Amy Gravelle (@AmyGravelle) checks out a host of acts about to tour, here’s her recent highlights that will be playing a UK venue near you soon.
Starting the year with a bang, many bangs in fact, the mighty Slipknot rocked The SSE Arena, Wembley on their London date of their Prepare For Hell Tour (23 January). The masked metallers powered through hits such as The Negative One and Before I Forget, with fire cannons and rising steel drum sets that the band beat with sticks – and baseball bats – in front of their die-hard fan base. With a continuous notion of mosh-pits filling the arena floor, Slipknot are more than prepared to bring hell to Download Festival this summer (12-14 June).
Completely contrary to the previous night’s head bangers, Alt-J played to a 20,000 capacity at London’s O2 Arena (24 January) with the biggest headline show of their career to date. To dimmed lights, the humble quintet opened with Miley Cyrus-sampling Hunger Of The Pine, before songs such as Fitzpleasure and Something Good cause a flurry of excitement, while Matilda proved a cue for fans to go camera-phone crazy to the track that catapulted them into the limelight. A summer of festivals triumphs should beckon, with Ireland’s Longitude Festival already booked (17-18 July).
Even though Hozier is a more of a newcomer to the music scene, it hasn’t stopped him catapulting to the top of the charts with Grammy Nominated track Take Me To Church. Playing to a sold-out show at Shepherds Bush Empire (31 January) the introverted singer-songwriter proved he’s more than just a one song pony by captivating the audience throughout his show with intimate and personal renditions. A young artist with an old soul, with his compositions already seeming timeless a bigger headline tour this year (22 May – 3 July) seems a natural step.
