It’s nice to get to your first gig of
the year in January and a cold, dark, winter’s evening is the perfect time to
go and see a line-up of seven hardcore bands.
Well, it was only six for me, because
it said on the ticket that doors opened at 4pm, so in my wisdom I didn’t arrive
until 5. Broken Teeth were already halfway into their set and it made me wonder
if Insanity Alert had played for any longer than 10 minutes. No problem. I’d
seen Broken Teeth before and I wasn’t too bothered about missing them, to be
honest. That being said what I did see was pretty good and it was nice to see a
British band at the one and only UK date on the Persistence Tour.
It being hardcore there was a very
quick turnaround between bands. I’d only just struck up a conversation with a
like-minded guy from Stockport who wanted to moan about everything when Born
From Pain took to the stage. Typical US hardcore with bone-crunching riffs,
colossal breakdowns and angry, shouty vocals ensued. They might have been from
Dallas, but they were fairly savvy about the UK. “This one’s for UKIP: go and
fuck yourselves,” snarled the frontman before launching into a song which was
presumably against fascism.
London gigs are always a bit pricey
and I had to pace myself drinks-wise, as a perfectly ordinary can of Guinness,
you know, the ones that cost about a quid down Tescos, cost approximately 1
Bitcoin in the Kentish Town Forum.
Power Trip were a more metallic
hardcore band and they’d recently supported Napalm Death on tour, so great
things were expected of them. They didn’t disappoint and there were now a lot
of sweaty, shirtless guys involved in a colossal circle pit in the middle of
the room.
There was barely time to blink and
Terror were starting. I saw them in Leeds around 5 years ago and I wondered if
Scott Vogel still remembers me falling up the stairs in front of him. Good
times. He was annoyed that there was a barrier as he wanted to see stage
diving, but it wasn’t to be. A huge inflatable crocodile did end up on the
stage at one point though, bizarrely.
While outside in the smoking area, a
guy in a Hatebreed t-shirt asked me if I’d come by myself to the show. “Sometimes,
standing for what you believe means standing alone,” I replied. “OK,” he said. If
you didn’t spot it, I was cleverly replying to him by using Hatebreed lyrics.
They’re not even obscure ones and this guy wearing the actual band’s t-shirt
DIDN’T GET IT. I despair.
Madball were the band I was most
interested in seeing, being the only major US hardcore band still on my bands
bucketlist. Freddy Madball – is the band named after him or vice versa? – seemed like a bit of a reluctant entertainer. For someone who has been
doing this around 200-250 times a year for 20 years he has absolutely zero stage
presence or between-songs patter. He did thank everyone for skipping their
Sunday roast to come and see them, which reminded me I wouldn’t need to eat any
more that day following a burger as big as my head that I had eaten at lunchtime.
Their set was 70% fantastic songs, including some of the most breakneck-speed
hardcore that exists, and 30% “are you ready for Hatebreed?” and “give it up for
*insert name of any other band from the bill here*”. They could have played
longer for me.
I sold a kidney and got another
Guinness before Hatebreed started. Jamey Jasta (how is that surname
pronounced?) is a man who relishes being centre stage and Hatebreed are an
incredibly cohesive unit. They rattled through all the big numbers you’d expect
and it was over before we knew it.
One thing that I must say is I think
Hatebreed are good, but they’re way bigger than they deserve to be. Plenty of
bands have put harder work in than them for much less recognition. But because
of Hatebreed’s fame and clout, they are able to tour with bands that many of their fans
might never have heard before, so they are kind of helping the hardcore scene
to stay alive.
All that being said, I took a look at
the merch stall. T-shirts for £25 and hoodies for £50? It might be true that
bands don’t make much from their actual music sales any more and they need to
find new streams of revenue, but these prices were frankly taking the piss. I’ll
never buy another band shirt again if they keep this up and scenes will die because of it.
It was great to see that there were
more than just a few women there too. Hardcore gigs tend to be a bit bro-heavy
and the scene has been plagued by allegations of mild sexism for years. I
always just thought that not that many women were into it, to be honest, but the Persistence
Tour proved me wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment