[Review] Northern Oak + Aonia, Whitby 27/7/12
Iron Lord Promotions' second Whitby show! I didn't write this gig up earlier because I went to Wacken in the middle... but here we are, belatedly. This gig was definitely a bit of a two-edged experience for me, because it was absolutely perfect in every regard but one...
Let me say, first, that the thing - and it was really the ONLY thing - that went wrong with this show was a startlingly low audience turnout. And I'm prepared to answer for that myself, seeing as I'd unwittingly made the error of cross-booking this date with the opening ceremony of the Olympics (not even thinking about it at the time, probably because every metal fan I knew seemed to have been ignoring or actively hating on the Olympics for the last two years, so it didn't occur to me that it might have an impact on my crowd figures). Apologies to the bands for that - my bad!
But for those who WERE there - thank you, ye stalwarts! - I think I can safely say this gig was a fucking triumph. We were on at the Whitby Friendship Rowing Club this time, across town from our other venue the Rifle Club, which on the downside meant that parking and loading were a bit more complicated, but on the upside meant that we were literally about five doors up from my house; which turned out to be useful when I had to leg it home in search of spare blankets to stuff in the borrowed kick drum that we'd been forced to cadge off our loyal sound engineer Peter. There's always something...
Despite everything, though, the setup went as smoothly as could have been hoped for. I had the help of the lovely scars_of_jude (and his mate Joz) to fetch beer for the rider once again, and this time I'd been a bit more organised and had put together some food for the bands as well. Admittedly this was just sandwiches, crisps and a round of my cardamomnomnomnom cake, which is apparently becoming something of a legend around these parts, but it seemed to be very popular with its intended targets:
I left the setup process to the experts apart from that, though, and spent my time wandering around the venue applying flyers and posters to every available vertical or horizontal surface, since I'd got flyers not only for the next ILP gig but also for Peter's music shop, for the Shambles Record Store, and some flyers from my mate Luke at Destructive Music (who I now review for, btw!) for a Ukrainian black metal act called Munruthel who needed a newly re-released album promoted. I'd not heard of Munruthel before but having heard the album in question, Epoch of Aquarius, I'm happy to report that it is indeed absolutely stunning: epic, movie-soundtrack-worthy folk-black-metal. Highly recommended and you should all hear it. (Yes, Munruthel himself is the drummer in Nokturnal Mortum, but I've seen him distancing himself from the NSBM aspects of that band so I don't have any issues with his side project, before anyone says anything...)
I was starting to get a bit alarmed by the ongoing absence of my other regular support team, though. ironlord (whose birthday it was) and hellbound_heart were supposedly on their way, but apparently took a wrong turn outside Pickering (how you do that, I'm not sure) and ended up being late to the show. Luckily they did get there before doors in the end, so Jim could set up his traditional videocamera operation and Keri could take over manning the door (for which she has my eternal thanks!) So as usual, it was all right on the night - everything was in place by the time we'd said it would be, and Aonia were able to kick off pretty much on cue.
I will admit here, the first I'd really known of Aonia was when they answered my call for bands on Facebook a couple of months earlier, and while I'd been impressed with their sound on record, I went into their live set with pretty much no preconceptions. And not to put too fine a point on it? They impressed the hell out of me. Their own material is strong and they put it across with confidence and power; their onstage focus is indisputably vocalist/keyboardist Mel, who has a spectacular voice that seemed to take up the entire space the venue had to offer. Her theatrical, operatic performance is a joy to watch, and she's more than ably supported by the rest of the band. They pulled out a surprisingly accurate cover of Tenacious D's "Tribute"(!!) - and then promptly capped that with a rendition of Iron Maiden's immortal "Fear of the Dark" that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck and resulted in me nearly headbanging myself into oblivion. By the time Aonia left the stage I couldn't have been more delighted with the way the evening was going.
However, returning from the front row, this was where I discovered that we'd got rather fewer people through the door than I'd hoped for. A few members of the Whitby Tribe had showed up, plus some others, but we weren't doing very well. I went back to watch Northern Oak's set with my fingers crossed.
And really all I can say is that everyone who didn't come down that night, missed a treat. Northern Oak were on thunderous form, blasting out their unique brand of extreme-folk-metal with passionate conviction; the flute, keys and violin that make their sound so distinctive aren't merely afterthoughts but are woven deep into the melodic structures of the songs, balancing the hammering guitars and singer Martin's harsh vocal stylings. One of my favourite parts of the set had to be the opening of "Maiden", with both flute and violin in play and briefly colliding at a pitch and volume so intense that for a few amazing moments it was like I couldn't feel or hear anything apart from the white scream of the melody knifing through my head - it literally hurt, but in a completely fantastic way. Somewhere in there and on a rather more temporal plane was also a birthday sing-along for Jim; we were further treated to an new unreleased track, "The Gallows Tree", and they gave us a fantastic rendition of my favourite of their repertoire, "The Madness of the Feral Moon". So in the end, I was all set to go home happy.
And apparently so was everyone else, as both bands claimed to be thoroughly happy with the show after the event, and the various audience members I chatted to seemed impressed with what they'd heard too. I got hugged by every single member of Aonia as they were leaving (♥!) and by the time everyone had cleared out and I'd rescued all the leftover posters and flyers that hadn't been carried off by punters (ILP is environmentally conscious - we recycle!) it was closing on midnight. I rounded up Jim and Keri, dragged out the last few hangers on, and we trailed back to mine for a well-deserved sleep... since the next day we were going to have to drive to Nottingham in preparation for the annual Epic Wacken Trip. But that's another post...
And yes, to any members of Aonia who see this - I DID have "Tribute" stuck in my head for the rest of the damned night. Thanks a lot! :p
So yeah, on balance, a fantastic show that I'm only sorry more people weren't there to enjoy. Thanks from the bottom of my heart to everyone who came down; to the bands; to the Rowing Club for saving our arses when we needed a venue; to Peter for engineering, PA and the loan of the emergency drumkit; and to Keri, Mike, Joz and Jim for all their help. Love you all, and hope to see everyone at Morpheus Rising/Crimson Dream in September when we'll be back in the Rifle Club again for what should hopefully be a bang-up night out! :)
Right, now excuse me, I'm off to watch Paradise Lost on the Bloodstock livestream... ^_^
Laters,
Rath
Let me say, first, that the thing - and it was really the ONLY thing - that went wrong with this show was a startlingly low audience turnout. And I'm prepared to answer for that myself, seeing as I'd unwittingly made the error of cross-booking this date with the opening ceremony of the Olympics (not even thinking about it at the time, probably because every metal fan I knew seemed to have been ignoring or actively hating on the Olympics for the last two years, so it didn't occur to me that it might have an impact on my crowd figures). Apologies to the bands for that - my bad!
But for those who WERE there - thank you, ye stalwarts! - I think I can safely say this gig was a fucking triumph. We were on at the Whitby Friendship Rowing Club this time, across town from our other venue the Rifle Club, which on the downside meant that parking and loading were a bit more complicated, but on the upside meant that we were literally about five doors up from my house; which turned out to be useful when I had to leg it home in search of spare blankets to stuff in the borrowed kick drum that we'd been forced to cadge off our loyal sound engineer Peter. There's always something...
Despite everything, though, the setup went as smoothly as could have been hoped for. I had the help of the lovely scars_of_jude (and his mate Joz) to fetch beer for the rider once again, and this time I'd been a bit more organised and had put together some food for the bands as well. Admittedly this was just sandwiches, crisps and a round of my cardamomnomnomnom cake, which is apparently becoming something of a legend around these parts, but it seemed to be very popular with its intended targets:
I left the setup process to the experts apart from that, though, and spent my time wandering around the venue applying flyers and posters to every available vertical or horizontal surface, since I'd got flyers not only for the next ILP gig but also for Peter's music shop, for the Shambles Record Store, and some flyers from my mate Luke at Destructive Music (who I now review for, btw!) for a Ukrainian black metal act called Munruthel who needed a newly re-released album promoted. I'd not heard of Munruthel before but having heard the album in question, Epoch of Aquarius, I'm happy to report that it is indeed absolutely stunning: epic, movie-soundtrack-worthy folk-black-metal. Highly recommended and you should all hear it. (Yes, Munruthel himself is the drummer in Nokturnal Mortum, but I've seen him distancing himself from the NSBM aspects of that band so I don't have any issues with his side project, before anyone says anything...)
I was starting to get a bit alarmed by the ongoing absence of my other regular support team, though. ironlord (whose birthday it was) and hellbound_heart were supposedly on their way, but apparently took a wrong turn outside Pickering (how you do that, I'm not sure) and ended up being late to the show. Luckily they did get there before doors in the end, so Jim could set up his traditional videocamera operation and Keri could take over manning the door (for which she has my eternal thanks!) So as usual, it was all right on the night - everything was in place by the time we'd said it would be, and Aonia were able to kick off pretty much on cue.
I will admit here, the first I'd really known of Aonia was when they answered my call for bands on Facebook a couple of months earlier, and while I'd been impressed with their sound on record, I went into their live set with pretty much no preconceptions. And not to put too fine a point on it? They impressed the hell out of me. Their own material is strong and they put it across with confidence and power; their onstage focus is indisputably vocalist/keyboardist Mel, who has a spectacular voice that seemed to take up the entire space the venue had to offer. Her theatrical, operatic performance is a joy to watch, and she's more than ably supported by the rest of the band. They pulled out a surprisingly accurate cover of Tenacious D's "Tribute"(!!) - and then promptly capped that with a rendition of Iron Maiden's immortal "Fear of the Dark" that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck and resulted in me nearly headbanging myself into oblivion. By the time Aonia left the stage I couldn't have been more delighted with the way the evening was going.
However, returning from the front row, this was where I discovered that we'd got rather fewer people through the door than I'd hoped for. A few members of the Whitby Tribe had showed up, plus some others, but we weren't doing very well. I went back to watch Northern Oak's set with my fingers crossed.
And really all I can say is that everyone who didn't come down that night, missed a treat. Northern Oak were on thunderous form, blasting out their unique brand of extreme-folk-metal with passionate conviction; the flute, keys and violin that make their sound so distinctive aren't merely afterthoughts but are woven deep into the melodic structures of the songs, balancing the hammering guitars and singer Martin's harsh vocal stylings. One of my favourite parts of the set had to be the opening of "Maiden", with both flute and violin in play and briefly colliding at a pitch and volume so intense that for a few amazing moments it was like I couldn't feel or hear anything apart from the white scream of the melody knifing through my head - it literally hurt, but in a completely fantastic way. Somewhere in there and on a rather more temporal plane was also a birthday sing-along for Jim; we were further treated to an new unreleased track, "The Gallows Tree", and they gave us a fantastic rendition of my favourite of their repertoire, "The Madness of the Feral Moon". So in the end, I was all set to go home happy.
And apparently so was everyone else, as both bands claimed to be thoroughly happy with the show after the event, and the various audience members I chatted to seemed impressed with what they'd heard too. I got hugged by every single member of Aonia as they were leaving (♥!) and by the time everyone had cleared out and I'd rescued all the leftover posters and flyers that hadn't been carried off by punters (ILP is environmentally conscious - we recycle!) it was closing on midnight. I rounded up Jim and Keri, dragged out the last few hangers on, and we trailed back to mine for a well-deserved sleep... since the next day we were going to have to drive to Nottingham in preparation for the annual Epic Wacken Trip. But that's another post...
And yes, to any members of Aonia who see this - I DID have "Tribute" stuck in my head for the rest of the damned night. Thanks a lot! :p
So yeah, on balance, a fantastic show that I'm only sorry more people weren't there to enjoy. Thanks from the bottom of my heart to everyone who came down; to the bands; to the Rowing Club for saving our arses when we needed a venue; to Peter for engineering, PA and the loan of the emergency drumkit; and to Keri, Mike, Joz and Jim for all their help. Love you all, and hope to see everyone at Morpheus Rising/Crimson Dream in September when we'll be back in the Rifle Club again for what should hopefully be a bang-up night out! :)
Right, now excuse me, I'm off to watch Paradise Lost on the Bloodstock livestream... ^_^
Laters,
Rath