Review of “Empire”

At: The King Billy, Northampton

On: 18/10/08

By: Gaby

Oh, what can I say about the band “Empire” and where do I start?

To be absolutely honest and in my opinion alone this was by far one of the most boring and dull gigs I have ever been to at the great King Billy in Northampton. This is not to say that the guys in the band did not give it a good go nor that there was a number of appreciative fans in attendance, nor that they were probably a bunch of nice guys but to me this performance lacked any sort of passion, commitment, connection with it’s audience, stage presence and accomplished musicianship.

In fact the whole band appeared completely uninterested and bored themselves as they ran through an extremely mixed and eclectic set of covers ranging from the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Sno Patrol and The Buggles to Meatloaf, Guns N’ Roses and AC DC. All of which were played to average ability and lacking in any real sense of credibility, meaning, passion or purpose.

Their delivery of the material was about as interesting as eating a bowel of warmed up soup whilst watching your goldfish swim about it’s fish tank and there were times when you could have been forgiven for having the need to collect bum notes as one would collect leaves from the garden in Autumn.

So not an evening of great delight was had by one and all and the thoughts of partaking in a take away followed by a nice cup of tea after the gig seemed more appealing by the minute as their set dragged on.

On the plus points it’s always good to see a band that are brave enough to take to a stage ,have a go and get stuck in to some great rock music but it’s equally important to get the practice and rehearsals in first for this was a set that was not in the least tight. It was sloppy and messy throughout and enough to generate a number of cringes and pained expressions from the audience at times as the band crucified a whole batch of much loved rock classics.

As any true rock and metal head would tell you, going to see a live performance is much more than going to see a bunch of sub standard musicians churning out a series of “crowd pleasing” but disinterested songs like a muzak system in a hotel foyer with little or no audience interaction and quite honestly we deserve a lot more especially at a premier rock and metal venue like the Billy.

This band however I am sure will still go down well with the odd Wedding Party and village social club agenda and I say good luck to them but if they wish to expand their live performance days then they really need to step up to the plate and take things to a whole new and hopefully much better level.