Highbury Garage
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One of the finest London venues for alternative music. Great size and great sound.
Upcoming Events
Reviewed Events
My Vitriol at London Highbury Garage, Mon 10 Jul
“There’s no part of my body that has not been used,” roars James Dean Bradfield as ‘Yes’ plays majestically in the background. Even though in the wake of last night’s glorious gig the lyric “There’s no part of my body that has not been BRUISED” seems somewhat more appropriate. The gig coincided w»
Le Tigre at London Highbury Garage, Mon 27 Nov
Fierce Preachers! Le Tigre @ Highbury Garage, 27/11/2000 Le Tigre mean it. Three woman with a cutting feminist agenda fuse the punkier aspects of Bis with the non-stop one note riffing of Sleater Kinney to create their own up front shell shocked statement of perceived truth on the world at large»
DNA Doll, Cheesecake Truck at London Highbury Garage, Thu 18 Jan
Could two more different bands have been thrown together? The sleekly styled, glam-grooves of DNA Doll, kitted out in sharp black suits, showcased next to the..well, mental nekkidness of Cheesecake Truck. Yet these two bands have played together before, at the Bull and Gate last month. And if the pair of them went down»
Llama Farmers, Biffy Clyro, Sunlounger at London Highbury Garage, Fri 09 Mar
Sunlounger are a powerful, direct and musically pungent rock band. They generate maximum riffage through screaming singer, irate bassist and mental drummer but they, unfortunately for themselves, are unable to stimulate or excite like any half-decent rock band should. Sunlounger are bland, dull and irritating. Their so»
Aereogramme, Six By Seven, Modest Mouse at London Highbury Garage, Thu 28 Jun
After missing out on Modest Mouse's previous gig at The Garage I was determined to see them this time. I've always been interested how the American three-piece would sound live after their latest album, The Moon and The Antarctica is a mixture of raging guitars, samples and atmospheric keyboards. There was a ple»
God Love You For a Liar (formerly Plastik) at London Highbury Garage, Tue 07 Aug
The venue may have all the atmosphere of a jumble sale in it's last half hour but Plastik come on cheering to the crowd as if it were Wembley. It's straight into the music, strong rhythms, edgy guitars, and a chopped up glam indieboy vocal. The frontman has the moves too, looking like Matt Bellamy possessed by B»
Angelica, Katastrophy Wife, Lamina at London Highbury Garage, Fri 17 Aug
On first and playing to a huddle of teenpunks Lamina are an angry bunch. The all male teenage three piece ignore the nu-metal cliches for the most part though, taking influence from Nirvana and the grunge movement instead. However, unlike Cobain’s incendiary group Lamina often trade melody for powerchord »
Cat Power, Lift To Experience at London Highbury Garage, Mon 27 Aug
Chan Marshall, AKA Cat Power, is one of the most talented songwriters of her, or any, generation. Blessed with a voice capable of the most earthy blues growls through to the most exquisite, whisky tinged heights, Marshall's take on the sparse folk melancholia also pioneered by Will Oldham, Howe Gelb and others is all h»
Econoline, The Pattern, Ikara Colt at London Highbury Garage, Tue 04 Sep
After many attempts at seeing both the Pattern and Econoline I’ve finally managed to make both in one night. And Econoline open proceedings in style. In fact here is a band who have it right, don’t try to fake charisma because it doesn’t work, play what you feel and it will. Econoline »
Kittie at London Highbury Garage, Mon 10 Sep
“I want you to feel pain” are the first words I can understand of Kittie’s set tonight. They’re actually the penultimate sentences as the feedback lowers for another onslaught of screams, riffs soaked in ectoplasm and headbanging, mainly from sweet (sic, sic, six!) looking 10-year-old boys complete with f»
Melt Banana at London Highbury Garage, Mon 08 Oct
(Ok, I know this gig was a little while ago, but it’s only just occurred to me that doing a review of it is not simply a good idea, but an essential step forward in the path towards human evolution..) Melt Banana = by far the best live musical performance I have ever witnessed. So, what is it about t»
The Darkness, Sweatmaster at London Highbury Garage, Fri 30 Nov
Tonight's event is like Ultimate Warrior vs The Rock in a WWF showdown; both are muscle-bound, freaked-up beasts of chaos and destruction, but in very different ways. It is very much new school versus the old school. Except that both bands are new to the rock block, and their influences are actually»
Tenner, Biffy Clyro, Serafin at London Highbury Garage, Tue 19 Feb
The sky is pouring and washing multicoloured oil residue into the gutters outside the Garage tonight. However, it’s just gone 8pm, people are blowing in off the streets and beneath their wet coats’n’jackets they’re wearing iDLE/WiLD, Seafood and Biffy Clyro tee’s. This can mean only one thing... The first »
Jim's Super Stereoworld at London Highbury Garage, Fri 22 Mar
Strange sight of the evening #1: A crowd surfing stage diving gentleman immaculately dressed in a suit and tie. Strange sight #2: Immense bald bloke reliving 1991 stagediving, crowd surfing, and being forcibly removed from the stage. Strange sight #3: two former punks of the 90’s Great Indie-punk Wars fro»
Remy Zero, Budapest at London Highbury Garage, Mon 25 Mar
Fear of the day: Anticipation can often stifle how great something is when it actually happens. I heard ‘Villa Elaine’ around the time it was released back in ‘98. Tonight was going to be the first time I’d seen Remy Zero play a headline gig. Admittedly, I caught them yesterday supportin»
Gold Blade, Abdoujaparov at London Highbury Garage, Fri 24 May
The Abdoujaparov song which makes me grin silly and want to skip through fields in a "hello birds! Hello trees!" kind of way (perhaps not that extreme) is 'There's A Monster' in my garden, and it wasn't played tonight due to stand-in bassist Salv considering it "too twee" or something, so for»
The Frames at London Highbury Garage, Wed 12 Jun
It's just not music's ability to entertain or music being art, but also music's ability to move you which makes it one of life's great things. When you want to be entertained and moved at the same time, the correct surroundings can do wonders to help. The Garage is not exactly the most romantic of v»
Electrelane, Sarah Dougher, Tender Trap, Rachel Jury at Highbury Garage, Islington, Sat 03 Aug
Passionate and inclusive like a bigots worst nightmare, London's version of the Ladyfest festival, an event borne out of a commitment to celebrating the work of female musicians, artists and activists, was a triumph of bloody minded will over ham fisted, defeatist cynicism. The politics of the event, essentially a reco»
The Movielife, Scuttle, Fletcher at London Highbury Garage, Fri 04 Oct
Playing this intimate club show before their “arena rock” tour with nu-metal posers Lostprophets , The Movielife are here, albeit extremely jetlagged, playing their first live show in two months having just finished recording the follow-up to 2000’s highly addictive ‘This Time Next Year’ alb»
Trans Am, Coin-Op at London Highbury Garage, Thu 17 Oct
At the first drone, people stop drinking, stop talking, stop eyeing up the girl by the bar and walk forward, called to the mothership, ready to pay homage to the rectangular craft splashed in orange and purple light before them. Eventually a two-headed drum kit breaks the rumbling monotone, and we have lift-of»
Feeder at London Highbury Garage, Mon 25 Nov
OK, everyone knows Feeder's story for the past year. It doesn't need to be rehashed. That said, it'd be all too easy to give them the sympathy card and talk about how well they're coping with the death of their drummer Jon Lee, and how the music reflects that. Etc. It'd be easier still to d»
Mclusky at London Highbury Garage, Sat 14 Dec
Aaaaaaaahhhh.... stretches There's not much more I like doing than watching a good ol' punk rock show. Mclusky are one of the most essential, brilliant, totally totally ace bands around and - shock horror - they have a sense of humour too. They open with 'Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues'»
Reuben, Colour of Fire at London Highbury Garage, Tue 27 May
It's like Rock Idol in here tonight. In the red corner, spraying heat and hysteria over the braying crowd, we give you Colour Of Fire. And in the blue corner, reigning champions of the teen-rawk scene, the relentlessly chipper Reuben. Both are supposedly our future heroes, the Next Big Thing™. But both te»
Smother, Winnebago Deal, Kinesis at London Highbury Garage, Fri 13 Jun
“Ah, suspenders!” says the American businessman outside Green Park tube, as I drunkenly offer props to his braces. No mate, suspenders are what girls wear (Naughty girls, girls who know they’ve been bad etc etc) These are braces and only the nattiest chaps step out in them. Dr Gonzo & I had been plied w»
The Weakerthans, Brandtson, The-Wireless-Stores at Highbury Garage, Islington, Thu 24 Jul
The-Wireless-Stores enter stage left to face a packed Garage. From the get-go, it's clear there's something special about them. Fronted by ex-Bivouac man Paul Yeadon, their sound is somewhat erratic, swinging between tender emo odes and riff-driven, surging rock [pitching their tents somewhere in the no-m»
Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Blood Brothers at London Highbury Garage, Fri 29 Aug
Who knows where all the ladyeees have gone?! Are there any about? At all? Possibly? Here chick, chick, chick...? Do you know there wasn't a single girl on the Main Stage at Reading this year? Ladykind is certainly suffering from a lack of musical representation, and although it looks like Courtney Love is about »
Gold Blade at London Highbury Garage, Fri 28 Nov
“Do you believe in the power of Rock’n’Roll?” For nine years this has been the rallying cry of Goldblade. It has also been the call of many others. But no-one has spoken it as forcefully or as eloquently as John Robb and his mighty army of Teddy Boy guitar slingers and piratical tub-thumpers.»
Colour of Fire at London Highbury Garage, Mon 23 Feb
You f*ckin' hate us, don't you?" spits Colour Of Fire's wafer-thin vocalist/guitarist Owen Richards.
"...Give a sh*t."»
Guitar Wolf, The Hells at London Highbury Garage, Tue 25 May
Hear Guitar Wolf. Head go mental.»
Mono at London Highbury Garage, Thu 10 Jun
Not one word is uttered, yet nothing - no vocal-driven act on the planet - speaks quite as loudly as Mono.»
Hot Water Music, The Explosion at London Highbury Garage, Fri 11 Feb
I’ve grown accustomed to kiddie-punk crowds; shows where neatly coifed girls and boys stand hand-in-hand, bleeding their hearts dry to the sounds of the latest screamo sensations. But Hot Water Music aren’t the latest anything, despite the titular promise of their most recent long-play effort...»
The Good Life at London Highbury Garage, Tue 22 Feb
We step into the cold feeling remarkably euphoric – when has pain ever sounded this good?»
High On Fire at London Highbury Garage, Wed 06 Apr
There are but three men on stage - I know, evolution has progressed far enough for humans to grasp the concept of numeracy - but the noise contained within these four appropriately blackened walls is comparable to that made by a thousand gunmen, each trading their Winchesters up for shoulder-mounted rocket launchers.»
65daysofstatic at London Highbury Garage, Thu 28 Apr
65daysofstatic's star is in absolute ascendance. All anyone else can do now is watch it go nova.»
Ex-Models, Test Icicles at London Highbury Garage, Mon 12 Sep
Two bands that share no physical percussion take the stage in glamorous Highbury. DiS checks the spectacle of Test Icicles and ever-evolving Ex-Models.»
Young Knives, Snow White, Good Shoes, The Rumble Strips at Highbury Garage, Islington, Mon 07 Nov
Then the Young Knives come on, and they’re good, efficient and definitely well schooled. It’s by the ties you tell.»
Les Savy Fav, Weird War, Thunderbirds Are Now! at Highbury Garage, Islington, Wed 30 Nov
Tim Harrington runs a sweaty palm from his protruding belly up to his erect nipple. He teases it a little, licks his lips and points the microphone at the audience like a rifle, popping a number of caps off into our faces. Pow, pow, pow: but we couldn’t be happier...»
The Fucking Champs, Todd, Lords at London Highbury Garage, Wed 07 Dec
The F*cking Champs' crisp rock - no need for bass when you've a nine-stringer being rocked by one of your number - comes as no little relief to beleaguered ears, but the clarity subsequently fails to impact upon senses dulled by illness...»
Lightning Bolt at London Highbury Garage, Thu 18 May
Stunning show at the Garage my first live Bolt experience and they were awesome. Played for a good 70 minutes and were everything I could have hoped for. I've no chance of providing an accurate set list but reckon they played quite a bit off "Hype»
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