Holding Absence’s latest record is their double A-side single, ‘Permanent / Dream of Me’, on SharpTone Records. Meanwhile, the latest from Bristol alt rockers Beyond Recall is the ‘Selfish Scars’ EP.

SEPTEMBER
21 SOUTHAMPTON Engine Rooms
22 LONDON Student Central
23 BIRMINGHAM Asylum
24 GLASGOW Garage
25 MANCHESTER Club Academy
26 CARDIFF Globe

Hundred Reasons, Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties, Ben Marwood, Tellison, Jim Lockey, Bare Knuckle Parade and Non Canon will perform exclusive sets at the festival, along with other bands who are already performing across the weekend.

They join Slaves, Nothing But Thieves,The Wonder Years, The Front Bottoms, Beach Slang, Black Peaks, Gnarwolves, Slotface, De Staat, The Hyena Kill, Get Inuit, Acres, Peaness, Moses, Wallflower, Deaf Havana, Oathbreaker, Milk Teeth, The Dirty Nil, Svalbard, Employed To Serve, Lemuria, The Winter Passing, Jamie Lenman, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Lower Than Atlantis, Mallory Knox, The Menzingers, Young Guns, Skinny Lister, Rolo Tomassi, Roam, Pulled Apart By Horses, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Feed The Rhino, Muncie Girls and more at the Cheltenham based festival, which takes place on July 6-8th at Upcote Farm.

Tickets for 2000trees are on sale now, and you can find out addition information at the official website.

Deaf Havana, Oathbreaker, Milk Teeth, The Dirty Nil, Svalbard, Employed To Serve, Lemuria, The Winter Passing and more are among the latest names to join the event.

They join Slaves, Nothing But Thieves,The Wonder Years, The Front Bottoms, Beach Slang, Black Peaks, Gnarwolves, Slotface, De Staat, The Hyena Kill, Get Inuit, Acres, Peaness, Moses, Wallflower, Jamie Lenman, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Lower Than Atlantis, Mallory Knox, The Menzingers, Young Guns, Skinny Lister, Rolo Tomassi, Roam, Pulled Apart By Horses, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Feed The Rhino, Muncie Girls and more at the Cheltenham based festival, which takes place on July 6-8th at Upcote Farm.

Tickets for 2000trees are on sale now, and you can find out addition information at the official website.

Like a wasp who won’t fly back out of the window, Young Guns are supporting yet another band bigger and better than them. Gustav Wood goes a bit overboard with his rockstar persona, trying to hype up the crowd, perhaps forgetting the majority of the audience aren’t here to see them. The nostalgic factor is where they shine as the likes of ‘Bones’ and ‘Weight of the World’ sound just as good now as they did on Scuzz TV all those years ago. It’s a shame that they’ve not reached the same heights as many of their contemporaries, as they’d relish the challenge, but they’ve certainly now nailed how to get an audience warmed up for the main event.

Lower Than Atlantis soon arrive onstage stage and launch straight into their latest hit ‘Had Enough’. The crowd aren’t completely won over until they play ‘Emily’ which gets a massive reaction. Unfortunately, any hopes that the set would be a fully-fledged greatest hits set wear increasingly thin. 90% of the set is comprised from songs just from their last two records. However people react just as positively to their new tracks like ‘Stays the Same’ and ‘Work For it’ as they do to ‘Beech Like A Tree’, which is a testament to the strength of their songwriting ability if nothing else.

Mike Duce performs with charm, wit and excitement matched with a rough but distinctive voice that’s full of emotion. This is at its finest when he starts the band’s encore with ‘Another Sad Song’ as the audience sing back every word to arguably the most heartbreaking track in his back-catalogue.

The band have never been the type to have flamboyant stage personas, which can make shows in bigger venues seem less exciting, so their Radiohead inspired use of their backdrop and video cameras attached to their instruments gave their show an atmospheric layer that they’ve never had before. This helps keeps things interesting and acts as a satisfying distraction from the omission of many old favourites in the set.

Despite the poor choice in setlist, their ability to create a raw, unhinged and interactive live experience is hard to compete against. Whether it’s Mike Duce pulling on your heart strings or jumping into the cloakroom to finish the set, Eddy Thrower’s sheer aggression on the drums or even if it’s just Dec Hart’s contagious smile behind the bass, the boys will always win you over. Lower Than Atlantis are no longer that unpolished diamond that some of the audience still lust for, they clearly moved on to become a crown jewel of the scene whether you like it or not.

Louis Kerry

The event will take place on July 29th in Bristol, and also features performances from Blood Youth, Foes, Shvpes, and more.

Further bands are still to be announced for Fat Lip Fest, and tickets are on sale now.

Young Guns’ live show indicates they are much more interested in being a rock band than their latest material seems to suggest. However, despite their massive rhythm section tone and their obvious excitement to be playing around their main stomping ground, the over-inclusion of material from their latest album especially went some way to dampen their spark, especially when placed next to songs like ‘There Will Be Rain’ and ‘Bones’ which are just better in every way.

It was unmistakably clear who tonight’s crowd was here to see. And this was not a crowd who had just turned up to see the ending trifecta of Try Honesty, Fallen Leaves and Red Flag; from the very moment Billy Talent came onstage you could almost be forgiven for thinking we were watching a band returning triumphantly to their home town, such was the immediate and lasting reaction from everyone there.

Playing a selection of hits from a career now spanning over a decade and a half is always going to be special, but not only did Billy Talent bring some of their biggest and best hits of the last few albums, they treated us to some of the now almost forgotten hits like ‘River Below’, ‘Surrender’ and ‘Pins & Needles’ that only served to remind us how fantastic their back-catalogue really is.

Billy Talent’s display was nothing short of masterful. Their lighting display was fantastic, Ben Kowalewicz’s crowd banter was hilarious and friendly in a typically Canadian way and there was no faulting the band’s skill at playing their material despite being without their drummer Aaron Solowoniuk (who sadly was unable to be present on this tour due to his MS complications).

Outside we heard a man giving out flyers say that “rock music is dying”. If you really think rock music is dying you’re looking in the wrong place.

The festival, which saw headline performances from Lonely The Brave, Young Guns and InMe, will stay in the same location at Scald End Farm in Bedfordshire but is due to take place on the earlier dates of 4-6 August.

Festival director Jon Hewitt has said:

“We are really excited to be working on Fort Fest 2017. The feedback that we received from our inaugural festival was amazing – so we just had to do it again!”

Keep your eyes peeled for line up news in the future and, while you’re waiting, take a look at our review of this year’s festival.

On the other hand, ‘Echoes’ isn’t particularly good. There’s a bit less of the pop-rock sensibilities than we heard on ‘Ones & Zeroes’, and though ‘Echoes’ does feel like a revisiting of their earlier material in terms of bringing the rock back, it feels more like that they’ve just put on a leather jacket rather than actually spent time listen to a lot of quality rock music for inspiration.

The production doesn’t help either. The bits that are supposed to hit hard hit like someone burping at you from a mile away and in songs like ‘Echoes’ and ‘Paranoid’, which otherwise would have been quite good songs, the lack of drive or weight to the production means they fall far short of what they could have been. The same is true of the album as a whole.

All of the songs are not up to scratch, even by Young Guns standard; the riffs are not terrible (save for the production) but the synth bits are pretty woeful and used far more than they should be if Young Guns are trying to steer away from the pop stuff; the lyrics are devoid of pretty much anything that you could call deep or meaningful or resonant, and mostly seem to revolve around cliches and metaphors so tired and thin you would be excused for mistaking them for a Travelodge carpet.

‘Echoes’ is an album that reminds you of a cake that someone has nicked the topping off of. You can still eat the sponge if you like, but it’s not going to be that great, it might do a little bit for you but by no means is it going to be as satisfying as the cake could have been.

ANDY LEDDINGTON