6/4/2013 Die So Fluid, Maleficent & Grace Solero @ 333 Mother Live

Subject	Die So Fluid, Maleficent & Grace Solero @ 333 Mother Live
DateCreated	4/14/2013 6:13:00 PM
	Tonight finds me heading towards the East End - eventually as Old Street station is shut. It was terrible - I had to get a bus for the last part of the journey and there were people on it and stuff. I have been to a few shows upstairs at 333 Motherbar and been less than impressed with the place as a music venue and also the bar - some security twat on the door saying I can't come in wearing a hat or bandanna pisses me off big time before I'm even in the venue and makes me not want to pay another visit. Fortunately nothing like that happens tonight. This event is at the new venue down in the basement though and is more rock friendly. To be fair Mother Live looks far more like a rock venue. That's about the only good thing I can say about it to be honest. The toilets are shit (no pun intended) as is the bar which sells nothing I wanted to drink - so I didn't bother drinking at all and can't comment on the prices. The lighting is shit, as it the sound. The place is also a Health & Safety nightmare with broken glass all over the floor, shelves for drinks on the wall which slope so glasses placed on them fall to the floor, and unstable ornamental furniture which moves or wobbles when people lean on it. This isn't an enjoyable place to hang. All this is a shame as it's a good bill of female fronted rock tonight and a mixed but generally cool crowd. First band is Grace Solero. This lot are new to me - the name is familiar but I've never seen them or heard any of their music until now. This is a shame as they are quite good. They play well in spite of a dodgy sound mix, and the vocals are strong. Nothing terribly original, but they rock and songs aren't bad. The singer (who the band is named after) has a good vocal range as well as stage presence. The music is heavy and has a dark classic edge, but also soars higher to provide a contrast of light and shade. This is a band who play like they believe in what they are doing and genuinely feel the music - worth looking out for in future I think. Next up is an act I've seen a few times. Maleficent are a band that have been gradually evolving over several years now. From their early 'electro' beginnings the band have become much more of a 'live' act with less reliance on technology and more on instruments played by proper musicians - and the band is all the better for it. Not to say that there isn't still some reliance on electro trickery as the start to this show is delayed for a while (not for the first time in the last year) by techical problems that aren't guitar or amp related... There has always been a very strong visual side to Maleificent shows, with a somewhat goth image combined with classical dance. The trained ballet influence makes for a very distinctive show which you are going to remember. The Maleficent sound is heavy, but with commercial overtones - you can definitely imagine hearing 'Model Song' on the radio. The show visually is very good tonight, but unfortunately the sound mix is terrible - it's not often I can say the bass is too loud, but on this occasion it is and the guitar is almost inaudible.  This smallish venue is quite full by now - partly with tourists and Hoxton trendies who have wandered in withought realising this is a rock/goth gig. I think they will go away remembering what they have seen though - even if they don't know who any of the bands are. Tonight's headliners are Die So Fluid - who in spite of having a name like a household cleaning product are actually a pretty decent band. Probably the heaviest and most 'in your face' band of the night, they are also hampered by a terrible sound mix. This is a band who haven't been having the best of luck of late. This gig was supposed to be part of a UK tour, but nearly every other date has been cancelled due to the band sacking their booking agent. I've seen them before and know they are normally a good band, but tonight from where I'm standing it's just not happening for them. They seem to play well enough as far as it's possible to tell through the abysmal sound mix, but like the previous band the guitar is almost inaudible. Grog looks amazing as usual - wearing some fantastic horns on her head - which you can't see because of the shit lighting , but she seems to struggle and her vocals sound weaker than usual. There seem to be plenty of hardcore DSF fans present and they are lapping it up, but from where I'm standing tonight's headline band sound the weakest act on the bill in spite of Grog's formidible stage presence. This band are excellent musicians with loads of experience under their belts, but to me they don't deliver for some reason tonight. It's certainly isn't through not putting the effort in but something seems wrong to me and it's not quite working. If the sound mix the band are hearing through their on stage monitors is as bad as the sound out front then that might well have something to do with it - as far as I'm concerned the jury is out... It's been an interesting first visit to 333 Mother Live, but although the bands were worth seeing there is nothing that makes me want to come back to the venue until they have sorted it's problems out...