Ashestoangels/Dead!/Skeleton Kid/Tom Calvert

On The Rocks, Bournemouth

So once again in as many weeks it’s Friday night and it is back to On The Rocks for a high energy night of music, tonight’s headliners are Bristol’s Ashestoangels who regularly stop off here in Bournemouth as part of their never ending tour.

They have built themselves up a good solid fan base in this area and tonight plenty of them are here to witness yet another energetic gig. First on to the stage is the character and the ego that is Tom Calvert, Tom plays in a Green Day tribute band as “Billie Joe”, and also another original band called “Lucky 13”. But tonight it is just him and a slightly out of tune acoustic guitar. Is this music or comedy it is hard to decide, Tom is slightly zany, very mad, and possibly a bit drunk!! He runs through a few chaotic numbers dispersed with witty remarks, Green Day’s “Stay The Night” and Johnny’s Cash version of “Hurt” gets the Calvert treatment putting smiles on everyone’s faces. The set continues with Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” Placebo style but using “Ashes” front man as a human capo with both trying to keep straight faces with great difficulty. The set ends with Tenacious D’s ‘Tribute’ with everyone joining in to fantastic effect, then Tom re-enacts the Billie Joe tantrum from the You Tube viral video “One Fucking minute” (see the original here) yes this just the right sort of chaotic entertainment to get an evening like this started.

Tom Calvert 1

In 2011 with a mutual love for rock band “Motley Crue” Skeleton Kid were born, the Bournemouth four piece have found their place in the Bournemouth music scene and regularly play with a whole host of different acts. They hit the stage and add some much needed high volume to proceedings, their twin guitars screaming punk rock riftage giving everybody’s ears a through workout. They perform songs from their debut EP “The Graveyard Disciple’s” such as the fantastic “Rock Her Bones” along with a new number “We Stand Tall”. The highlight of the evening is when Frankie G takes over on vocals for a very energetic version of the “Motley Crue” song “Kick Start My Heart”, the crowd respond well to this well known song with many of them now starting to move into a small mosh pit with some of the band coming and joining them for a great ending to their set.

Skeleton Kid 1–2–3

Next up are the main tour support Hampshire five piece band “Dead” named after the My Chemical Romance song of the same name. They arrive on stage with plenty of excited fans in front of them giving them the warmest of welcomes. The first thing you notice is the sheer energy that band have, from the moment they start playing the 1st note to the last, none of them stopped moving, they make sure everybody in the place has their full attention on them and those who are at the bar get called over to join in the fun. The band have just released their impressive 1st self titled 4 track EP which includes some well crafted songs such as “Beautiful Broken Bones”, “Hollow”, and “Verona”, the band’s sound can be likened to having similar ingredients to bands such “Placebo”, “My Chemical Romance” with a sprinkling of the Fearless Vampire Killers thrown in for good measure. They are an absolute pleasure to watch, all of them have massive smiles on their faces and seem to be having the time of their lives, performing seems very natural to them. For the closing number and set highlight “Damned Restless Future”, once again “Ashes” singer Adam Crilly takes to the stage for a totally crazy ending to the set with bodies flying all over the place in total chaos. Just before the headline the band take to the stage the frontman says we must learn not to take a band on the road that are better than us…..high praise indeed and a hard act to follow!!

Dead! 1–2–3–4

I have been lucky enough to see Ashestoangels many times and each time I wonder why such a hard working band like this are not playing in much bigger venues to much larger audiences. Their performance is always nothing short of breath taking, each member gives their all everytime they step on to a stage. Tonight is no different their dark tinged electo goth punk is delivered at such a frantic pace it is hard to keep up with what is going on. Adam Crilly is all over the stage and in the audience amongst his adoring fans who seem to loyally know every word to every song that they play, the set is made up of songs from last years album ‘Most Beatuiful Things are Dead’ with songs such as “The Gartland Theory” and “Most Beautiful Things” getting full approval from the fans. Ashestoangels have recently toured with the Fearless Vampire Killers and William Control giving them futher opportunities to get their music out to the larger audiences, a new album produced by Wil Francis of Aiden is due out at some stage in the not too distant future. As with Dead, the set ended in complete chaos as the band ploughing through a high speed cover of The Misfits “Dig Up Her Bones” joined onstage by various members of the support bands which concluded yet another great Friday night of music at On The Rocks