Astra Heights/Nightmare of You/She Wants Revenge @ Irving 4/4: Sausage Fest

Upon hearing Astra Heights’ first single, ’Burning’, what immediately came to mind was Thin Lizzy’s ’The boys are back in town’- it has the same energy and full out happiness which makes that song so great. It had me intrigued and looking forward to going to their show Tuesday, where they would be opening for She Wants Revenge and Nightmare of You.


Live, my seventies inspired suspicions were confirmed. Surprisingly though, most of the songs tended much more towards Glam Rock. In fact, swap AH’s punk leather for a pair of sparkly boots and a silver unitard and they could be The Darkness’s less dramatic cousin. The influence of Bowie and the vocals of T.Rex runs strong through many of their songs- a little too much so at times. I kept thinking during the set, ’they would have been great as openers for Mott the Hoople.’ My opinion here is going to be slightly biased as my all time favourite music comes from the seventies, I worship at the altar of Queen, The Jam and T. Rex, so consequently, I dug AH. I wish that I didn’t hear ‘Space Oddity’ SO strongly but nonetheless, it was enjoyable for me. What I do find odd about the band is that on their MySpace, they only list Queen as their glam rock inspiration. Jeff Buckley, however, makes the top of the list. Go to their MySpace, check it out and tell me what you think. For me, this is a good band to see when you are looking for a fun concert at which to go and dance. Besides The Darkness, I can’t think of someone else out there that sounds anything remotely like this so I definitely recommend checking it out.

Next up on the bill at Irving last night was Nightmare of You. During their performance, I was reminded that I actually do think they are alright. ‘Dear Scene, I wish I were deaf’ is a good song with the great lyric “You lazy hipsters, you make me sick” though, it is a little too close to comfort to the Libertine’s ‘Likely lads.’ ‘My name is trouble’ is also an enjoyable song, though nothing so different as to remind me that in June I wrote how much I liked the tune. I concurred with Miss Mod about the too heavy Morrissey influence.


When the band came on last night, I nudged Laura asking her if this was really Nightmare of You. Their name conjures images of My Chemical Romance and not lovely boys in suits. No matter how much I love the juxtaposition of dirty/pretty things, it is perhaps not the greatest of ideas to pick an ironic band name when you are serious about music. It makes it very confusing. During one of the last songs, lead singer Brandon took a long and meaningful look into the balcony. I followed his gaze upward and there was Sarah Ultragrrrl. It was revolting/cute.

The headliners, She Wants Revenge came on at about 11pm. My group stood at the back and listened/cringed as Justin Warfield droned. About a minute into the second song, it was decided it was time to go. Let me ask you, what is the point exactly of She Wants Revenge when I can listen to Joy Division? Completely derivative.

Last night was definitely the night of heavily influenced bands. No one was doing anything terribly original, but at least some were doing it better than others. The quality seemed to diminish as the night went on and we stomped through faux T. Rex, faux Morrissey and faux Interpol doing faux Joy Division. I would also like to note the high level of testosterone at the show. 80% of the audience were males in their upper twenties/low thirties. It was so perplexing. Who knew that this demographic was so into Nightmare of You and She Wants Revenge?

Go see what Laura has to say of at The Modern Age about the evening as well.