Sweaty, riffy, dirty rock'n'rock from the Midlands - Monolith play Broadway...
Monolith took the stage at 11:15 due to Finnish band, Boomhauer, playing 3 encores. Considering they had travelled all this way, I thought that was fair enough. Following them were UK Duty Paid who were a little on the dull side. Some interesting guitar parts, but the vocals really let them down. Their set also slightly over-ran. This left Monolith with only 25 minutes to 'wow' the remaining crowd. For a Monday night the room was still surprisingly full.
The band started off with a cheery little number called Pain & Misery... This band are the real life Spinal Tap. All of their instruments were turned up to the specially adapted volume of 11. Trust it to be the only night I forget my ear plugs! Blow your bloomin' head off rock. Sounding reminicent of a young Metallica mixed with a very early Guns n Roses they ploughed through the first couple of songs barely stopping for breath. This might have been the reason front man Stevie G forgot the lyrics to the only cover of the set, 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'... ahem. Anyway a quick introduction and they were off again.
Missing You was extremely distinctive due to guitarist Joel Wooldridge's guitar solo, which got a round of applause mid-song. Straight into the next song, I have a feeling the lyrics to the verses were ad-libbed, but they pulled it off pretty well. Towards the end of the song Stevie G fell forwards, which to be honest, I thought was part of the show. But aparently not. Speaking to him afterwards revealed that he had actually passed out for a moment, but luckily came round before hitting the ground. He soldiered on to the end of the track non the less.
It was at this point that the sound guy, Ian, told the band they had one track left. So what did Monolith do? Stuck two fingers up at him by playing 2 songs back to back. The heaviest song of the night, This Curse, straight into Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll, which summed them up perfectly.
The band have got a fair bit of work to do in order to be the proffessional band they want to be, but with their positive attitude, time and dedication I'm sure they'll get to where they deserve to be.
