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Artist: Foo Fighters

Festival:  Reading Festival, Reading, UK

Date: 25th August 2019

Rating: 9.0/10

When you have the keys to Reading Festival, as Dave Grohl and co do, you’d expect them to receive a warm welcome, and a scorching one was waiting for them on the festival’s hallowed turf for their third time of headlining the event, their seventh appearance in total. It’s not a secret that Grohl has a deep-rooted love for Reading; it’s the first festival he played as part of Nirvana and their headlining set from ’92 is the stuff of legend. So too is the first Foos appearance back in ’95, where the band packed out the Melody Maker Stage (now the Radio 1 Stage), so much so that the tent was overflowing, with punters clambering over themselves to see the ex-Nirvana man and his new band. It goes without saying, if Reading Festival had a house band; it would be the Foo Fighters.

Sailing through a set that clocked in at over two and half hours, the six piece closed off Reading in supreme style, wheeling out the hits, dusting off some vintage nuggets from the group’s first-eponymous record (a homage to THAT set from ’95), a clutch of covers and a guest appearance from Rick Astley, with the 80s star joining the outfit for a rollicking version of ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ – random but oh-so crowd-pleasing. Grohl, ever the consummate frontman, teased the Astley hit by implying his band of merry man were due to launch into a song that put him on the map – the crowd gasped, could this be a ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ cover? A thunderous opening suggests so before out bounces Astley from the wings and the mood shifts from heavy expectation to a silly-knees up; like the point in the night at a wedding when everyone’s smashed and laps up the cheesy hits. As a counterpoint to ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’s silliness, Grohl made a fitting tribute to The Prodigy’s Keith Flint before launching into ‘Run’. Referring back to 2009′s Prodigy set, that had Grohl watching in the wings, the Foos man declared it to be “the craziest shit I’ve ever seen”. A fitting sentiment to a man who sadly took his own life earlier this year. To match the burgeoning set of hits and treats, the set was bookended by two hefty firework displays, announcing and capping off the band’s top-slot in spectacular style.

With Foo Fighters casting their net far and wide across their burgeoning back catalogue, you’d expect there to be some peaks and troughs as far as crowd attention span but the likes of ‘Big Me’ and ‘Wheels’ garnered the same ecstatic response as ‘Monkey Wrench’ and ‘The Pretender’. ‘Best of You’, of course, generates a colossal sing-a-long, as does ‘My Hero’ but ‘For All The Cows’ and ‘This Is A Call’ create the same buzz, and reward those early Foo Fighters fans with songs harking back to the mid-90s. With Grohl massaging the Reading crowd in his hands like putty, the chief Foos man, playfully appeared surprised, as a large chunk of the crowd hadn’t seen a Foos show before. Given Foo Fighters have been around for 25+ years, these people have had plenty of chance – according to the band’s lynchpin. Even so, the die-hards, the newbies and those in-between were treated one and the same, with Grohl acting as the perfect host.

Artist:  Maggie Rogers

Title:  Heard It in a Past Life

Record Label: Capitol Records/Debay Sounds/Polydor

Release Date: 18th January 2019

Rating: 9.0/10

When was the last time you heard something truly unique? Music has been made for centuries and nowadays we’re a click away from an overflowing well of sonic delights but in most cases, you can liken a new artist back to an influence from days gone by. With Maggie Rogers, it’s no surprise she’s taken inspiration from folk music as well as neo-soul luminaries like Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill but it’s the way the promising new talent presents her influences and applies them to her debut record ‘Heard It in a Past Life’, that makes you double take. The Maryland born singer/songwriter/producer has been bestowed with a rich, earthy voice that’s instantly intoxicating and when it’s draped across clipped, modernist production, with beats, chirps and a plethora of nuances coming at you from all angles, you realise that the rulebook Rogers is working from is her own. Yeah, you can say Rogers sounds a bit like this, or that or so ‘n’ so but suffice to say, Maggie Rogers is operating within her own orbit.

‘Heard It in a Past Life’ follows a steady groundswell for Rogers; 2016 saw her crash land into the public consciousness thanks to her hit ‘Alaska’. The song she rattled out in fifteen minutes was critiqued in a masterclass for music students at The Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School. Said masterclass was hosted by Pharrell Williams. The tastemaker and visionary heard the track and was left speechless and visibly moved. This set the wheels in motion for Rogers to travel the world, support the likes of Mumford and Sons and Haim, whilst releasing the sumptuous EP ‘Now That the Light is Fading’, of which ‘Alaska’ and the lolloping ‘On + Off’ appear on ‘Heard It in a Past Life’.

This is a record anchored in optimism and the need to provoke conversation; opening song ‘Give A Little’ was written in the wake of the 14th February 2018 shooting at Douglas High School in Fort Lauderdale. Inspired by the thousands of school children who marched in reaction to the atrocity, Rogers penned a song, not in anger but as an olive branch, to try and help bridge the gap in what’s become a divided nation and a contentious argument. Over wooing vocal ticks and jittering beats, the singer reaches out to ask, “if you give a little/give a little/maybe we could get to know each other?” whilst urging people to “drop your weapons/drop your guard”. It’s strange to think a song provoked by such sadness can sound so jubilant. Most tracks on this exemplary debut can be internalised as odes to relationships but they can also be turned outwards and translated to something more global. The stripped back ‘Past Life’ is powerful in its subtly; with just the sound of Rogers’ voice and a piano, the singer can be heard stating “I could feel the change-a-coming/felt it on the breeze”, as if to reference the colossal shift in social and political matters over the past few years. While ‘On + Off’ appeals for something more personal via a volley of looped, hypnotic piano “take me to that place where you always go”. Compromise and reassuring support are other recurring themes; ‘Burning’ is a carnival flecked track, built on weird warping sounds and an uplifting marching beat that has Rogers bellowing “I’m in love/I’m alive/Oh, I’m burning” whilst mentioning “and if you’re giving up/would you tell me?”. Closing track ‘Back In My Body’ is a defiant, fist clenched ode to determination “this time I know I’m fighting/this time I know I’m back in my body” declares Rogers, as the song swells to an arena sized colossus.

Artist:  Anteros

Title:  When We Land

Record Label: Distiller Records

Rating: 8.0/10

There’s no denying that Anteros glimmer with a pop sensibility and this burns brightly on their much-anticipated debut album ‘When We Land’. Catchy and instantly hummable, it’s easy (and you could say a little ignorant) to write them off as a simple indie-pop act; the slightest burrow beneath the surface and you’ll find shards of post-punk, 70s rock anthemics, strutting disco grooves and intimate moments that start off as ballads but swell to empowering, life affirming call to arms.

‘When We Land’ is honed around choruses that soar to dizzying, anthemic heights and danceable rhymes that disguise some of the more poignant, sorrowful moments on Anteros’ debut. Afterall, isn’t all great music happy and jolly on the surface but rooted in despair below deck? Something the four piece have mastered is the dynamic of switching from quiet verses to explosive choruses; this is exemplified by the reworked ‘Breakfast’ taken from the 2016 EP of the same name. The album version is a taut, rougher take that’s all spectral guitars and drum machines in the verses but colossal sounding in the chorus, driven by frontperson Laura Hayden’s impressive vocal delivery. ‘Afterglow’ is a pea from the same pod when it comes to it’s sonic DNA; a song that’s wrapped around icy guitar shards as the song commences, but as the track reaches it’s rousing epicentre, volume levels increase as Hayden can be heard bellowing “and when your scars start to show/I’ll be there if you let me know/in the shadow of your afterglow.” ‘Fool Moon’s choppy, tropical strut is another moment where ‘When We Land’ curiously meanders before making a giant leap once the chorus kicks in with gusto. It’s here when Hayden can be heard declaring “drown out the voices in my head/take back the words we left unsaid” as intricate guitar lines coalesce with swaggering drums beats. Then there’s ‘Drive On’, a soaring, cathartic sashay through jerky drum patterns, quirky synths and arena friendly guitar waves. It’s all smothered in a relatable catharsis when Hayden muses “we carry on through the wasteland/drive on”, it makes you want to jump in your car and drive off into the sunset with all your worries trailing behind you.

Aside from custom built bangers, ‘When We Land’ bristles with an empowering, triumphant appeal; ‘Ordinary Girl’ combines piano with delicate percussion, as swooning strings envelope enormous drum stomps. This propels the band’s vocalist to the stratosphere as she announces, “it’s not an ordinary world/and you’re not an ordinary girl”. ‘Let It Out’ is Anteros at their most stripped back; just Hayden and a scratchy guitar and the kind of sentimental lyrics that could melt the coldest of hearts “all my dreams fade away when I hear you call my name.” What commences in a minimal fashion soon swells to a grand, lush example of the London band flexing their grandiose side, as orchestral flourishes expand to something resembling a Bond theme. ‘When We Land’ comes to a glorious close via the band’s eponymous track, this is the moment where you envisage live shows coming to an end via a technicolour ticker-tape explosion as Anteros wrap up their debut in a truly epic style.

Artist:  Indoor Pets

Title:  Be Content

Record Label: Wichita Recordings

Release Date: 8th March 2019

Rating: 8.0/10

We spend a lot of time being told, directly or indirectly, we must be perfect, we must iron out all our flaws. The funny thing is, sometimes are flaws can be our most endearingly qualities. Indoor Pets, the quirky four piece from Kent have encapsulated the notion of being a weirdo and an outsider, and wrapped it up in a huge power-pop record that celebrates imperfection rather than chastise it. This is typified by the roaring, anthemic tones of ‘Be Strange’ that has vocalist/guitarist Jamie Glass announce “I have regrets and disappointments/I can’t pretend I don’t/I’m trying my best to be the worst at anything people want/cause I love being strange/it’s an easy thing for me/where are all the other freaks living now?”. ‘Be Content’ is a celebration for those of us that have never felt like we really fit in.

Somewhere on the musical map there’s a pin between the geeky pop-punk of Weezer and the studious, button-down collared collegiate punk of Vampire Weekend; if you were to extract the catchiness of Ash and Parklife-era Blur at their most English, that pin becomes Indoor Pets. This is a band that’s happy to expose their idiosyncratic side, be it via social media posts, interviews or embracing their strangeness on debut LP ‘Be Content’. This is an album that twitches with a youthful vigour, where choruses are propelled at full pelt, just waiting to be sung along by festival crowds and where energy levels are mostly kept at an exuberant high. Imagine if you will, shovelling in handful after handful of Haribo before hitting a festival located on a bouncy castle and you’ve got Indoor Pets. Although, in-amongst the sugary highs, there are some soured lows lurking in lyrics and the occasional moments where ‘Be Content’ dips into swooning melancholy, most notably on ‘The Mapping of Dandruff’.  This delicate, vulnerable spot on the quartet’s first outing is where Glass reflects “I’m so human it hurts”, as tenderness ebbs and flows with a touching dose of sentimentally. ‘Heavy Thoughts’ finds the band switching from near-nothingness to spasmodic blasts of gnarled art-rock. The band’s frontman announces the song with the cry of “lately I’ve been tired of sleeping in/it’s borderline being alone”. The record’s closing track ‘My Amnesiac’ finds the two worlds of Indoor Pets coalesce; spectral guitars envelope Glass’ brittle yet reassuring words “if kind words are frozen/you can thaw them/you can thaw them/and solitude is chosen but can be undone” before a bevy of revving riffs and clattering drums ramp up the volume levels for a fist pumping call to arms with the emphasis of shaking off whatever fug is consuming you. When Indoor Pets flex their Weezer-like muscles on ‘Crouch’, you get a broad sweep of quiet/loud dynamics and the repercussions of past generation’s mistakes “dear baby boomer/tell me how I’m supposed to find my own path now?”.

‘Be Content’ is strewn with self-analytical lyrics and moments of self-deprecation but when they’re encased by the group’s energetic, anthemic alt-rock, these moments of reflection become nothing short of joyous. Fan favourite ‘Teriyaki’ is a squirming riot that turns itself inside out as it ripples with an infectious danceability even if Glass can be heard hollering “maybe you got 99 problems and we’re all going to hell”. There’s no mucking about when ‘Pro Procrastinator’ leaps into action; this is Indoor Pets at full tilt, sprinting through a 100mph dash of frenzied guitars and battered drums; which is funny when Glass sings “I’m wasting my life”, when clearly this song wastes little time in its 2-minute lifespan. The same can be said for ‘Cutie Pie, I’m Bloated’, another breathless charge through rock ‘n’ roll being pushed to it’s redline. When the staccato rhythms are wheeled out via the Two Door Cinema Club-esque mix of jaunty rhythms, tropical notes disguises Glass agonising his own standards “when there’s no merit in myself”. Then there’s the summery pop-rock of ‘Mean Heart’; singalong choruses mesh with punchy guitar strokes and robust drums but the sunshine vibes are partially obscured by Glass’ confessions “I’ve got a mean heart and it’s ready to stop”.

Artist: Paramore

Venue:  Genting Arena, Birmingham, UK

Date: 14th January 2018

Rating: 9.0/10

 WWPSM walk into the cavernous Genting Arena in Birmingham with a cloud of scepticism in our minds; Paramore’s sublime latest record ‘After Laughter’, is a dichotomy of fidgeting pop nuggets laced with lyrics documenting vocalist Hayley Williams’ battles with anxiety and depression, will the Tennessee band’s performance still be the high energy, celebratory kind of show we’ve come to expect from Williams and Co? Well, more fool us for even letting this thought enter our minds! Tonight’s gig as part of the outfit’s fifth record is everything we’ve come to love about Paramore and the reason why they can sell out arenas worldwide to legions of loyal and passionate fans. As Williams will come to reference midway through her group’s gig – this is a safe place, a place of free expression, of non-judgement and it’s this sense of freedom, coupled with a setlist of 18 exquisitely deployed songs, that makes Paramore’s Birmingham gig so special.

‘After Laughter’s pop-centric material governs a large chunk of tonight’s gig, with ‘Hard Times’ kicking off proceedings after an elongated intro of frantic percussion and gnarled noise; this sets a high water mark for both audience and band as the Brummie contingent can be heard in fine voice, yelling back every word while Williams commands those in front of her like the consummate frontperson she is. ‘Fake Happy’ and ‘Idle Worship’ are dispatched with a barebones, warts and all delivery, given the tracks’ subject matter pivots on Williams’ confessional lyrics about putting on a brave face whilst performing to Paramore’s devoted fans and not pinning all their hopes on her as some kind of god-like figure, the pintsized focal point bounds across the stage with an untapped energy that provokes such worship and adulation. ‘After Laughter’s material broadens Paramore’s sonic palette; from their plucky pop-punk days, to expansive rock outfit to a more-pop leaning atheistic but this means the tracks from their earlier records pack a mighty wallop when dispensed with; ‘Misery Business’ causes widespread pandemonium – culminating in two lucky fans being hauled onto the Genting Arena’s stage to yell out the track’s final refrain; ‘Ignorance’ jettisoned two songs in comes out with its teeth bared and its fists clenched, and on the other end of the spectrum ‘Hate To See Your Heartbreak’ offers a tiny breather as the ballad captures Paramore at their most heartfelt and emotional. Crowd participation is normally reserved for mass singalongs and circle pits but in this moment of calm the sold-out arena hoist their mobile phones to the sky, igniting their torches as if to tear the star filled sky from the heavens and drape it across the enormous venue.

Paramore’s self-titled fourth LP, paved the way for ‘After Laughter’s new sonic direction and tonight this point is solidified by main set closer ‘Ain’t It Fun’ and ‘Still Into You’; two infectiously, catchy pop songs and in-particular the former a jerky, anthemic foot-stomper that undoubtedly inspired the troop to craft ‘Hard Times’, ‘Told You So’ and their ilk.

Tonight’s show is brought to a close by the 1, 2, 3 punch of ‘Grow Up’, a cover of HalfNoise’s ‘French Class’ (drummer Zac Farro’s side project) and ‘Rose Colored Boy’ which contains a little snippet of Tom Tom Club’s ‘Genius of Love’ and Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’.