In my seemingly ongoing quest to experience every rock music genre under the sun, having been in the O2 Academy a few days previously to see the startlingly marvellous ‘The Hu’ Mongolian throat sing metal for a couple of hours I thought I’d turn my hand to something obviously much more traditional. The Utilita in Brum has seen its fair share of me over the space of the last few years but today was to be rather different: Fireballs aplenty and an orchestra to boot!
To be clear, for anyone like me with a drizzling of autistic brain patterns, if you’d’ve turned up expecting an actual orchestra you’d’ve been disappointed. There’s a plethora of instruments on display but this is no Deep Purple concerto for group and Orchestra or Metallica’s S&M. However, in order to sate my indignation I turned to Google and was told in no uncertain terms that an orchestra can be as few as 10 instruments as long as they’re spread across the spectrum of instrument families.
Pouting slightly at my own ignorance I took my seat, 5 rows and a little to the right of what was very nearly front and centre. This… should be fun! I’ve been sporting eyebrows which you could hide a badger in and thus, the idea of them being singed off to a rousing chorus of “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me!” was pleasing me on so many levels! The view was great, the stage was set, and an entry onto it by the performers to O Fortuna” melding into “Kashmir” fulfilled my level of anticipation rather well.
There were 23 songs listed on the setlist covering bands such as AcDc, Aerosmith, Rammstein. Papa Roach, Nirvana, System of a Down, and Metallica, some of which had vocal, some of which were pure instrumental, while at all points there were quite a selection of people on stage, sporting a variety of instruments between them, some playing two or more over the course of the evening. A prominent percussion bass drum featured throughout, a seemingly 
also ever-present cello, a what sounded like an electric double bass but looked smaller, and a brass and woodwind ensemble across right of centre almost directly in front of me, just to the left of a large skull constructed candle tree. The layout worked, coincidentally with an air of Halloween about it, with a slightly raised areas for a small choir accompaniment and then a substantially larger raised back stage for performers to display their skill with their weapon of choice, be it an instrument, or something akin to an ablaze baton, twirled in a fiery display Bruce Lee would’ve been proud of.
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It’s hard to pinpoint highlights. “Numb” (Linkin Park) was sung by a lass announced as Iris I believe, and her voice really added something to it, raising the hairs on my arms almost in defiance of the elongated row of flames spewing from the front of the stage upwards. The cello adds something to it too, it’s pretty, and oddly warm for such a song but it goes with the vocal far better than it should.
“Sweet Child of Mine” was performed without a vocal and I’m sure we’re all thankful for that, with some serious work on the violin and cello supplemented by the trombone and sax for the “where do we go”s.
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As said, it’s hard to say what actually stood out as the whole show was genuinely fun from start to finish. There were tracks where the vocal was more prominent than the instruments, a prime example being “Dream on”, which had rings of The Mission’s cover more than Aerosmith’s original, more gothic and more sultry than anything Steven Tyler could ever muster, and similarly for “Last Resort” it really is all about the vocal delivery, but then for things like “Enter Sandman” it feels more like a theatrical performance, this time with shared male/female vocal which worked well as a spectacle, and it’s curious to observe the audience not really knowing quite what to do in all seated positions. You want to move to it, to dance, but the best available is an arms up sway while trying not to irk the person next to you!
“Toxicity” was fun. A flute for the main lead was an interesting choice, being backed up by brass for “disorder” etc and there’s a distinct increase in the pyrotechnics for this. Metallica get two in a row as “One” blends out of the Moonlight Sonata and blends in to “Nothing Else Matters” but it’s all about the woman pulling out the violin solo here in “One”. Energy, verve and a very definite grin supplement the technical ability adding emotional input where her face (like everyone else’s) is half covered by a mask, and thus it’s difficult to discern much in the way of expressions so her actions tell the story. “Back in Black” even managed to pull out a sax verses vocal battle, akin to the legendary Live in Japan version of “Strange Kind of Woman”, albeit rather shorter lived.
There were also a few songs which were absorbing rather than enthralling. “Freak on a Leash” was the best example of this. It’s an arrangement which you’d just not think to use for such a song. As someone who loves a decent cover which brings something new, while maintaining the essence of the original it floated my boat more than a little. A female vocal, a cello lead, then a switch so there’s a male vocal and a chap who’s abandoned his saxophone jumps in on a piccolo! “Take me to Church” feels like a strange inclusion but the vocal is probably the best of the evening and I’d assume they know this and that’s how they’ve found a way to crowbar it in. Iris has excelled all evening.
Curiously I noted there had been a distinct drop in the temperature in the area. The sceptic in me suspected this was due to wanting to amplify the heat impact from the jets of flames which had been present for most songs, as the evening drew to a close. “Zombie” was kind of befitting of the whole doomy day of the dead feel to the stage show, but as the audience were implored to all turn on and wave their phone lights it turned into something rather prettier for a few moments until the arrival of “Chop Suey”, which sees the flute pop in again as the initial lead. There’s a lot present on stage for this, including the ladies who’ve been dancing throughout the evening adorned with various flaming implements.
The evening is finished with the quintessential Christmas song “Killing in the Name” of, although given there’s been so much fire involved, “Bombtrack” might’ve been more appropriate given that song’s chorus! We’re told to stand by the chap on stage and suitably everyone obliged, Had they done this 20 songs earlier I suspect we’d’ve stayed stood up for the rest of the show!
The violin, sax and cello have been the stars of the musical show, bringing an entertaining example as to how you can do things differently and still have a decent grunt to your music, and the vocals from all those involved have been on point.
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There were a fair few empty seats in the Utilita so I only have this to say if you considered coming to Birmingham for this and then ultimately chose not to: