Fox Reviews Rock

After what feels like forever, we finally had our first gig of the year, and it was a pretty special one!

ALT BLK ERA had their album launch party and gig, with support from Stained Glass and Mimi Barks, in their home city Nottingham! To get tickets you had to pre order their album (which got delivered that morning, so we obviously had that on all day to get ourselves in the mood) for their sold out gig.

This is the 3rd time we have seen ALT BLK ERA, after accidentally discovering them at Download Festival  we also saw them at Misery Loves Company but this was the first headliner show we have been to of theirs, and wow, you can tell!

The saltbox is a multi use venue in Nottingham, right next to the Ice Arena, although small it seemed to be set up quite well for live music. They had the merchandise right at the door, decent sized floor space and even a balcony that stretched almost to the stage. We did find parking a bit difficult despite it being in the city.

Due to us being a tad unorganised, and struggling with finding somewhere to park we missed most of the Stained Glass set but got there just in time to catch the last couple songs. They are from Sheffield and have recorded a really cool cover of Lana Del Rey’s ‘Summertime Sadness’.

The second act of the night was Mimi Barks, an alternative screamo singer joined by a drummer. We hadn’t heard of her before and this show wasn’t the greatest for showcasing her music to a new audience in our opinion.

The backing track was played from a laptop over the sound system, however there seemed to be issues with it cutting out, although the drummer kept running back to the sound desk and them trying their best to keep up the momentum, it was really difficult for us in the audience to get into it and you could sense the frustration.

Although we struggled to enjoy her music, Mimi Barks seemed to have a decent fan base at this gig and there was definitely lots of dancing and singing in the pit while the music was flowing smoothly.

We did give her recorded music a listen after the show, and it wasn’t really to our taste, however we did absolutely love her aesthetics and her neon green hair!

Finally the duo we were all there to support that night, ALT BLK ERA! Opening up with ‘Freak Show’ quickly followed by ‘Even If We’re Not: Solar’ the two showed us how much progression they had made since the first time we saw them.

After a quick introduction and some comments on how amazing it was for them to be releasing their debut album and having a release party in their home city, ALT BLK ERA then went on to play the new album, Rave Immortal, beginning to end!

During their set they spoke about Nyrobi’s chronic fatigue and disability struggles. They guided us through each song from the album and explained the lyrics and story  behind them all. Although it got a bit tearful when singing straight to heart as Nyrobi used to sleep most of the day and she felt like friends were leaving her behind, but Chaya was always there for her.

Although the set was quite emotional, there were plenty of happy and bouncy moments including the audience cheering for the camera man, Dale, and the whole place going wild for ‘My Drummers Girlfriend’ where the crowd knew all the words, they also mentioned this was the song that bought them some incredible collaborations, including our favourite with Wheatus!

They continued performing their album with a party atmosphere, a few songs that stuck out with us were ‘Upstairs Neighbours’, ‘Hunt You Down’, ‘Come On Outside’, ‘Come Fight Me For It’ and ‘Run Rabbit Run’. Rave Immortal is a fantastic album with a great mix of genres and vibes, we definitely recommend you listen to it.

When they performed “Run Rabbit Run” where instead of splitting the crowd in two for a mosh pit, it was split for a catwalk where Nyrobi and Chaya danced themselves through the crowd and invited the crowd to follow them!

After they finished performing the album the sisters played ‘I’m Normally Like This” where they had massive balloon balls being punched around the crowd and finished on a high.

With such a great set and support bands, we really enjoyed the night. You can tell that ALT BlK ERA have grown in confidence over time with their stage presence and that the sisters compliment each other very well and have a strong chemistry.

After the gig they stayed at the merch to talk to fans and sign items, We would’ve stayed but the queue was massive, hopefully we will get another opportunity in the future!

St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️

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