Band:
Sign Venue:
Certificate 18, York Date:
14 August 2007
There aren’t many bands these days that
impress me so much that I check them out more than once per tour, but
Icelandic rockers Sign are a band that have impressed the two times I saw
them, firstly as support for The Wildhearts and secondly at Mexborough
Civic Hall early on this their own headline tour, and now only four days
later I’m out on the road again checking these guys out once more.
Not only that but I'll also be watching them perform at the forthcoming
Trashstock Festival in Nottingham in another four days time!
After a lengthy interview with the band
on the tour bus before the show, which will follow shortly on this site,
it was back to the venue to catch the last few songs from the bands
special guests on this tour, the mighty Teenage Casket Company, who unlike
at the Mexborough show, had Jamie back on second guitar and vocals and I
must say they just rocked. Mexborough was a little flat without him
but praise goes out to the two Robs and Mike for giving their all, tonight
however the band were definitely a four piece as Jamie gives of an energy
that the rest of the band just feed off and this had to be one of their
most energetic and pumped up shows I've seen them perform so far.
Certificate 18 isn’t the biggest venue
around, the word snug comes to mind, but this intimate venue was about to
erupt as Iceland’s own Sign hit the stage. Led by frontman Zolberg
who was quickly followed by A.D on guitar, brother Eagle on drums and
completing the line-up Heimir on bass the band set to at igniting the
crowd that had amassed to watch them perform here tonight.
The band set their stall out early on by
opening up with ‘Lift Me Up’, a real barnstormer of a song which continued
with the bands heavier side laid down with ‘What You Don’t Know’, which
came complete with plenty of synchronised hair flailing by the band.
The set continued with that heavier vibe
as the band burst into ‘Get Me Started’ before eventually bringing it down
just a touch with the title track of their latest release ‘Thank God For
Silence’ and the bands ballad ‘Breathe’, with Zolberg showing he has some
emotionally charged vocals when it counts.
But it’s the bands high octane rock n'
roll that really sets the band apart from others and a great example of
this is the bands ‘Dancing In, Dancing Out’, this is the band at their
best big riffs a monster rhythm section
and a vocalist who has it all.
In
the interview prior to tonight’s gig the band told us their new album
was almost complete and as if by magic the band gave us a hint of
what’s to come with the new song ‘Hope Of Sign’, if this is just a
sample of the quality of material on the album then I can wait.
Next it was back to 'Thank God For Silence' from the excellent ‘Loved
To Be Loved’ before really rocking the place with the Skid Row cover
‘Youth Gone Wild’ before finishing off another superb show with one of
the highlights off their
latest album the show stopper ‘When
Demons Win’.
This is a band that are due for a big
break and will surely go all the way given the right breaks and after
tonight I just can't wait to catch up with them at Trashstock in four days.
