Freebutt, 2nd November 2009
It is sometimes hard to imagine what happened to Nine Black Alps. When the Manchester based post grunge/hard rock quartet stormed onto the British music scene with their debut album ‘Everything Is’ in 2005, they seemed set to sky rocket into fame and fortune. The album was welcomingly received by the British public and critics alike.
Meanwhile, the fact is on this night they found themselves in Brighton’s Freebutt, a venue arguably more suited to live acts beneath the heights they used to linger at. This is a group of musicians who in 2005 played at four of Britain’s biggest summer festivals, including Glastonbury, Reading and T In The Park.
Nonetheless, this is 2009 and with their new poorly rated third album ‘Locked Out from the Inside’ they have found themselves here on our not so sunny shores on the south coast. However, the venue’s tidy main stage and modest capacity crowd of 150 was little indication of what to expect. Rather than small, Brighton’s Freebutt is intimate and in theory ideally suited to Nine Black Alps’ brand of scratchy, hard edged rock.
Although the crowd were hard to budge at any stage of the proceedings, it seemed they were almost transfixed as opposed to reluctant. The hour long headlining performance was aggressive, unforgiving and hard fought all the way through. The atmosphere evidently suffered for the crowd’s lack of any real physical exertion to the savage Cobain style leadership of lead singer/ guitarist Sam Forrest but the music was nonetheless impressive and effective.
Howling from his microphone, Forrest’s performance was emphatic of their musical style; his roaring vocals somehow penetrated the wall of gain that was evidently tapped into the amplifiers. The most powerful tracks were almost inevitably those which were taken from their debut record. Songs such as ‘Intermission’ with its lighter acoustic approach late on in the set meant it stood nicely apart from the grunge rock madness of the rest of the set. Another track which grabbed the attention was ‘Ironside’ with its astoundingly catchy guitar riff played with such ferocity it provided an ideal close to the proceedings.
All in all it was a satisfying experience in which Nine Black Alps proved they are far from a spent force with a solid performance. If you are a fan it was outstanding, if you were new to the group it was impressive. However one cannot help but feel that they really should be flying higher at this point in their careers.
Words and photography by James Rowland
nineblackalps.com
What did you think of the gig?
Matthew Williams: 9/10 “It was incredible, surprisingly intimate and Sam Forrest is such a good front man.”
Neil Hall: 6/10 “They were ok but I don’t think they are the same band they were three years ago.”
Victoria-Jane Howard: 7/10 “I thought the venue was too small but the show was well worth the visit to Brighton.”
