Live Review: Amusement Parks on Fire at ClubAC30

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Contributor

Artist: Amusement Parks on Fire
Author: Paul Murphy

Shoegaze" post rock Club AC30 delivered another fantastic night of mind blowing sound as Amusement Parks on Fire showcased their Iceland inspired walls of sound at Whelan"s on Sunday.

Support came from a hungover Le Galaxie" who are opening this year's Electric Picnic" they do a solid job building the small crowd up for Amusement Parks on Fire's magic. The five piece armed with guitars" keyboards" drums and a strobe light brings you back to the days of swaying in a trance with all your attention focused on your shoes" but they delivered it with a new twist.

Although heavily inspired by a music genre that has not been in the foreground for a while" Amusement Parks on Fire reinvent the rules of rock music and traverse through an awe inspiring soundscape. Their music" played with such conviction and raw energy is enough to sway the sternest of souls and when frontman" Michael Feerick's" slight figure is illuminated by the strobe light he looks like a young Kurt Cobain" perhaps Michael is the next saviour of rock.

The band" demand the crowd get as close to the stage as possible before beginning a set that mixed an incredible back catalogue with new material" that will hopefully appear on the band's next album. Songs like Wiper" Venus in Cancer" taken from their 2005 debut and A Star Is Born" Blackout and Await Lighting from Out of the Angeles is enough to leave any shoegaze/postrock fan lost for words as the Nottingham 5 piece rock through their set of rock orchestral art. Encores" City of Light and Cut to Future Shock reinforce the fact that this band is one of the few amazing bands out there that you'll still be listening to in 20 years. Their awe inspiring sound and honest performance will earn them a whole chapter in the great history book of shoegaze.

Drop"d recommended this gig as Gig of the Week last week but will no doubt remember it as Gig of the Year when they look back at 2008.

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