11-23-2018, 07:33 PM
So… Lovebites at the O2 Islington in London (an entirely unprofessional report!).
This venue is in a modern shopping centre (that’s a mall for North American readers) and I’d been there the previous year for Band-Maid, so I didn’t have to resort to Google maps for once. No VIP tickets for this one so I turned up at the venue at 7pm as on the ticket and the queue was already starting to go in. The venue is about 800 capacity in the modern ‘industrial architecture on the inside’ style so you’ve got air vents and shafts and scaffolding and equipment messily poking out of the interior walls. Looks like a level in one of the early Tomb Raider games to me and you can almost work out how Lara would be able to get across the room to get the health pack on the other side without ever touching the floor. Bars on either side of the main room (which is handy if you get short-changed at one of them I guess). Plus a balcony which appeared to be closed or at least unused this time. Last time I was here someone up there spent half the gig tipping his beer down the back of my neck, so I was quite glad about that to be honest.
Place was filling up slowly and there were only a couple of hundred or so in when I got there, so I was about seven or eight rows back. Crowd was an interesting mix of J-music geeks & more metal types. I was next to a man in a Kamelot tee (and appropriate beard) regaling all and sundry with his Bloodstock experience earlier in the year. I guess getting bumped up to the main stage there turned out to be pretty fortuitous as quite a few mentioned they’d found Lovebites there. Then again, I heard someone mention were a FEMM fan but they’d been impressed by the gals at last year’s JPU event and that’s not a group I thought there’d be much crossover with! Guy the other side was sporting exactly the same Bridear Silver Lining Tour T-shirt I’d gone for (along with Axl Rose hair and bandanna), leaving me to ponder if this was the same sort of fashion faux-pas at a metal event as turning up in the same dress as Meryl Streep would be at the Oscars? Was going to say “Nice shirt!”, but was put off by the silver cat ears, in case he was the local weirdo. Chicken!
Anyway, first up were the support act, so we got a six song set from Seven Sisters (which is actually an area in London, by the way). They were actually a pretty good fit for Lovebites with their slightly grandiose Heavy/Power Metal. Vocalist Kyle seemed better live than in that video up earlier (certainly less nasal anyway!), so either he’s been taking lessons or getting better with practice. Appealing front man anyway, with a lot of energy and bounce. About the only criticism I had was the drum sound seemed kinda tinny, which I think was because their drummer was using a slightly reduced kit. They were in the narrow space in front of Lovebites already assembled gear and I don’t think he really had room for his full set up. At times it sounded rather like one of those ‘Pro drummer plays Metallica on ‘My Little Pony’ drum kit’ videos you’re always getting on YouTube. For the kind of music they were playing it did subtract from all the pomp and circumstance though. They seem a strange match visually too: slightly weedy front man with his moustache that makes him look like a 17-year-old trying to get into a pub a year early, beefy ‘pro-wrestler’ guitarist, bassist who wouldn’t look out of place in an eighties pop rock cover band and hippy-ish drummer. Can’t shake a slight feeling that they seem like a band your best friends mate has just put together in his garage rather than a professional crew. Nothing wrong with the music though, they certainly seem to know their stuff. I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to see them at a stand-alone gig yet, but I certainly wouldn’t hide in the bar when they’re on, if you see what I mean. They also come with that absolute essential for any support act – the embarrassing mate, relative, boy or girl friend who insists on singing along, shouting and clapping VERY LOUDLY in all the ‘right’ places in the songs and trying to get an otherwise semi-enthusiastic crowd going. Hard to miss in this case as he was about seven foot tall and covered in band patches.
Anyway the place was more or less full by the time Lovebites were on at 9pm. I assume since the balcony was shut this was maybe 5-600 or so? Pretty decent anyway. The girls actually looked slightly apprehensive when they came on. Well all except for Asami who was 100% personality right from the off. If they don’t succeed, it’s not going to be from lack of commitment on her part. Or on the part of her dress designer – how that ‘off the shoulder’ thing she wears stays on never fails to amaze me with all the bouncing around she does. I did suspect superglue, but she seems to be pulling it up every time she turns around and faces away from the audience during the guitar solos! Anyway they kicked off with ‘Don’t Bite the Dust’ but a problem I did notice her having immediately was that she seemed to come in too quietly at the start of the song and got rather overwhelmed by the instrumental parts. I thought at first she was just too low in the mix, but when she reached the louder parts she certainly seemed loud enough. It was just that she was too quiet in the quiet bits. Mic distance maybe? You tell me. It seemed to correct itself after the first three or four songs, so either she figured it out, or one of the technicians did. Apart from that she seemed in fine form. Can’t say I noticed her missing much all night. And her English MC’ing has improved from an already decent base.
Midori was the first of the others to recover her enthusiasm, after that initial apprehension. Didn’t take much more than a minute in her case. Guitar? Check! Audience? Check! Right, we’re good. I’m sure she’s an incredibly complex human being on the inside and in private, but just not on stage. It’s all just stimulus/response up there.
Mi-ya was right in front of me, on the right side of the stage this time, so I actually saw the most of her this time. I suppose she’s the enigma of the group really, but, hey, she threw some horns at someone she recognised in the crowd at the start of the set and through the night I actually saw her smile, TWICE! I suppose ‘not getting mugged this time’ was probably a good reason for her improved mood from her last visit to London. It was fascinating to watch the speed at which her hand would suddenly disappear up to the top of the fretboard during her soloing. Reminded me of watching the football (uh, soccer) scores coming in on the TV teleprinter when I was tiny and easily amused. “Queen of the South 3, Hamilton Academicals 4’ then ‘zooooooooooom!’ as the print head zipped back to the left hand side of the screen. Yeah, OK, that’s an obscure reference that will be understood by absolutely no-one. I’m getting old, just humour me here! She also got one of the funniest moments of the night, when the crowd thought it was getting a bit quiet and started a ‘Lovebites! Lovebites!’ chant and she had to do the ‘index finger across the mouth’ shush pose to get them to stop as the reason it had gone quiet was because she was about to do the keyboard intro to one of the quieter songs (‘Liar’, I think?).
Miho rather stayed in the background as is her wont in these things. Plugging away gamely and head banging along enthusiastically in the all the right places. Her one turn at the front was the other funny moment of the night, when
Asami pointed out that she liked alcohol and asked her what she was drinking. Turned out it was cider (Bulmers Crushed Red Berries and Lime I think, from the bottle). Miho had to explain the concept to her as apparently fermenting apples isn’t a thing in whatever part of Japan Asami comes from.
Haruna was even further in the background, visually if not audibly, as her relentless drumming really drives Lovebites overall sound. At times, given her small stature and the big drum set, she looked like a hamster running in a hamster wheel. Hate to think how much she sweats off on a night like this. Seemed to be enjoying it though, with a lot of stick twirling and such. Towards the end she was even singing along happily with Asami (sans mike!).
Crowd was enthusiastic and chanted and clapped and threw horns and sang along in all the right places (Mi-yas aborted intro apart!) I think Shadowmaker was the best received song of the night. They wound up about 10:15 with a two song encore. After which they did a bow, thanked the audience, got out a Union Jack with their name on and took a photo for Twitter. Haruna and Mi-Ya looked bushed (locals would say ‘knackered’), Miho looked like Miho always does. Midori looked good for another hour or two, Asami looked like she was about to burst into tears. The crowd was happy though and it was time to head home. I discovered I’d gone deaf in one ear and my leg had gone to sleep, so when I turned round to head for the door, I collapsed in agony instead. Which is a sign of a good night, I think
This venue is in a modern shopping centre (that’s a mall for North American readers) and I’d been there the previous year for Band-Maid, so I didn’t have to resort to Google maps for once. No VIP tickets for this one so I turned up at the venue at 7pm as on the ticket and the queue was already starting to go in. The venue is about 800 capacity in the modern ‘industrial architecture on the inside’ style so you’ve got air vents and shafts and scaffolding and equipment messily poking out of the interior walls. Looks like a level in one of the early Tomb Raider games to me and you can almost work out how Lara would be able to get across the room to get the health pack on the other side without ever touching the floor. Bars on either side of the main room (which is handy if you get short-changed at one of them I guess). Plus a balcony which appeared to be closed or at least unused this time. Last time I was here someone up there spent half the gig tipping his beer down the back of my neck, so I was quite glad about that to be honest.
Place was filling up slowly and there were only a couple of hundred or so in when I got there, so I was about seven or eight rows back. Crowd was an interesting mix of J-music geeks & more metal types. I was next to a man in a Kamelot tee (and appropriate beard) regaling all and sundry with his Bloodstock experience earlier in the year. I guess getting bumped up to the main stage there turned out to be pretty fortuitous as quite a few mentioned they’d found Lovebites there. Then again, I heard someone mention were a FEMM fan but they’d been impressed by the gals at last year’s JPU event and that’s not a group I thought there’d be much crossover with! Guy the other side was sporting exactly the same Bridear Silver Lining Tour T-shirt I’d gone for (along with Axl Rose hair and bandanna), leaving me to ponder if this was the same sort of fashion faux-pas at a metal event as turning up in the same dress as Meryl Streep would be at the Oscars? Was going to say “Nice shirt!”, but was put off by the silver cat ears, in case he was the local weirdo. Chicken!
Anyway, first up were the support act, so we got a six song set from Seven Sisters (which is actually an area in London, by the way). They were actually a pretty good fit for Lovebites with their slightly grandiose Heavy/Power Metal. Vocalist Kyle seemed better live than in that video up earlier (certainly less nasal anyway!), so either he’s been taking lessons or getting better with practice. Appealing front man anyway, with a lot of energy and bounce. About the only criticism I had was the drum sound seemed kinda tinny, which I think was because their drummer was using a slightly reduced kit. They were in the narrow space in front of Lovebites already assembled gear and I don’t think he really had room for his full set up. At times it sounded rather like one of those ‘Pro drummer plays Metallica on ‘My Little Pony’ drum kit’ videos you’re always getting on YouTube. For the kind of music they were playing it did subtract from all the pomp and circumstance though. They seem a strange match visually too: slightly weedy front man with his moustache that makes him look like a 17-year-old trying to get into a pub a year early, beefy ‘pro-wrestler’ guitarist, bassist who wouldn’t look out of place in an eighties pop rock cover band and hippy-ish drummer. Can’t shake a slight feeling that they seem like a band your best friends mate has just put together in his garage rather than a professional crew. Nothing wrong with the music though, they certainly seem to know their stuff. I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to see them at a stand-alone gig yet, but I certainly wouldn’t hide in the bar when they’re on, if you see what I mean. They also come with that absolute essential for any support act – the embarrassing mate, relative, boy or girl friend who insists on singing along, shouting and clapping VERY LOUDLY in all the ‘right’ places in the songs and trying to get an otherwise semi-enthusiastic crowd going. Hard to miss in this case as he was about seven foot tall and covered in band patches.
Anyway the place was more or less full by the time Lovebites were on at 9pm. I assume since the balcony was shut this was maybe 5-600 or so? Pretty decent anyway. The girls actually looked slightly apprehensive when they came on. Well all except for Asami who was 100% personality right from the off. If they don’t succeed, it’s not going to be from lack of commitment on her part. Or on the part of her dress designer – how that ‘off the shoulder’ thing she wears stays on never fails to amaze me with all the bouncing around she does. I did suspect superglue, but she seems to be pulling it up every time she turns around and faces away from the audience during the guitar solos! Anyway they kicked off with ‘Don’t Bite the Dust’ but a problem I did notice her having immediately was that she seemed to come in too quietly at the start of the song and got rather overwhelmed by the instrumental parts. I thought at first she was just too low in the mix, but when she reached the louder parts she certainly seemed loud enough. It was just that she was too quiet in the quiet bits. Mic distance maybe? You tell me. It seemed to correct itself after the first three or four songs, so either she figured it out, or one of the technicians did. Apart from that she seemed in fine form. Can’t say I noticed her missing much all night. And her English MC’ing has improved from an already decent base.
Midori was the first of the others to recover her enthusiasm, after that initial apprehension. Didn’t take much more than a minute in her case. Guitar? Check! Audience? Check! Right, we’re good. I’m sure she’s an incredibly complex human being on the inside and in private, but just not on stage. It’s all just stimulus/response up there.
Mi-ya was right in front of me, on the right side of the stage this time, so I actually saw the most of her this time. I suppose she’s the enigma of the group really, but, hey, she threw some horns at someone she recognised in the crowd at the start of the set and through the night I actually saw her smile, TWICE! I suppose ‘not getting mugged this time’ was probably a good reason for her improved mood from her last visit to London. It was fascinating to watch the speed at which her hand would suddenly disappear up to the top of the fretboard during her soloing. Reminded me of watching the football (uh, soccer) scores coming in on the TV teleprinter when I was tiny and easily amused. “Queen of the South 3, Hamilton Academicals 4’ then ‘zooooooooooom!’ as the print head zipped back to the left hand side of the screen. Yeah, OK, that’s an obscure reference that will be understood by absolutely no-one. I’m getting old, just humour me here! She also got one of the funniest moments of the night, when the crowd thought it was getting a bit quiet and started a ‘Lovebites! Lovebites!’ chant and she had to do the ‘index finger across the mouth’ shush pose to get them to stop as the reason it had gone quiet was because she was about to do the keyboard intro to one of the quieter songs (‘Liar’, I think?).
Miho rather stayed in the background as is her wont in these things. Plugging away gamely and head banging along enthusiastically in the all the right places. Her one turn at the front was the other funny moment of the night, when
Asami pointed out that she liked alcohol and asked her what she was drinking. Turned out it was cider (Bulmers Crushed Red Berries and Lime I think, from the bottle). Miho had to explain the concept to her as apparently fermenting apples isn’t a thing in whatever part of Japan Asami comes from.
Haruna was even further in the background, visually if not audibly, as her relentless drumming really drives Lovebites overall sound. At times, given her small stature and the big drum set, she looked like a hamster running in a hamster wheel. Hate to think how much she sweats off on a night like this. Seemed to be enjoying it though, with a lot of stick twirling and such. Towards the end she was even singing along happily with Asami (sans mike!).
Crowd was enthusiastic and chanted and clapped and threw horns and sang along in all the right places (Mi-yas aborted intro apart!) I think Shadowmaker was the best received song of the night. They wound up about 10:15 with a two song encore. After which they did a bow, thanked the audience, got out a Union Jack with their name on and took a photo for Twitter. Haruna and Mi-Ya looked bushed (locals would say ‘knackered’), Miho looked like Miho always does. Midori looked good for another hour or two, Asami looked like she was about to burst into tears. The crowd was happy though and it was time to head home. I discovered I’d gone deaf in one ear and my leg had gone to sleep, so when I turned round to head for the door, I collapsed in agony instead. Which is a sign of a good night, I think
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Please bear it mind I'm always busy though and it may take a while!
Please bear it mind I'm always busy though and it may take a while!