage again to throw down the gauntlet to all other bands.

Wednesday 13 shouldn't need an introduction to all metalheads out their. The former Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 band member was made all the more famous for a collaboration band known to all as the Murderdolls with Joey Jordison of Slipknot and Tripp Eisen of Static-X. Following the release of a cover of Billy Idol's White Wedding the Murderdolls were known to everyone in the rock world. Now after the Murderdolls hiatus, Wednesday 13 has been producing punk rock and roll to satisfy his clear passion for music.

The crowd are already at energy breaking point before Wednesday 13 steps out onto the stage. The opening riffs of the first song produced mass hysteria from the relatively small audience and all were singing in unison. The nature of the music can't help but make the audience members headbang and windmill their thursday night away. Running through tracks including My Home Sweet Homicide, Skeletons and Die My Bride the headbanging was more intense as the show wore on. The great performance was at peak levels for most of the set and banter with the crowd includes Wednesday mentioning he hadn't been to Southampton before, although he may have done and forgot, because he did drink alot! The crowd certainly won't forget this evening and the sign that punk rock is still in force.