A year after the first event, blues festival and charity fundraiser Milkfest was back for a return delivery. The format was similar but the carefully curated eight artist line up featured all but one new act, and a new beneficiary … Continue reading
The post Gig review: MILKFEST, Indigo2, London, 1 March 2026 appeared first on Get Ready to ROCK!.
Punk legends the Descendents played Thursday night at the House of Blues in Anaheim, CA, and aside from the stellar music and performances from all three bands, there were two things of note regarding the crowd. The first was despite the listed 2200 standing capacity of the main room, there appeared to be way more than 2200 people crammed inside the venue. By the time the Descendents took the stage at 9:45pm, there was zero room to move on the floor, by the bars, by the merch booth, in the aisles, or anywhere else, much less trying to get from one place to another. I’ve been to hundreds of shows, and I can’t recall ever being so pressed in, with no options for moving or escaping the humanity. The second interesting note was the demographic of the audience – there seemed to be two distinct camps – teenagers and kids in their early 20s who made up most of the population pressed up against the front barricade, and people in their 50s and 60s on the edges and slightly farther back who grew up and came of age with the band. There were zero issues between the generations, and it was the first time I’ve seen a band that could attract such a varied audience, made up entirely of devoted fans – both old-schoolers and kids who wanted to be there for the music’s merit, not because their parents made them tag along.
Descendents
The Descendents are a punk rock institution, formed in Manhattan Beach, CA, in 1977 – they are one of the true originals and an inspiration to countless groups that followed. I’d never seen them live before and didn’t know what to expect. Selfishly, as a photographer, there was something about punk songs I hadn’t anticipated – they are short. There are rules to shooting concerts, and the main one is that you are allowed three songs to do your work in the photo/security pit between the barricade and the stage. Twelve minutes is enough time to cover all of the band members adequately from various angles while staying out of other photographers' shots and dodging crowd surfers landing on you from behind, but with punk rock, the songs are shorter, as was the allowed time in the pit. The studio versions of the first three songs in the set are two minutes or less, so it was a bit of a surprise when the eight of us shooting photos got a tap on the shoulder to indicate that our time was up after only six minutes or less…
The fervent crowd was losing their minds all night – the mosh pit never stopped spinning, and people came prepared and gave it their all. Crowd surfers were everywhere, and people fed off of both the music and the energy of their tightly packed neighbors. Milo, Bill, Stephen, and Karl were in top form, and the completely sold-out show was an utter success. This was the first of a two-night stint in Anaheim, and it’s hard to imagine anyone being able to maintain this kind of energy night after night, but the Descendents really brought their A game, and my only regret was that I couldn’t be there the following night. All told, they played 34 songs from nine albums, with a large portion of the material coming from 1982’s Milo Goes to College, 1996’s Everything Sucks, and 2016’s Hypercaffium Spazzinate. Songs aside, the crowd was in a fever pitch all night, and the energy level was extremely high – people were genuinely excited to be there and witness a great band performing at a really high level. As an observer and participant, the Descendents and their fans were the perfect blend of band and receptive audience, and witnessing how one fed off the other made for the perfect night of music and celebration.
Frank Turner
Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls came on before the Descendents. I hadn’t heard of Frank prior to February 24th, when a friend saw his show in Florida and sent me a text raving about it. As proof, he sent along a link to a song which he said was his current favorite – “Love Ire & Song”. He’s a good music resource, so I checked it out…and didn’t really get the buzz. To my ears, it was a little reminiscent of Flogging Molly, which I like, but isn’t something I’d consider to be my favorite thing. Then Frank took the stage five feet in front of me, and my stance changed completely. He held the audience captive from the first note, and while acoustic guitar-driven anthems aren’t usually the stuff of mosh pit madness, the pit was as strong as any I’ve seen. After the first song, I could understand why my friend was so enthusiastic, and I too became a fan.
There were four highlights to Frank’s set for me. He dedicated “Be More Kind” to the people of Minneapolis, along with a message that echoed the song’s title – essentially, be kind to your fellow man. The next song was a NOFX cover of “Bob”, and Fat Mike came out and played harmonica while Frank sang. Lastly, Frank conducted a sing-along with the song “Do One”, with the audience instructed to sing along with the “Do Do…” chorus. We were given a trial run before the song, and it was deemed to be “A bucket of shit”. Frank then stated that the assembled audience was worse than Texas. And Florida. And Pittsburg. After hearing this, the audience upped their performance and screamed out the chorus, finally achieving the desired effect, while having a blast doing so.
The first band of the night was Nobro (as in zero bros/dudes in the band), an all-female band out of Montreal, Canada. I didn’t know them, but much of the audience who showed up early did. The doors opened at 6:00pm, and Nobro hit the stage at 7:00pm. Usually, when a band goes on two hours and forty five minutes before the headliner, they are playing to a sparsely populated room – not Nobro – the venue was already ¾ full, and those that were there were stoked to be treated to an enthusiastic performance of hard-hitting girl-power at its finest. With songs like “Set That Pussy Free”, “Let's Do Drugs”, and “Where My Girls At”, Nobro came out of the gate full-throttle and didn’t let up to the delight of the crowd.
Encore:
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Rock and metal have a long history of gatekeeping, mostly by blokes who think having a Y chromosome makes them better at holding a guitar or screaming into a microphone. But the best parts of the genre didn’t happen by following the rules; they happened when women got tired of the “no girls allowed” sign and decided to burn the treehouse down.
Here are the top 5 feminist moments in rock and metal history.
Symphonic metal acted as a massive structural shift for the industry. A woman’s voice became the literal anchor for an entire stadium-filling subgenre. Nightwish, Within Temptation, Epica, and their peers saw women as the architects of a sound that moved millions of records, shifting them off the sidelines and into the lead designer’s chair for good.
Industry “experts” spent a long time claiming women’s vocal cords weren’t built for extreme growls. Angela Gossow proved them wrong. While others had done it before, she was the one who made the scene actually pay attention. She sounded more terrifying than most of the singers on the circuit. Her success with Arch Enemy ended that boring debate for good and turned female death metal vocalists into a standard part of the genre.
The Riot Grrrl movement was the 90s fix for a punk scene that had become a hostile environment for women. This underground shift was about women finally calling out sexism and abuse from the stage. The lyrics didn’t pull any punches, tackling everything from rape to gender inequality with a raw, DIY energy that gave women a way to vent their own frustration. Kathleen Hanna famously led the charge by shouting “Girls to the front” to physically reclaim the floor. It turned the venue into a space where women could actually watch the show without being crushed, proving that being loud and angry was a valid way to take up space.
Heavy metal in the 80s was a glorified boys’ club with an excessive budget for hairspray. Doro Pesch ignored the unwritten rules and fronted Warlock, out-singing every frontman on the circuit. She earned the “Metal Queen” title by being better at the job than the people who thought she didn’t belong there. It was a straightforward takeover of a scene that was trying its hardest to pretend women didn’t exist.
Joan Jett spent the years after The Runaways being told “no” by twenty-three different labels. Most people would have packed it in, but she just started Blackheart Records and sold albums out of the back of her car. When “I Love Rock ’n Roll” hit number one and stayed there for seven weeks, it proved the industry gatekeepers were redundant. It remains the ultimate blueprint for anyone who doesn’t want to wait for a permission slip from a suit to start a career.
Rock and metal are better off because these women stopped asking for permission. What was your favorite empowering and feminist moment in metal and rock?
The post International Women’s Day Special: Top 5 Feminist and Empowering Moments in Rock and Metal History first appeared on FemMetal – Goddesses of Metal.
Alter Bridge/Daughtry/Sevendust Hydro Arena Glasgow 2nd March 2026 Review & Photography by Gavin Lowrey What more can you ask for to sheer the soul on […]
The post Alter Bridge/Daughtry/Sevendust – Hydro Arena Glasgow 2nd March 2026 appeared first on Metal-Rules.com.
Glitter Ghost’s Blood dives into the painful truth that the people closest to us often leave the deepest scars. Built on a dark, emotionally charged atmosphere, the track unfolds with raw vulnerability and haunting intensity. The songwriting feels deeply personal—almost like a diary entry transformed into sound—capturing the fragile line between love, betrayal, and emotional survival. As the tension slowly builds and emotions spill over the edges, the track gathers momentum and power.
Stay with it until the final moments and prepare for an anthemic climax.
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Boni’s BminJam is a hypnotic, head-nodding trip built around a looping bass figure that slowly pulls the listener deeper into its textured groove. Rather than chasing polish, the track thrives on atmosphere and repetition, letting its psychedelic layers and octave vocals create a hazy, immersive flow. There’s a raw, instinctive quality to the production that makes the song feel alive and organic.
Having lived in Boni’s creative orbit for nearly a decade, BminJam finally finds its moment—proving that sometimes the best move is simply letting the groove breathe.
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March Madness brackets are in full swing, and the season is officially here. So, what’s the March Madness 2026 soundtrack?
The post March Madness 2026: The Soundtrack of the Season appeared first on Audio Ink Radio.