Machine Head - Camden Roundhouse

Well that was quite the unusual metal gig as the bastion of London's liberal arts scene, the Roundhouse in Camden, played host to legendary metallers Machine Head. More used to putting on high art, than aggressive heavy metal acts the pleasant elderly female usher's looked somewhat overmatched against the long-haired, pierced ratio wielding hoards pushing their way to the bars. Even the bar arrangements were incongruous, this is the first time I have been able to order a bottle of Prosecco at a metal gig before.

This unusual experience was however not just restricted to the venue as Machine Head used an 'Evening With...' format which basically meant they played a 3 hour set with no support band. That's right a THREE HOUR set. Never have I seen that before, and the mind boggles as to how they do that night after night on tour. Make no mistake this a herculean effort well beyond my comprehension. I mean as a band they are not getting any younger having been thrashing it out since 1994. Yet the sheer length of their set has some advantages as it allowed them to play a gargantuan 26 songs which meant that no matter how familiar you were with all their albums you were guaranteed to hear songs that you knew.

To break up the time, and considerately allow the punters to go to the bar and toilet they manufactured three intervals through various band members doing a bit of solo infill. In its own way the format worked really well, when there was a song you didn't know or a solo you could head straight to the understaffed bar and be back in time for one for their blockbusting tracks, although I could have passed on the drum solo.

In many ways this was an extraordinary gig, perhaps only a band like Machine Head, who have such a strong back catalogue, could keep an audience riveted for three hours. After they kicked off the show with Imperium and three hours later ended on an epic rendition of Halo you knew you had witnessed something truly epic.

Along the way a definite highlight was when Rob Flynn asked for all the women in the audience to be hoisted up so he could count them as 99.9 per cent of their shows have been angry dudes.

The length of the set also serves to remind you that Machine Head do have a lot of special songs, all though Rob Flynn'ssinging is not great when he tries to sing a gentle melody, fortunately, they don't have too many of them. Nevertheless there ability to playing grinding riffs is unsurpassed in modern metal and in particular, the pounding ending of Davidian was a major highlight. This was a fantastic gig, with a great format pulled off by perhaps the only band in metal that could do it. Must Go.