Gig Reviews

You’ve heard of mosh pits.You’ve heard of circle pits.But have you ever seen a party pit?A glitter-soaked, inflatable-filled, neon-lit fever dream of unfiltered joy, right in the middle of Download Festival – the UK’s undisputed kingdom of riffs and rage? Because that’s exactly what happened when 90s Eurodance legends Vengaboys took to the stage.And what followed was nothing short of...

Every now and then, a festival set comes along that’s so unexpected, so gloriously out-of-place, that it ends up becoming one of the most talked-about moments of the weekend. At Download Festival, where leather, growls, and pyro reign supreme, that band—this time—was none other than the kings of geek rock themselves: WEEZER. Yes, that Weezer. The cardigan-wearing, Nintendo-loving, power-chord-slinging heroes...

By The Riff Report Blog – Still Deaf From Night Two, Send Help (and earplugs) 🔥 The M72 Tour: Two Nights, No Repeats, Pure Carnage 🔥 If there’s one band that could take over the globe and double-down on the destruction, it’s METALLICA – the Lords of Loud, the Sultans of Shred, the four horsemen of our musical apocalypse. With...

🗓 Live at Utilita Arena Cardiff – January 26–27, 2025🎸 By The Riff Report – Moshpit Division 🏰 Welcome to the Metal Kingdom: Cardiff 2025 There are gigs. There are shows. And then there are nights where the walls sweat, the pits churn like whirlpools, and grown adults cry into their beer because “Tears Don’t Fall” still hits like a...

🔥 Introduction: A Night of Welsh Rock Majesty 🐉 Location: Utilita Arena, CardiffDate: December 14th, 2024Headliners: Those Damn CrowsSupport: Florence Black & Scarlet RebelsCrowd Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟Welsh Saying of the Night: "C’mon Wales!" roared louder than the amps! On December 14th, 2024, the walls of Cardiff’s Utilita Arena trembled under the might of Those Damn Crows, as the Bridgend legends brought...

A Legend, a Stadium, and 50,000 Singing Souls: The Night We All Became Piano Men (and Women) 🏟️ THE BUILD-UP – A LEGEND RETURNS TO THE LAND OF SONG It’s not every day a living legend strolls into Cardiff, mun. And when that legend is Billy freakin’ Joel, you know the streets are gonna buzz like it’s Six Nations weekend....

"Everlong May We Rock" – A Night of Legends, Laughter, and Loudness If Cardiff wasn’t ready for the Foo Fighters, well… they are now. On a rain-dodging Tuesday night in June, Dave Grohl and his merry band of rock 'n' roll legends turned the Principality Stadium into a cathedral of chaos, and we were all disciples in the church of...

Location: Dunraven Brewery Field, Bridgend Date: August Bank Holiday Monday – 28th August, 2023 Event Type: Rock Concert x Rugby Celebration Bands/Teams: Those Damn Crows 🎸 + Bridgend Ravens 🏉 Attendance: Estimated 3,000+ locals, rockers, and rugby fans Welsh Saying of the Night: "Ymlaen gyda’r sŷn!" – “Forward with the noise!” 🔥 A One-of-a-Kind Bridgend Homecoming Imagine the roar of...

Air Guitar Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸 / 5 – Absolute mayhem, proper job! What do you get when you mix three of Wales’ finest rock bands, a historic castle, and a crowd hungry for live music? One hell of a night that still echoes through the Cardiff air like a power chord on a mountain top! 🏴🤘 On 29 August 2021, Scarlet...