The Buffalo trio - and friends - rampage through Kingston on their UK tour!
Gather round, friends, and let me tell you about my return to my former stamping ground of Kingston, where my college days passed in a blur of underage drinking and sparsely-attended Spanish classes. Technically, it’s on the outskirts of London, but it’s long had a close-knit live music scene to call its own, and indeed, the vibe at the Fighting Cocks tonight is as friendly and informal as ever.
Back in the aforementioned days, you could hardly move for local bands channelling the Epitaph/Fat Wreck skate-punk sound; it all got a bit much, to be honest, but times change, and now there’s a new generation of bands breathing fresh life into the genre. The multi-national Diagnostics are a prime example; seemingly on a mission to have as much fun as possible in only twenty minutes, they play with a gritty edge, and their own songs measure up nicely against a grin-worthy cover of Suicidal Tendencies’ Tony Hawk-tastic ‘Cyco Vision’. A great start to the evening – and all the more impressive for their first ever gig.
Now for 2025’s greatest bait and switch! Local crew (and personal favourites) Resuscitators were meant to be up next, but had to pull out due to drummer issues; all is not lost, however, as replacements Open Palms are superb in their own right. According to their vocalist/guitarist, “the common theme is that all our songs are depressing”, but the jagged hooks of the likes of ‘Candystripers’ and ‘Eat Shit And Live, Bill’ sound pretty damn life-affirming when played with this much conviction. Let’s not forget that, before the genre’s name was dragged through the mud, ‘emo’ was short for ‘emotional hardcore’, and Open Palms hark back to its early days of maximum passion and zero pretension. Essential.
Headliners On The Cinder are clearly glass-half-full types. The Buffalo trio seemingly couldn’t care less that the Fighting Cocks is obviously not sold out – they’re far from home, and stoked that anyone has taken the time to show up on this grey and humid Thursday evening. To describe them as just a melodic hardcore band would be to sell them short; on songs like ‘Green Flames’ and ‘Cleaned Out’ they take catchy guitar lines, dual vocals, the odd crunchy breakdown, breakneck-speed drumming and blast them out with more than enough twists and turns to keep us on our toes. Everything they play tonight is delivered with sweat-soaked intensity, and punctuated with the kind of self-deprecating banter that suggests a band at ease with both themselves, and their small but devoted audience.
As they leave us with a raucous ‘Brothers And Fools’ ringing in our ears, we can’t help but feel bad for anyone who could have been here, but just couldn’t be bothered. If that’s you, then redemption is at hand, however; in the form of last year’s ’Heavy-Handed’ record. It’s just over half an hour, it’s ace, and once you’ve heard it, you’ll be itching to see On The Cinder live too. Come back soon, guys!
All Photos: ALEX GOOSE
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I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
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