LIVE: The Front Bottoms’ Champagne Jam @ O2 Forum Kentish Town

While outside the streets fill with tinsel clad revellers, the Front Bottoms are throwing their own Christmas party. The final-ish night of their UK tour (they added an extra date after tonight’s show sold out) had been declared Champagne Jam: the British incarnation of one day festival curated by

LIVE: The Used / The Home Team / Honey Revenge @ O2 Forum Kentish Town

Outside the Forum, teenagers in face paint huddle together like baby penguins, hoods and occasionally plastic bags on their heads to protect their neon hair from the stinging winter rain. While The Used are ambivalent about being labelled an emo band (they’ve insisted on interviews that they’re just “a

LIVE: Hot Milk @ Kentish Town Forum

Hot Milk have gathered their tribe around them and descended upon North London. In the hundred metres or so between the station and the venue, every pedestrian you spot sports a beanie, post-emo piercings and inventive eyeliner highlighting wide-eyed anticipation. Do Han Mee and Jim Shaw deserve this level

LIVE: Those Damn Crows @ O2 Forum, Kentish Town

Those Damn Crows, welsh rockers who add a twist of Black Stone Cherry to their cocktail of vintage interpretation, faced two challenges before they even got a chance to go on stage. Firstly, the crowd was static and had no desire to dance at all. Maybe it was because

Highly Suspect, The Picturebooks @ o2 Forum Kentish Town, London

LIVE: Highly Suspect @ O2 Forum Kentish Town

A Highly Suspect show is very much a family affair. The crowd is scattered with balding dads taking their teenagers to their first rock show and, to their credit, it’s a good choice for a first experience. When they’re on form, Highly Suspect are a rock band who deserve

LIVE: Hot Mulligan / Spanish Love Songs @ Kentish Town Forum

Tonight is one of those shows that reminds you why you do this. The tube was out of commission so we all had to re-route, it was twenty six degrees even after the sun had set, and the crowd had packed themselves in like Tetris cubes half an hour

LIVE: Coheed and Cambria / Soul Glo @ O2 Forum Kentish Town, London

Coheed and Cambria are, above all, one hell of a rock band. Sandwiched between their Download and Hellfest appearances was a very special London date and, ignoring the gimmicks, they proved once again why they’ve earned their reputation as one of the world’s greatest prog-meets-metal acts.   The big

Steel Panther @ O2 Kentish Town Forum

LIVE: Deftones / grandson @ O2 Forum Kentish Town, London

Even way up high in the rafters, the tension is palpable. Bodies squeeze into each available nook, punters vying for the very best view. Tickets were like gold-dust – in the crowds, murmurs of paying way over face value are ever present – but this is not