Woohoo! Bristol all the way! And i'm going to another one of their gigs....but I'm not saying which one.....I have a secret mission. None of this makes sense to anyone apart from one other person who uses this forum called Nat ;)

Bring it on. Birmingham was amazing. Kill Kenada and Span totally rocked it. complete with stage invasions and flying limbs...

yay bring on edinburgh and wolvo!

kill kenada are so kick
total kick

saw the gig in exeter.
kill keneda blew span away.

Woo, go Span, cant tell you how brilliant this badn is. actually i can, with a 5/5 rating. kill kenada are also an excellent band, worth checking out. Span ruled B-ham on monday, blew thw place away

Ugh! Sleep! Must have sleep! 5.00AM starts and a full day at work aren’t the best when you have a gig to go to. But this was my first opportunity to see SPAN, so it was a pressure that just had to be endured, and it was well worth it.

Sadly no Bloc Party at Liverpool, still tonight’s bill consisted of three bands; guitar bass and drums being the only things in common, because here were three COMPLETELY different sounds. THE NORTH offer up melodic radio-friendly rock, reminiscent of THE CALLING or HIGHWAY NINE, with strong vocals from frontman Mark Field. The band’s 2 1/2 years together show in their tightness and highly polished sound. I just can’t help thinking they would be more readily accepted in the USA than here in the UK though. Still, if the bands mentioned float yer boat then keep an eye out at venues near you for the name.

To their credit I can’t put my finger on any obvious influence on KILL KENADA. Possibly SONIC YOUTH, and the prominent bass sound brings to mind NEDS ATOMIC DUSTBIN, but with those exceptions they seem to be occupying their own unique space at this point in time. Certainly they couldn’t have been in any bigger contrast to THE NORTH. ‘Driven’ is the only word I can use to describe KILL KENADA. The energy on display from drummer Stew was incredible and the songs, though angsty and powerful, never strayed out of a sort of controlled chaos. Between songs frontman and bass player Tim seemed a little uncomfortable, coming across a little like a public schoolboy rebelling against his upbringing, but pretty soon it was heads down and beating that bass again like it had somehow offended him. Whatever, KILL KENADA posses enough energy and originality to make a lot of headway this year. Already approved by MTV2’s/Radio 1’s Zane Lowe and John Peel, I expect heads to start turning and A&R scouts to be sniffing around them anytime soon. Definitely one to watch.

Many visitors to DiS will be familiar with SPAN’S riff heavy, groove-laden rock, if not with new bassist Kim Nordbaek. Given only a week to learn the set before joining this tour, Nordbaek deserves credit for settling in so quickly. Though frontman Jarle Bernhoft let the small but enthusiastic crowd know that this was the first gig that the bass player had actually MOVED at, such was his concentration on the previous 3 gigs! Opening with ‘Stay As You Are’, SPAN seemed instantly at ease onstage, and in frontman Jarle they have a star waiting to happen. The banter between him and guitar player Fridtjof Nilsen suggests we shouldn’t take any of this too seriously. Then Nilson launches into some incredibly heavy groove that’s as serious as a heart attack! To these ears SPAN are best when they up the pace, such as on ‘Don’t think The Way They Do’, the imminent first single from their hotly anticipated debut album ‘Mass Distraction’. A quick look back at my notes from the night about this song just says “TOTALLY ROCKS!!”
This was of course the bands opportunity to test out those newly recorded songs from the album on a ‘virgin’ audience, (Ok ‘virgin’ may be pushing it. They were young, but not THAT young!) and for the most part they were lapped up as well as unfamiliar songs in a live setting can be. The best receptions though were saved for previous single ‘Found’, ‘On My way Down’ and set closer ‘Papa’, before Jarle came back to give the crowd a solo encore and show another side to the band in the form of new album track ‘Missing In Stereo’.
With the video for ‘Don’t Think…’ getting repeated showings on the music channels and ‘Mass Distraction’ due for release on the 16th Feb this tour may be the last to see the band playing to small audiences. The scene is set for them to step up a gear and everything seems to be in place. SPAN have everything required to make them become one of the years highest profile debut rock bands.

Chris Ward

cardiff gig was really good, shame next nine eyars were on though [photos: http://www.optimistic.freeuk.com/spn1.htm ]

impressed with all the bands last night at the islington academy. kill kenada were far from what i was expecting, great hi-energy stuff.. bloc party were the best i've seen them, and span were immense.

a tremendous night all in all!

x
gen

I saw Span 6 times on this tour and each time I was blown away, Birmingham and London were incredible. Kill Kenada were impressive in Birmingham but I was left disapointed in London and I thought Bloc Party were awful but I'm hearing a lot of good things about them so I'll give them another try, maybe it was a bad day or something eh?

James, nice to see you posting love.