What better thing to do on a Sunday than head off into the metropolis of Nottingham to see two bands who have been on my to see list for a while now. 

Rock City was heaving – so good to see the venue bringing in a big crowd and it was warming up nicely for openers SMASH INTO PIECES.The Swedish band have a solid and distinctive alternative pop rock sound with a career starting in 2008 , the band reached the semi-final of “Sweden’s got talent” in 2009 but dropped out of the competition to sign a record deal. Possibly the best thing they could have done.

Building on their reputation for energetic performances, the band show why they are so good with an explosive and solid set of songs to ramp the crowd up into an appreciative frenzy.  Frontman Chris Adam Hedman Sörbye could give lessons to many a wannabe performer in how to deliver a first class vocal, engage the crowd and tear Nottingham a new one.  Their sound is heavy at times, melodic and symphonic at others.  A choreographed approach to give a real visual treat. 

Opening with ‘Wake Up’, the heavy, melodic riffs from Benjamin and Per and frenetic drums  from the masked Isak Snow , captured the crowd as they sing along wholeheartedly. It’s a way too short a set culminating with a room lit up by mobile phones with the bands encouragement for ‘Boomerang’.   This band deserves way longer than 30 minutes, such an assault on the senses that needs to continue for longer.  Check out the band’s music in the usual places, you will not be disappointed.

The white curtain was pulled into place as the stage was set for Starset.  Starset aren’t just a band, they are a life choice, a fantasy world in which to immerse yourself, the music at the heart of it.  In their fantasy backstory, Starset was formed as part of a public outreach initiative by The Starset Society. The Society’s aims were to alert the public about the contents of “the Message” the society obtained from a mysterious signal from space. This whole concept comes to life in the live performances or ‘demonstrations.’  A visual, audio sensory  overload that captures your very being before releasing you, visually battered  by the strobes but audibly treated.

The crowd erupts as the band come onto the stage. Silhouettes behind the curtain, lights bobbing around before the curtain drops and the music kicks in.  Opening with ‘Carnivore’, Dustin Bates’s distinctive vocals sets the crowd alight, the flood of sound from keys, cello, violin, guitars, and drums splinter the air and bounce off the walls. The lights attached to their heads bobbing about through the haze which at times were the only things that indicated where the band members were the haze was so dense.  Kicking the crowd up another level with ‘Manifest’ the crowd are instantly bouncing, fists in the air, a fabulous night here in Nottingham! ‘

Echo’ sees the melodic vocals and huge chorus continuing to add to the atmosphere at Rock City. but when the intro to ‘Trials’ begins, I swear I heard the air crack with excitement. A monumental anthem which brings the crowd participation to 11. If you have never heard Starset, this is one to check out. It has everything, storytelling lyrics, sing a long chorus which is an absolute earworm of a track. A set which had everything from the lighter tracks such as ‘Die For You’ where synths tangle with vocals to the heavier ‘Devolution’ with heavy basslines and a few shouty screams.

A Starset demonstration is a journey through space and time.  An experience that engulfs you; the intros to the songs guide you through the journey and it is one to be repeated, an addiction fed by the American rockers.  The setlist spans their 4 albums, the latest Horizons continuing the journey. 

Listening to the songs live is a treat, a setlist building a story, a well-crafted demonstration of some of the best of Starset. Icarus, Ricochet, Infected, The Breach, all sounding splendid. After a manic hour and a half, the sweat running off the band and the crowd, so much bouncing about some will struggle to get moving tomorrow, the band closed out with the anthemic ‘My Demons’ with its orchestral opening and stunning vocal arrangements,. then they were gone; the end of the ’Demonstration’. I felt sad, it had been such a high, such a good night.

It’s hard to define a category to fit Starset into, prog, alternative, rock, electro pop rock, they could slot in anywhere but, they are themselves, Starset are their own genre and one of a kind.  I haven’t been to a gig for a long time where the age of the gig goers was so mixed, teens to the more mature, it was a two year wait for this gig after the covid cancellations and reschedules but it was so worth the wait. 

The only criticism of the night was that the journey at times was hardly visible, lights just too low and haze just too high or lights so brightly strobing and the haze just so thick you were dazzled and unable to see a thing, the first dozen rows at the barrier lost in the smoke too,  I want to see a band, not just hear them. 

Check out both Smash into Pieces and Starset on their socials and websites; two excellent bands who know how to put on a gig.

Words & images: Lindsay Smith

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