Amplifier and Black Moth are both bands who have come a long way. A decade ago, tonight’s headliners were touring as support to Oceansize, with a strong debut album under their belts. They were impressive, but nothing then indicated the epic prog behemoths they’d become, via the sprawling ‘Octopus’, to headline tours around Europe with 2-hour sets. Black Moth, meanwhile, may have shown promise when they played early doors at the Cockpit at Live at Leeds in 2011, but two albums and some substantial time on the road later, they’ve transitioned from being a strong local band to one of the rockingest live acts you’ll see anywhere.
This means tonight’s show is practically a double header, with the Moth making a welcome return to home turf. On each outing, they seem harder, heavier and hairier. And boy, do they fire on all cylinders tonight. The Belgrave sound, it has to be said, is excellent, with the sound separation being fantastic and the drums really coming through crisp and strong. It helps that Dom McCready is a supremely powerful drummer, and in combination, the result is intense.
Harriet Bevan seems more comfortable and confident on stage than ever, and her vocals are strong without being in any way shrill in the way so many female rock vocalists are. Her development as a front woman, to a sleek and finely-honed rock machine is representative of the band’s collective progression. New single ‘Looner’ is a clear standout, but there isn’t a weak track in the set as they sling out riff upon riff, culminating in a barnstorming rendition of ‘Condemned to Hope’.
Amplifier, too, seem to be on particularly chipper form: Sel seems a lot more conversational than usual, and there’s some entertaining banter with the crowd and band-members. Again benefiting from a strong, clear sound (which is still abundantly and appropriately loud), the set is geared toward the more succinct tracks from across their career, emphasising the rock element of progressive rock.
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They ride in on the noodlesome ‘Magic Carpet’ before blasting into ‘Consultancy’, despite the set’s first half being geared toward new album ‘Mystoria’ (and rightly so), before they switch their white guitars for black (‘black guitars are louder,’ quipped bassist Magnum) for the second half of the set (‘nostalgia hour’ as they branded it). Perhaps it was just the power of suggestion, but they really did seem to step things up a couple of notches. While sidestepping audience requests, they treated an appreciative crowd to a fair few tracks off that cracking debut, including ‘Panzer’ and ‘Airborne’, and a blinding rendition of fan-favourite ‘Motorhead’ which Sel dedicated to Lemmy, as well as ‘O Fotuna’, ‘Hymn of the Aten’ and ‘Strange Seas of Thought’ from 2006’s ‘Insider’. The set culminated with Sel splayed face first over the drum kit in something of a Kurt Cobain moment, and they still found the energy to wrap up their two-your set with a surging version of ‘The Wave’.
You can’t really ask for more than to see two bands on the kind of form Amplifier and Black Moth showed here. Rock ‘n’ roll!
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