Bowling Green, Kentucky is a small town in the American South best known for manufacturing Chevrolet Corvettes, Fruit Of The Loom underwear, and, with Cage The Elephant – thunderous rock’n’roll, tonight they played the tiny Bar Academy in Birmingham and whipped the crowd in to a piranha infested frenzy.

I arrived at Bar Academy before the first support to find the venue half empty, but still very humid and sweaty. This later changed to a venue which was heaving and so sweaty, jeans and t-shirts were no longer loose fitting but providing a second skin! Oh Joy!
The crowd was purely 20 something’s and Teens, to say I felt a bit out of place at the tender age of 39 was a bit of an understatement. But none the less I hid in one of the little corners and hurriedly made my notes!


This gig was sold out as soon as it went on sale, and it’s easy to understand why. Having just provided the second support slot on a nationwide tour with Pigeon Detectives could only have blessed CTE in providing them with more ears to showcase their specialized sound too. Comparisons with Led Zeppelin and the Stones have been made of late after rave reviews for their new album, Cage the Elephant, and you can understand why after realising that Matt Schultz [Vocals] is a big Bob Dylan fan and a fan of lyrics that don’t give it all away.


STP click the image for more photos

Support was provided by Ex-Lovers and the wacky Screaming T-Party.
Screaming T-Party were totally off the wall, wearing gas masks on stage, I did get a bit worried at one point and thought it was quite scary to have such a gimmick. So many guitar pedals, I counted 6, you realise why so many once you’ve heard they’re sound. Mentalist dancing, followed up with severe string strumming and yelling. Their gigs compared to by the press as a cross between a Nuremberg rally hosted by the daleks! Personally, I thought they were amazing even for entertainment value, 10 out of 10 for that. The lead guitarist was amazing and the drummer certainly knew how to bang those drums. Pure entertainment value. Well worth the ticket fee alone.


CTE click the image for more photos

Cage the Elephant are - Matt Schultz (vocals), his brother Brad (guitar), Daniel Titchenor (bass), Lincoln Parish (guitar) and Jared Champion (drums). Showcasing songs from they’re recent album Cage the Elephant tonight, blasting through a 60 minute set with all the stage antics I saw at the recent Pigeon Detectives show at Carling Academy.
Schultz is like a man possessed, at one stage jumping into the crowd and forcing himself into a 12” gap between the ceiling of the venue and the tower of speakers, is this man in to contortion? I think he had a death wish, as after the third song he hurled himself into the audience and all I could see was the mic wire and all the crowd moshing so intently that it was similar to playground game ‘Bumper Cars’. There was a big hole in the crowd which resembled a hole like in a doughnut, which was intermittently filled with people and Matt Schultz so astounding to watch and quite funny at times.

Even the guitarists wanted a piece of the action and were well up for the gig tonight, even much so one of them kept jumping off the monitors and propelling himself and his guitar into the crowd whilst trying to play, I feared for his life at times, especially as wondering hands kept grabbing him at every opportunity. It’s a wonder he came back on the stage with any clothes on!

You can understand why CTE provided support for Queen’s of the Stone Age and even graced the stage at Lollapalooza, their energy is unfounded and second to none. Truly a band to watch out for and experience for yourself, you won’t be disappointed.

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Michelle Owen