The Prophets / Neverise / Tan.Trum / Operation Guillotine / Pretty Vile – The Arches, Coventry (18th June 2017)

It has been a busy month for Coventry’s favourite pop-punk band The Prophets, having headlined Coventry Pride last weekend as well as an appearance on local radio station Radio Plus last week. On Sunday night they were back at The Arches, where I last saw them play with Altered Sky back in March.

Pretty Vile (c) Katie Frost

This show was a special one for The Prophets as it was Tommy’s final appearance with the band (he is taking a break to concentrate on his final year of university), and from this point onwards they plan to continue as a three-piece.

I was lucky enough to be one of the first twenty people to buy a ticket to tonight’s show, which meant access to a pre-show VIP event with the band, at which they played a selection of songs acoustically, including “Waiting For The End” and “Wait For You”, as well as their ever-popular covers of “I’m With You” by Avril Lavigne and “Drown” by Bring Me The Horizon.

It was insanely hot in the venue but I was pleased that so many people braved the heat to watch all of the bands on the bill, and what a line-up it was!

First to take to the stage were four-piece alt/punk/rock four-piece Pretty Vile, who I had seen once before when they supported The Prophets at Kasbah back in September last year. Kitty is a brilliantly engaging front-woman and I really enjoyed the old-school punk / anarchic vibe of their music. As well as some cracking original songs, they played a couple of covers by The Misfits and American Baseball.

Tan.Trum (c) Katie Frost

Next to brave the heat of the stage were female-fronted five-piece Operation Guillotine, featuring The Prophets’ alumni Rhys on guitar.

A fun rock band who played some great original songs (including one written just days previously) plus a roof-raising cover of “Teenagers” by My Chemical Romance that got the whole room on their feet. Alice was great on vocals and her bandmates more than matched her talent.

Up next were my favourite teenage rock band Tan.Trum from Rugby. Every time people see Tan.Trum for the first time they are blown away by their skill, and they seem to get better every time I see them! They opened their set with “1301” from their most recent EP TAKE3 (review coming soon) – a heavy instrumental track which showcases the talent of all three members; Ellis (lead guitar), Louis (drums) and Georgie (bass and vocals). Tan.Trum became a three-piece recently, with bassist Georgie taking over on vocals. Kate from The Prophets made a guest-appearance on vocals for “Broken” but Georgie more than held her own for the rest of the songs in their set.

Neverside (c) Katie Frost

By this point the temperature in the room must have been 30 degrees plus, but that didn’t discourage the crowd from giving their full attention to all the bands who took to the stage that night… in-between popping outside for some much-needed fresh air.

The fourth band to play were five-piece female-fronted rock band Neverise from Burton-On-Trent / Nottingham. This was the first time I had seen Neverise and they were engaging from the very start. Vocalist Jess bounded around the stage and the whole band were full of energy from start to finish, playing tracks from their debut EP Painted Gold.

Last to hit the sweat-soaked stage were headliners The Prophets who never disappoint and always go down a storm with a home crowd. There was an air of sadness in the air due to this being Tommy’s last show with the band for the foreseeable future (he may be able to return to the band after he has finished his degree), but also one of celebration.

The Prophets (c) Katie Frost

The band put on one of their strongest performances to date and the crowd were absolutely loving it; there was a mosh pit, people were leaping off the stage into the crowd and the energy was sky-high throughout their set. As well as playing tracks from their recently-released second EP Waiting For The End, they also played crowd favourites such as “Got Me So Bad“, along with a couple of fantastic covers including “St Patrick” by PVRIS and “Believe” by Cher. The latter might seem like a bit of an odd choice but they breath new life into the song and the whole room were off their feet jumping along to it!

They also played a new song with a working title of “Shrek” that was heavier than some of their previous tracks and I instantly loved it. I cannot wait to hear the full studio version of it and see what else these guys have in store for the new EP!

All photos by Katie Frost Photography

The Prophets: facebook | youtube | bandcamp | spotify

Neverise: officialfacebook | twitter | youtube

Tan.Trum: official | facebook | youtube

Operation Guillotine: facebook

Pretty Vile: facebook

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