Frost*Bites 16th December 2012

[rogerg]

Can I just say thank you to all the people that stood there tirelessly with cameras and phones etc recording the evening's proceedings. Particularly Pedro who I could see stood there for the entirety of frost's set, camera in hand shortly before you disappeared into the ether just like everyone else I recognised.

I tend to not record much or take many photos as I prefer to try and take in as much of the real thing as possible so I'm very grateful to all you lovely gig recordery/photography people.

Agreed!  Especially for us folks that couldn't be there!

[catherine]

Seconded!

[L33VEY]

My offering to Pedro....

//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4vvvdmgjs

Had a good vantage as you can tell

I noted you were videoing it! Thought to myself - top bloke is old L33VEY! See you in the next queue!

It was my pleasure to forego the pub and head straight for the queue to make sure that all Frost*ies got to see something - wasn't thinking of myself at all  

[HannahS]

Well, what can I say? After waiting so long to see them, pretty much 5 years by my calculations, I was not dissapointed An excellent excellent evening all round. Managed to get relatively close to the front, and wasn't too fussed with the extraordinarily tall people stood at the front, I wasn't photographing or videoing it, so grateful hugely for those that did. I did infact see a certain Ester Segarra (gig photographer) entering the venue and then saw her taking photos in the photo pit (now I know she normally photographs for the likes of Terrorizer and Metal Hammer magazines, but I can only assume she was taking photos for Classic Rock Prog, with it being the same publisher as Metal Hammer, as I can't really see it being page-fodder for the afore mentioned mags), so will be keeping an eye out in future issues. I didn't meet anyone from here, but managed to drag two non-Frost*-familiars with me who thankfully also thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the Brummie speak & spell, pure genius, & have watch the YouTube too many times to mention today, and I think I shall cherish my first live experience of Hyperventilate & BLM for the rest of my days The venue, I thought, was beautiful, and had hilarious fun trying to find the upper floors & ended up in the glassed off area for It Bites. The bar situation was crazy, and the bar prices typically London, but only minor gripes, and didn't mar the evening one bit. So, bring on the next gig, that's all I can say!

[Pedro]

Thanks for sharing that...and so glad you enjoyed it.
Glad the videos are going down well too.

I do have a few more clips that can go up sometime but I have other stuff to deal with at the moment so they'll have to wait.

As one of the tall people, even though I was something like 8th through the doors and had the pick of the rail, I did my usual trick of staying away from the middle but also not giving up the hard-queued-for right to a "good spot", particularly for the family members who have come to share the gig experience with me but don't have the height to see from anywhere else.
Capturing some of what goes on seems a good way of "offsetting" the fact that I inescapably block the view of some of those who choose to (or settle for having to) stand behind me...that and cultivating a knee-wrecking stoop/crouch that someone of my build finds hard to maintain for extended periods.
But enough of that wibble...

I would fully support a motion to declare everyone over 6 foot a "VIP" and let them sit and watch on comfy chairs in air-conditioned, double glazed, muso-accompanied, private-bar serviced, perfect-mix-from-the-sound-desk comfort.  

[gr8gonzo]

I would fully support a motion to declare everyone over 6 foot a "VIP" and let them sit and watch on comfy chairs in air-conditioned, double glazed, muso-accompanied, private-bar serviced, perfect-mix-from-the-sound-desk comfort.  

Ah, but I feel badly for those people as they've missed out in some fashion, haven't they?

As an American without an international gig budget, I am very, very grateful to everyone who filmed the show and have shared what I already knew would be a gig for the ages. Shame it was a little short on the Frost* end of the bill. I know EIMA's tough to manage without Dec, but I would not have minded Wonderland (or TDL, for that matter). Regardless, it seemed like a fantastic show and I hope to catch them again one day.

[JimD]

Here's a review from me that seems to deal with the incidentals as much the music, but nevertheless I had a spiffing time!

Arrived in London at about 18:10 and felt quite thrilled walking around in my normal winter attire of michelin-man puffa jacket and Frost* hat as for once I was likely to be outed as a prog fan by the Frost*erisk (not likely on my normal commute to work). So I kept my eyes peeled for any nods of recognition as I trundled through St Pancras and King's Cross.  I saw none, so whether I was noticed amidst the parade of shops and sweeping ceilings I know not, but I got to the Scala at about 18:25 and the queue didn't look too bad.  Txtd my mate Lozza to say I might nip off for a coffee but decided not to, and rightly so as it rapidly got *really* long and some sort of barrier things were put in place.

Lozza was in fact running late and I was getting worried as to what to do if we started getting into the venue before he arrived, as I had the tickets, but he turned up just in time and the nice lady behind me did not mind him joining me in the queue. Then, classically, the pair of us waited for 15 minutes in the foyer whilst he ate his sandwich... :S

Anyway, we eventually got in and took a place on the RH balcony, which gave an ace view over the crowd, though the Blunderdrums were quite dimly lit.  I was seriously surprised at how full it got though. Once the band came on every spot around and in front of us seemed occupied in the end and there were a few incidents of wincidence when people tried to move around our bit of the venue - not only uncomfortable squeezing but there were a few consternated folk who either didn't wanna move or knew you couldn't move or something. I was glad of my nice view at this point and pondered for a micro second on a night when The Big Machine might be played of the time that our own band, Small Machine, played the Scala and we didn't have that packed crowd problem (http://youtu.be/-cm4V1AW_QM if yer interested...)

So, to the music - it was just great to see Frost* full stop; the readings on the exciteograph had gone off the scale and it was a great choice to kick off the gig with a new track - Heartstrings.  I look forward to hearing that in its final form - it sounded like the best of each player crafted into a great showcase track.  Elsewhere throughout the whole set I was particularly taken by Nathan King's immense bass tone; I couldn't appreciate it so well last year at the Peel but this time it was the real foundation of the sound.  Blunders punctuated each song with his enthusiasm and verve, and Jem seemed to be having a whale of a time, though the keys were hard to pick out at times from our sonic vantage point.  There was a great vocal blend going on too. I have to say I was somewhat worried by John Mitchell though - no problem with his playing or singing, but he seemed really subdued and almost worried looking at times; I put a lot of that down perhaps to having to play both sets and be the focal point for the whole night, and later when he explained at the start of the It Bites set that their touring had shot their voices to bits I could see why he might have looked worried before his frontman role in the IB set.

Nevertheless the Frost* set was ace, and with Hyperventilate, another new song, BLM, Dear Dead Days and the whole of Milliontown it was going to be very groovy indeed - how could it not be groovy?! The silly stuff was silly, and seeing JG dancing to "Blunders Style" was truly odd. I loved the batch of the audience who were singing along to the melodies in the instrumental sections and it was good to know there was a lot of love out there in that big old audience for the band.  "I saw Frost* live and they did Milliontown" - just reading that makes perfect sense of a great evening, and the band carried off a bloody complicated song with ease.

Lozza and I had a quick review of proceedings in the break and then it was on for IB.  John Mitchell had perked up considerably and was taking no prisoners with the crowd; he wanted to know we were out there and I hope we got the message across.  The audience had thinned out slightly after Frost* from my perspective, but though I'd not seen IB before I was struck by how much love there was in the crowd - this band had got a lot of fans in the audience and you didn't have to look far to see someone singing along in a way that suggested this was an important moment for them.  To be honest, I've not experienced this in many gigs outside the prog genre.  Somehow with this music, these fans and these crowds you get a special sense of special music.  It may not be top of the charts to the wider world but it's clearly top of the hearts, and when you are in a crowd amongst real fans there's always the chance of a litte musical epiphany where the next time you hear the records they all sound just that bit better for having shared the songs in a crowd.

At one point JM asked whilst tuning who had the new LP (LOUD CHEERS!) and who thought it was shit (did he say that? I think he did)? SILENCE. I'm grateful to Pedro, DS and Duey for their suggestions for preparing for the gig; it was ace to hear them rip through Ghosts and Plastic Dreamer, and when they did Meadow and The Stream and The Wind That Shakes The Barley I was blown away - live, the band injected the songs with a great deal of passion and verve.  The Big Machine was epic, Cartoon Graveyard was knockout, and, just as seeing Frost* and seeing Milliontown makes perfect sense, they went and finished off with Once Around The World.  I was taken back to seeing the band recording it on a Channel 4 show called Twang, Bang, Kerrang (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AveJxs_TmY) and wondered if the young JM had seen it back then too - and now he was onstage doing it for real.  Throughout the set Nathan King did some sterling bass playing (including some complex runs as well as solid foundation work) and vocals, and of course the two original "Biters" were there, with John Beck in his seated pose tickling various keyboards and the metronomic Bob Dalton nailing everything down from the back. I wonder now if all those backing vocals I'd attributed to John Beck weren't coming from Bob Dalton...

Part of me hoped the circumstances might have meant the encore would include Blunders and Jem joining It Bites for a proper Frost*Bites collaboration on one song, but I guess logistically that would have been a tall order. Nevertheless Kiss Like Judas caused a lot of happy bopping and rounded the night and my own year of gigs off nicely.

[LivingForever]

Great review!  

[JimD]

Great review!

Cheers Squire!  

[Mikey]

Oh well, just one picture of our little Green Goblin at work:

Goblin you say?  

[Mikey]

Seems like everyone's been stunned into silence... Or hasn't woken up yet. What I've picked up from Twitter and FB is that Frost* were great but the venue wasn't. And 2 new songs were played.

Bah!! you're a hard taskmaster, some of us had a 3 1/2 hour drive home and had to get up an hour before we got home. Still recovering. But it was a belting gig

[mattstevens]

I would fully support a motion to declare everyone over 6 foot a "VIP" and let them sit and watch on comfy chairs in air-conditioned, double glazed, muso-accompanied, private-bar serviced, perfect-mix-from-the-sound-desk comfort.  

This!!

[SmartUK]

I'm sorry if my wide, mulleted frame obscured things for people behind me but I did get to the front of the queue at 5:15 so that I could be there, saddo that I am  That's probably it gig-wise for me for another few years anyway!

[Pedro]

Nooo...Day ticket for Celebr8.2 Saturday....£10 all day NCP built on the side of the venue and mucho space for Frost*ie nattering...go on, go on, go on, go on...

[DueyC]

the nice lady behind me did not mind him joining me in the queue.

That was me. Pleased to meet you and thanks for a great review of the gig.