Lost Alone - 27th September 2007 - Manchester Night and Day Cafe
Support - Kill Casino & Serpico


Kill Casino produce a slightly confusing wall of noise that is only distinguishable by the efforts of excellent vocalist Karen Luan, who has a very unusual and versatile voice that sees her switch from heavy-metal-howl to softer melodies with apparent ease.
Her voice gives great character to songs that might otherwise be indistinguishable from one another, at least when heard in a live environment.

Edingburgh metallers Serpico subscribe to the crushing-noise-and-accessible-vocals formula of bands like Bullet For My Valentine, and pull it off with great success.
Front man Mikey possesses a powerful voice and boundless enthusisasm, although him diving from the stage and howling for the audience to “show me what you’ve got!” does seem a little optimistic, considering that at this point the crowd barely stretches to four rows. But the crowd swells dramatically during the course of their set and when they leave the stage, it is to cheers markedly louder than those that greeted them.

Headlining act Lost Alone start off a bit ropey tonight, with a very out of tune ‘Genevieve,’ but they improve greatly as their set progresses, with note-perfect set-closer ‘Standing on the Ruin of a Beautiful Empire’ sounding stadium-sized.
Steven Battelle’s nasal vocals and the supporting harmonies from the rest of the band interplay perfectly, although their attempts to encourage the audience in sing-alongs do for the most part fall flat on their face.

Although energy levels do seem somewhat muted tonight (perhaps owing to Steven’s claims that this is the most “intense heat” he’s ever experienced) when they do give it their all during the last few songs, it shows just how good they have the potential to be.


Review by Jessica Thornsby


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