Show Review: Death Of An Artist @ The Face Bar (Reading, UK) on January 23, 2013

Tonight’s poor turnout could be due to the appalling weather conditions that rendered a good part of the UK house bound for six days, or it could be that the Reading metal crowd only make the effort to turn up when a name band comes to town, but whatever the reason, yet another show rolls through the town with little interest from the “scene kids”.

Either way, the three bands we saw (having missed the local openers) deserve credit for giving the few paying punters value for their money. Hampshire quintet Northpaw were first up and delivered an impressive albeit brief collection of post-hardcore tunes taken from their recently released ‘Trepidation’ release.

“I love playing on tours like this, it’s really punk rock,” admits Try Me/Love Me frontman Charlie Holmes. More used to tearing up the UK with melodic hardcore mob Heart In Hand, Holmes is touring the UK with his new project a band who have more in common with the punk rock scene than the hardcore scene. With songs about the nasty side of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, the Try Me/Love Me sound is a chaotic yet emotional one that, despite their short time together, already shows a lot of promise.

Apparently sickness has been rife through the Death Of An Artist camp as this tour rolls towards its conclusion, however, despite being met with a room full of faces they’ve probably seen on every night of this short UK tour, the band give it their all. Smashing through their short seven song set, Death Of An Artist are joined for Deny/Accept/Deny by Try Me/Love Me frontman Charlie Holmes and, when their set comes crashing to a finale with the ironically named “Wasted Time”, one last look around the venue has you wondering how many rising bands must feel that they’re doing precisely that when it comes to playing in Reading?

Set List:

01. Intro
02. We Are Forgiven
03. Dreamer
04. Deny
05. Repulsa
06. Incepio
07. Blinded
08. Wasted Time

Check out the song “Wasted Time”