Gig Guides, Music Concert Tickets at Livemusic.fm

Acoustic Ladyland at The Vortex Review

Acoustic Ladyland
Acoustic Ladyland Live The Boiler Room, Guildford For the uninitiated (which, to be fair, was also me until a few days ago), Acoustic Ladyland are a bizarre and wonderful fusion of modern jazz and punk. An unusual combination, granted, but one that works incredibly well when undertaken by four musicians as talented as this lot. Led by saxophonist and occasional vocalist Pete Wareham, and also featuring renowned and crazily talented drummer Seb Rochford (who has probably the biggest and best hair of anyone in the music business), this four-piece are a charismatic and likeable outfit, whose natural energy and musicianship filled the cosy confines of Guildford’s Boiler Room a hundred times over. But to kick off the evening, we’re first treated to the relaxing pop reggae of Toy, and World Service Project – a group of incredible, adolescent jazz prodigies who made me feel old and untalented. And so to the main attraction – playing a selection of tracks from latest album ‘Living With a Tiger’, as well as some older material, Acoustic Ladyland’s sound veered from complex jazz passages to dark, moody rock to awe-inspiring bursts of prog metal, with the occasional, glorious, virtuoso freak-out – all wrapped up in some fantastic riffs, such as ‘The Mighty Q’, and the infectious ska/rock chaos of ‘Have Another Go’. This is where Acoustic Ladyland’s appeal lies – they can wig out as good as any band I’ve seen, but their songwriting and sense of musicianship keep things from becoming inaccessible. Any threat of things going too ‘Jazz Odyssey’ and proceedings are brought quickly back to earth with another fantastic hook or rhythm from any one of the four instruments. In summary, here we have a band who are simultaneously raucous, intelligent and accessible, whose live performance is a genuinely exciting spectacle. The best live act I’ve seen in a long time – big up to them. Words by Tristan Parker http://www.clashmusic.com/live-review/live-acoustic-ladyland

Was this post useful?

Yes No

11 out of 23 users found this post useful

Were you at this gig?

Yes

Reviews by the same author

Add a Review

Find a past gig

If you want to find details of a past gig and maybe see/write a review of it, then use this little widget.

Top Reviewers

  • bennyboy

    bennyboy

    Last post 25 June 2010
    147 reviews

  • bigcheese

    bigcheese

    Last post 18 March 2009
    134 reviews

  • johnbeyer

    johnbeyer

    Last post 12 May 2011
    94 reviews

If It Ain't Live It's Dead

Nothing, but nothing, beats a live concert. And nothing, but nothing, beats livemusic.fm for bringing you the latest gigs, the cheapest concert tickets, the fastest updates, the sharpest reviews, the juiciest music gossip and the wittiest blogs. So make sure you keep up with what’s going down in your backyard at livemusic.fm, the site that keeps you in love with everything live.

You can browse thousands of gig listings, concert tickets, venue listings & bands We have listings and tickets for Nottingham Gigs, Birmingham Gigs, Swansea Gigs, Newcastle Gigs, Plymouth Gigs, Manchester Gigs, Bristol Gigs , London Gigs , Reading Gigs , Oxford Gigs , Liverpool Gigs , Brighton Gigs , Leeds Gigs , Glasgow Gigs , Nottingham Gigs , Edinburgh Gigs , Bournemouth GIgs , Southampton Gigs , Leicester Gigs , Kent Gigs , Wolverhampton Gigs , York Gigs & the rest of the UK.

With Livemusic Presents, we put on gigs across the UK. These have included our 2011 Student Unions Tour and Exclusive Free Miles Kane Gig at Kings College London that took place on 16th Sep 2011

Read the latest music news online or log in to submit your own gig reviews and receive Gig Alerts for the Bands you are following.

Share this

These data sources were utilised to provide some or all information for this page.

Connect with Facebook