Although they’re technically co-headlining, the 6:30 doors and lack of a local support act mean Breed 77 are thrust on stage rather early – before all the sell-out crowd are present. Perhaps it’s a bit early to get the crowd going, but they don’t let that faze them.

Coming over like Gibraltar’s answer to Ill Nino, they begin with some tribal percussion music, before a couple of relatively gentle acoustic/flamenco numbers. In case anyone thinks they’ve gone soft from their recent more commercial approach and success, ‘A Matter Of Time’ shows they can still play heavy and get the crowd bouncing. 

Once the audience get going, the momentum is maintained through ‘The Only Ones’ – despite a brief drum-solo – and the more acoustic hit ‘The River’, ended here with the line “she’s buying a stairway to heaven”. That aside, Paul Isola’s vocals were, unfortunately, almost completely indecipherable, but that didn’t make him a bad frontman. Throughout a relatively lengthy set, he seemed the most energetic person in the room, his banter with the audience (about Charlie Busted/Fightstar) went down well, and when heckled by calls for Apocalyptica, his reply was “come up here and get me off”.

The band are understandably keen to plug their new single, ‘Shadows’, which looks like being another hit. The version played tonight is a heavier, “bastardised” one but still one of the highlights, along with the final System Of A Down-style ‘La Ultima Hora’. I admit to knowing few of their songs, but the band are doing something a bit different to their peers, and great live performers. The only question is why the hype and acclaim they’ve been receiving since the late 90s hasn’t led to a more significant breakthrough by now.

Apocalyptica are another rather unique band – cellists playing metal, and best known for their Metallica covers. The appearance of two huge thrones suggested a set of Spinal Tap proportions, and I felt the band would be somewhat dwarfed. To their credit, they don’t just sit and play music, but once they got going they walked about the stage, waving their hair like windmills, and one even played the cello on his head. It was their first show of the year – a warm-up before supporting Rammstein’s British tour – and their English was slightly faltering, but they certainly couldn’t be faulted for stage presence.

It was probably the Metallica numbers that went down best, inspiring the crowd to bounce, clap and even sing along to a lighters-aloft rendition of ‘The Unforgiven’. Audience participation aside, it was strange hearing well-known songs rendered on just three cellos and a drumkit, a much more radical reinterpretation than Metallica’s own S&M. It’s amazing how heavy they can make cellos, though I must admit that not being a big Metallica fan there was much I didn’t recognise.

It wasn’t all covers in any case. The band now play their own material, such as ‘Somewhere Around Nothing’ and an instrumental version of ‘Bittersweet’ (originally recorded with Ville Valo of fellows Finns H.I.M.) Once again, a truly unusual, if not unique, band whose showmanship pleasantly exceeded my expectations. It’s no surprise they’re called back for an encore – a great version of ‘Enter Sandman’ followed by ‘In The Hall Of The Mountain King’.

It’s a shame the whole show had to be over by a 10 o’clock curfew, and there wasn’t room for a support act or longer sets, but what we had here were two bands making interesting music and both able to put on great shows.
(4½/5)  

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