Another weekend off, so another chance to see some more fantastic live music, this time a lot closer to home, and my 1st visit to Nightrain in Bradford. Nightrain is a fantastic venue in Bradford city centre, there’s plenty of street parking available that’s within a few minutes’ walk, I paid £1.10 as I arrived after 6pm until Midnight, and there’s also a multi storey, that I’m told is reasonably priced. The venue its self is large and open, the stage area is on your right as you come in off the street, with a separate pool room in front of you and the all-important bar, which is situated in front and to the left. There’s a large dancefloor area in front of the stage, with plenty of seating to the rear, or on your far left upon entering.
Check out the venue and future gigs at – nightrain.co.uk
So, onto the music, it was a night to see 3 bands that come under the N.W.O.C.R (New Wave Of Classic Rock) banner. First up were Leeds 4-piece, Day of the Jackal, I’d never heard of them before this gig, and I was suitably impressed, they played songs from all their albums including some new ones, that went down well with the crowd and their die-hard fans that had made the short trip over from Leeds to see them. Day of the Jackal remind me of a mixture of Volbeat with a pinch of Jimmy Eat World, and I can recommend that you check them out if like me, you were unaware of them before.
Second band of the night were southern Wales 5-piece heavy rockers King Kraken who all as individual members have played in their local area in different bands for many years, before coming together to form this current beast.
There’s currently a good flow of hard rock/heavy metal coming out of Wales, which is certainly an area that is turning out great bands, Those Damn Crows, Florence Black and K.K themselves to name just a few. King Kraken are a band on the heavier end to the spectrum, but none the less they weren’t out of place on this bill. From the moment they took the stage and launched into the 1st song, it was impossible not to notice the stage presence that they have, in lead singer Mark Donoghue they have a man that knows his stage, at times he was scary and others he was friendly in a scary sort of way (only joking Mark), his vocal range is wide ranging from guttural growls to soaring clean vocals, infact I’d go as far as saying if Corey Taylor was Welsh, he would be Mark Donoghue and a person you won’t forget. The rhythm section of the band, Drummer Richard Mears and Bassist Karl Meyer provide the heavy low-down groove to the music that provides the backing to the metallic Rhythm Guitar of Pete Rose, a gent who reminds me of a skinny Kerry King and can shred equally as well. Lead Guitarist Adam Healey is the final piece in the band who intertwines the songs together with his soaring solos and rhythm work. Like the ancient mythical undersea creature that these Welsh Metallers are named after, they are going to be rampaging and destroying stages, and will only settle when the world is to their liking.
Check them out at – www.kingkraken.co.uk
Finally, it was the headliners turn; South of Salem, who come out on stage to subdued lighting and the eerie theme from the original Hollywood slasher “Halloween” as it ends, Drummer James Clarke assaults his drum kit to the set and album opener “Let Us Prey”, Guitarist’s Kodi Kasper and Fish Macdonald carve out the riffs, like Michael Myers in Haddonfield, and Bassist Dee Aldwell (who literally climbed of his sick bed to play this gig after falling ill the night before after the Swansea show) adds the bassline boogie. Lead Singer Joey Draper stands at the front arms out stretched as the evil ringmaster, about to unleash a hellish sleazy nightmare from his macabre band mates onto the minions that are in attendance.
The band tear through the songs from their album “The Sinner Takes It All”, slowing it down once again for “Demons Are Forever” a song written after the band lost several friends to suicide before and during the covid epidemic, again Joey takes his time to explain the story about the song and the reason why they wrote it, and also most importantly to reinforce the point that no matter how lonely and lost you might feel, that you are never alone, its ok to not be ok, and most importantly it’s good to talk and there are people that are more than happy to listen, even the band themselves. I’ve said it before but this song means a lot to me and is one of my favourite tracks on the album, its written very well and performed beautifully, about a subject that the majority of people shy well away from. The band throw in a cover of Velvet Revolvers “Slither”, before finishing with an encore of “Pretty Little Nightmare” and the hard rocking “Cold Day In Hell”.
Once again South of Salem, prove that they have the British music scene at their fingertips, this is a band I’ve seen quite a good fewtimes over the past 15 months, I never get sick of seeing them and will be seeing them at least twice more before the end of 2022, all I can say is, if you’ve not seen or heard them yet, please do so, the album “The Sinner Takes It All” is on Spotify, give it a listen and if you like it, please purchase it from the band directly, their videos are also on YouTube.
The only downside to the evening was, that I just wished for the bands there was more people in the venue, the entrance fee was cheap, and people would have had a fantastic night out.
check them out at – southofsalem.com
Please Support Live Music, Please Support Independent Music Venue’s. Rock Loud, Rock Proud, Rock Hard BUT Rock Safe.
photos and Review by John Pickford
