Bo Ningen + Ashes Of Iron – Cluny 2 – Newcastle – 23rd October 2012

Once again your intrepid team here at With Guitars braved the chill autumn night and ventured forth lured from our warm abodes and mugs of hot chocolate (complete with marshmallows I’ll have you know) by the promise of yet another night of great live music and drinks at the Cluny. Only this time we were not at the main venue with its bright entrance and welcoming atmosphere, no, we were at the Cluny 2 its sister venue which is a little different. The bar is smaller for one thing but thankfully still stocked with the sweetie bar choices of whiskey and rum we have come to know and love. They also have coke (other branded soft drinks are available so please don’t sue us for brand advertising) in little glass bottles! When was the last time you were served (in the UK) coke in a little glass bottle? Ok so it impressed me, little things impress me sometimes…. And now that you’ve gotten all the smutty jokes out of the way and finished sniggering behind your hands we’ll continue shall we? Now the venue has an unusual layout, once we had drinks in hand we had to descend four flights of stairs, stopping often to admire the photographs on the walls of act that had played there previously, and had our hands stamped before we entered the darkened performing area. The Cluny stage area is small and the Cluny 2 even more so, almost claustrophobic. Its saving grace is the high celling which reminded us of a very basic domino set high above our heads. The only lights on when we entered were on aimed at the stage where the first act of the night were taking their places.

Ashes Of Iron are a five piece rock band from the North East who play some pretty heavy stuff. They are very experienced and really do have the talent to move onto bigger things but seem quite content playing support and having a bit of banter with the crowd. Their half hour set was filled with some of their classic songs such as Free Eyes, The Ultimate Truth, and Martyr, as well as their first single. Though I feel they were slightly disappointed with the lacklustre response when they asked the crowd if we knew who they were and only a few of us answered, though the rhythm guitarist was pleased with the prospect of ‘fresh meat’ for them to convert which they did with their explosive and energetic playing style. Their lead singer occasionally had the air of almost melancholia about him putting me in mind of the typical angst ridden poet, though I feel the dramatic pauses were more for effect than from any real emotional heartache. But still it was a very good set which they sadly had to cut short due to the strict curfew in operation during the week and the fact that they admitted ruefully they were a little late onto the stage. No bad thing for us really as our timekeeping was a little off and we would have missed their opening songs.

With just enough time to run back up the four flights of stairs for a quick refill at the bar (well we didn’t actually run there were four flight of stairs after all) we were in place in time to get a decent spot as the crowd swelled and filled the area in front of the stage as Bo Ningen took their places. Now here at WG we’re pretty impressed by this band with their experimental distorted punk psychedelica. They filled the small room with a wall of sound so intense it was almost overwhelming, but in the best possible way. The bands stage presence was almost palpable as they slid effortlessly from one song to the next capturing the crowd with ease and leading us through an hour of intense punk infused passion, it no longer mattered that they were singing in Japanese, the universal language of good music transcended all barriers. They are about half way through their tour of the UK and by this point have shaken out any of the ruffles in their performance without the tiredness that can sometimes affect bands towards the end of a long tour which meant that they were on top form for their performance in Newcastle. Draped in red was their lead guitarist who thrashed her guitar until is wailed and screamed for mercy as she deftly managed the vast array of distortion pedals while the drummer’s hands became a blur and the rhythm guitarist lost himself within the purity of his sound and the shadows he lurked within at the edge of the stage. The member of the band who engaged with the crown the most was, naturally, the lead singer and bassist of the band. Her darkly ethereal prescience and hypnotic performance captivated the crowd and drew us ever closer to the front of the stage. They played us through some of their best songs both old and new including Soko, Daikaisei Part II, Koroshitai Kimochi and the epic Shin Ichi for just over an hour before the curfew hit and it all had to end. The silence was profound once the applause and calls for more had died away after such an intense barrage of sound. We spent a little time after chatting with the band once our hearing had returned and as they signed a few bits and bobs for fans you could see their smiles were genuine as they rode the afterglow of their euphoric performance. 9/10

A collective effort by WG

All photos Helen Todner