A feast of quality punk, post-punk and alternative rock!
Apparently, putting on a gig on the same evening as a big football game is a risky move, and indeed, the FA Cup final is probably at least partly to blame for tonight’s less-than-stellar attendance at the Water Rats. Goodness knows it’s not due to lack of quality bands. I’ll spare you my rant on why grassroots music is infinitely superior to top-tier football; you probably don’t have two or three hours to spare.
“Come closer or I’ll have to come to you!’ That’s the vocalist/guitarist of Mayzel, and he soon nakes good on his threat, leaping off a ledge in centre of the room just as band launch into the almost hardcore-intensity fury of ‘Dead Again’. The quartet clearly haven’t set any musical rules for themselves; there’s a healthy dose of grunge in there, but also bursts of choppy funk guitar and taut bass grooves.
Even the slower ‘Alone’ drips with menace, and as they thrash away at their guitars on the closing ‘Clown On The Ground’, you can’t help but wonder if – in years to come – more people will claim to have been here to witness the band’s early days. Watch out for their debut EP later this year.
The Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Siamese Dream’ plays over the PA between the bands, and LiVES are clearly feeling the early 90s alternative rock vibe. Since we last saw them (opening for SPAN back in 2024), they’ve broken into the Great Rock Riff cupboard, and come back with some absolute gold, spitting out newies like ‘Automatic Souls’ and ‘Hard To Watch’ with a punk rock sneer and no little venom.
Old favourite ‘Cancelled’ also hits the mark dead centre, and inviting Dolium’s vocalist up for their closing ‘Shame’ collaboration is the icing on the cake. Of course, we all know what happened to the Pumpkins; Billy Corgan disappeared up his own arse, but on the evidence of a furious, right-wing baiting ‘Not Punk’, there’s no risk of that happening to LiVES anytime soon. Utterly essential, and we can’t wait for their upcoming new album.
Not an easy act to follow, but headliners Dolium manage to hold their own. There’s something brilliantly fried about the veteran Sheffield trio; their songs sound like they could have been written during a bad acid comedown (or something like that), so on-edge and irritable do they sound.
Trust us, that’s a huge compliment – punk rock should be anything but complacent – and whether it’s the almost tribal drumming of ‘Attack Of The Scalping Machines’, the brooding ‘Dog Bowl’ (complete with that earworm “does it matter” refrain), or the full tilt punk rock rage of ‘Feast Of Failure’, they’re never less than convincing.
Cheers to promoters UXB Music Promotion and Sounds Of The Suburbs for having us along, and for putting it all together! Keep an eye out for future gigs via the links.
Main Photo Credit: 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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