In:Audium & Mae's Lost Empire at Sharkeys' Ninth Circle Rock & Metal night, Hull

Sharkey's is an interesting venue for a rock/metal gig, its been an old pub (Georgian for old Hull rockers) before a dozen years or so ago being turned into an Irish theme pub, cocktail bar and now just a very unique bar featuring rather good cocktails alongside live music events on a proper stage, unlike most pub venues this size (it holds about 250 maximum).Support band tonight were Sheffield's Mae's Lost Empire with their heavy, nearly EMO metal (I struggle to pigeon hole them, which is a VERY good thing). I've seen them three times now and always enjoy the show they put on and featuring an eight string bass and seven string guitar they don't have your usual metal sound. Front man Rob quickly takes command of the floor space infront of the stage and starts to interact with the growing crowd who are curious to see just what is going on with these guys. Complex bass and guitar interplay with pounding drums and aggressive/emotive vocals makes for a very modern yet almost progressive sound. A testment to how well they are doing is that they have signed to Rising Records with an album planned for next year, have a fan MySpace page and had people travel to see them and I can see why. Being so involved with gigs there are not many bands I would travel to see and both bands tonight fall into that very small group.

In:Audium, headliners tonight, played a set that was more progressive than I have seen before, pulling in the guitar riffage mid set to replace it with soundscapes backed by washes of keyboard from bass player Steve before heavier guitar kicking in again to bring the set to a powerful finale. Drummer Ben powers the band's material along and seems to have gained his own personal fan base with several student friends heckling & cheering singer Rich's comments about the drummer.

Tonight In:Audium seemed more comfortable on stage flexing their musical muscles in a more varied style and showing they are not prepared to sit on their laurels and instead want to push themselves further, saying that they have never been an 'average' band when it comes to musical ability, they just seem to have found more of a groove & feeling with what they are playing and writing.

Darren Bunting

weblinks:

In:Audium -

http://www.myspace.com/inaudium

Mae's Lost Empire -

http://www.myspace.com/maeslostempire