Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
IT’S GETTING HOT & HEAVY
ULSTER HALL WELCOMES COMPTON’S FINEST Take a Spinn to the Limelight SEE SLEEPING WITH SIRENS
Fans of the harder stuff could do worse than hang out in Belfast over the next few weeks – for there’s a metric tonne of bass smashing, six-string thrashing and skin bashing lined up in shows across the city. Lost Society kick off proceedings at the Voodoo tomorrow and it’s sure to be a stormer. The Finnish four-piece are masters of two-beat hardcore metal – complete with the fabled triple dampening and immaculate shredding played with surgical precision and at breakneck speed. It’s amazing how thoroughly heavy music like this doesn’t jars when it’s done right… and Lost Society, complete with their big hair, ripped checked shirts and pristine white basketball boots do it right. Doors 7.30pm, tickets £14… best skate down.
In a recurring Friday night theme for the city venue, Voodoo hosts Bloodstock – Metal 2 the Masses Heat 3 this day week. It’s a kind of last man standing affair with some of NI’S best up and coming metal bands slugging it out for top prizes. Doors 8pm Tickets £5
Then, the week after that, there’s an all-new rock and metal night called Hefty which will surely be exactly as it the name suggests. Doors 10pm, entry £5 with drinks promos all night.
Breaking with the Friday tradition, though sticking with the venerable Voodoo, Derry punks Touts headline on March 21, supported by Inhaler. Guaranteed not to suck (sorry)… Doors 7pm, tickets £10.
Saturday, March 9, see the Limelight host Primordial, a veritable sludge of heaviness, that features, The Crawling, Senzar and COMPTON rapper the Game (born Jayceon Terrell Taylor) emerged as one of the early 2000s’ rawest voices from the West Coast hip-hop scene.
His extraordinary solo career began with a number one single, a number one album and a $20 million dollar film role. And almost 15 years on from his debut album ‘ The Documentary ‘, The Game has been paving his own lane throughout hip-hop.
One of the first to join the roster of Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Records, he released his debut LP, The Documentary, in 2004 through Aftermath/g-unit/universal. With everyone from Dr. Dre and 50 Cent to Nate Dogg, Kanye Death The Leveller – kicking off at 5pm and at £17.50 a pop – while POD and Alien Ant Farm are in the same venue the following Wednesday.
The Friday after that head across to the Spring Mixer in Belfast’s Pavillion bar next month. As the name suggests it’s a bit of a mixed bag of Northern Ireland bands but other than superficial differences all the al of them, headlined by Hello
Casanova, share a common goal – to rock like the billy-o.
Hello Casanova are a sort-of melodic punk band with a bit of ego thrown in for good measure. They’ve big choruses and catchy hooks and lyrics that tackle everything from heartache to, well, green tea. It’s a heady brew too – and as tight as their regulation black skinny jeans. They’re joined by Surf Green, another punky outfit influenced by Green Day and NO/FX, Twelve Step
Program, Search Party, Civil Simian, Gnarkats, Ember Trails and Chicago Typewriter (great name borrowed from a cult Korean TV show, it seems). March 15, doors 8pm, tickets a mere fiver – can’t be bad.
Back to Voodoo (it seems to be filling the void for rock fans, which can only be a good thing) on Thursday, April 11, when real stoner metal legend Nick Oliveri brings his Death Acoustic show to town. He was in Kyuss and Queens Of The Stoneage as well as lending a hand on millions of alternative music’s finest exponents. Doors 9pm, tickets £15… for those about to head to any of these nights, we salute you! West, and Just Blaze contributing to the album, The Documentary made it clear from the outset that the then-heated geographic squabbles weren’t a part of Game’s agenda. Rapping hadn’t been at first, either. Involved in the drug trade after a rough childhood, it took being shot during a home invasion to inspire an epiphany in Game.
Dre signed him to Aftermath in
2003 and executive-produced his debut. It was delayed a few times, but The Documentary finally dropped in January 2005 and rest, as they say.. The Game makes his first ever Belfast appearance at the
Ulster Hall on Tuesday March 5 and it’s set to be a show you absolutely cannot miss.
Tickets are available and on sale from usual Ticketmaster outlets, but we have ONE PAIR to give way to one lucky reader.
To be in with a chance of winning them, all you have to do is email ultimateulster@ mirror. co. uk with your contact details (include the best phone number to get you on) and the correct answer to the following question:
THE GAME HAILS FROM WHICH CALIFORNIAN CITY? A. COMPTON
B. LONG BEACH
C. SAN JOSE With their floppy hair, striped tees, Rickenbackers and gloriously fay diminished 6ths it’s possible Spinn are the exact band Ultimate Ulster would imagine up if it were possessed of superhuman powers. It’s not so we’ll instead head down to the Limelight on Friday, March 1. Meanwhile, continuing the heavy theme, US rockers Sleeping With Sirens visit the Limelight on Sunday night. They’re joined by Dub rockers (that’s Dub as in Dublin, not the experimental reggae mash-ups) Bitch Falcon and the local and awesome awesome Cherym – they’re class btw – doors 7pm, tickets £17.50 plus booking fee.