An international bill helps us celebrate Halloween in seriously noisy style!
Kudos is seriously due to all three bands performing tonight – not just for playing great sets, but for having covered pretty much the entire width and length of the UK over the past couple of weeks. Not for them the brief Glasgow-Manchester-London jaunt that so many international bands undertake; this tour has seen the Canadian/American/British alliance go as far west as Falmouth, with plenty of shows along the way. Tonight is the final date of the tour, it’s Halloween, and we – including the bands – are all dressed up and ready to go nuts. Bring it on!
Bristol crew Knives defy our attempts to put them into one of our neat little musical boxes, damn them. There are scattergun beats, plenty of crunchy hardcore bludgeon, abrasive punk rock, and even bursts of squalling saxophone. It sounds like it shouldn’t work, but somehow it does, with the band deservedly getting a fair few of the early birds dancing down the front. They’re certainly stoked to be here, and make every second of their bouncing, twirling, high-kicking set count. An excellent start.
“I have a ton more respect for Slipknot now!” So says Ignite vocalist Eli Santana, who’s obviously very sweaty under his Halloween costume, to widespread laughing from the crowd. The Californian melodic hardcore veterans clearly don’t take themselves too seriously as people, but as a band, their passion and dedication shine through in every note played – with the likes of old favourites ‘Bleeding’ and ‘Let It Burn’ going down a storm.
Newie ‘Still Wide Awake’ incites serious pit action among an increasingly packed crowd, and is very much the sound of a band with plenty of life left in them after over four decades in the game. A shout out to Sick Of It All’s Lou Koller (RIP) before a late ‘Embrace’ is a genuinely affecting moment amidst the chaos, and by the time they close with ‘Fear Is Our Tradition’, it’s obvious that they’ve seriously raised the bar.
That said, it’s probably just as well that Cancer Bats are headlining, as no band could possibly relish having to play after the sonic wrecking ball that is the Canadian quartet. They utterly dominated the stage at this year’s Slam Dunk Festival, and as they launch into opener ‘Stay Stuck’ the crowd degenerates into a gloriously sweaty, slam-dancing mess – and stays that way. You get the impression that frontman Liam Cormier – more than anyone else present tonight – would rather there was no stage barrier, but it’s the most minor of hindrances to him as he urges us on to go ever crazier. Oh, and boy, does he lead by example.
Tonight, the Bats go on a gleeful smash n’ grab rampage through their back catalogue, and there are no end of highlights. That grinding riff of ‘Lucifer’s Rocking Chair’ hits the spot dead-centre; the seismic rumble of the vintage ‘Pneumonia Hawk’ sounds ten times as imposing as on record, and of course, the closing brace of the Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’ and their own ‘Hail Destroyer’ is still the ultimate one-two knockout punch. Twenty years on from their first visit to these shores, and you’d be seriously unwise to bet against these guys. Cheers for the skateboards, gentlemen, and apologies for our small pumpkins (if you were there, you know!).
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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