As I made my way up towards this evenings venue, I began to wonder whether or not the promoter for tonight’s gig had made a wise choice, opting for The Fenton, which isn’t one of Leeds biggest venues, to hold four bands which are all likely to bring enough people to probably fill the room on their own. A few times now I have been out to see this evenings headliners Bring Me The Horizon and have been forced to the front and nearly been decapitated in the violent crowd brawls, or I have been forced to the back and settled for a “I didn’t see that, but I heard it” conversation on my way home.
I wasn’t too far from wrong. As tonight’s openers The Final Sigh took to the stage, the room was already steaming and people were leaving as I queued to get in, muttering “its way too warm in there,” as they departed. Regardless, I settled for a place just through the door where I stood more chance of working out which hair styling product the guy in front of me was using to keep his side parting in shape than catch a glimpse of any musicians. A brief glimpse through the gaps finally put faces to the five sweaty bodies that were hurling themselves around the stage, combining hardcore metal, and synths, with short, sharp bursts of noise-core riffs and screaming. There was plenty of variation and creativity from these guys and their sound was solid and tight. At first I wasn’t too convinced, but as their performance panned out I was more and more impressed as I think were the crowd. (7)
I forfeited seeing the next band to take part in The Fenton’s Wednesday night pub quiz. Big mistake! I was lured in with a bit of ‘look I could win this?’ mentality with a few easy going questions at the start (What colour is a New York taxi?) but before long the brain teasers were dropped in and by the very end, even the regulars were looking baffled by the quiz masters onslaught. My final score was about 8.5 out of 25. Disappointing. (2)
Still, there was always Nitro Records’ The Letters Organize to entertain. I nudged my way into the room as the band were half way through their set. So with about 10 minutes to go, these guys still manage to squeeze in about 12 songs. TLO are fast, manic and in your face. It’s not as much metal as the other bands around them tonight, more punk fuelled than anything. They remind me slightly of The Hives, but with a much more aggressive tendency which is certainly for the better and gives the songs a hardcore element. Their mix tonight wasn’t very good, and you couldn’t hear what they were actually saying between songs, but it didn’t really matter to the crowd of kids lapping up every note down at the front, who by this time were almost as sweaty as the performers on stage. Half the room was in motion for TLO, and despite this being one of the bands first times in the U.K, you can see what sort of impact they are already making. (8)
As the main lights came on and The Letters Organise leave the stage and the equipment change progresses, an eerie anticipating silence falls upon the crowd waiting for headliners, Sheffields Bring Me The Horizon. As the main lights dim again, and then slowly the stage lights, the band hold out a long drilling note, before with a piercing scream, they lunge in to their aggressive riffs and death metal vocal assault. BMTH have the crowd in the palm of their hands as vocalist Oli stands for most of the set avoiding the crowd riot in front of him, with one foot on the bass drum and clinging onto the roof brackets and indicating when he wants the crowd to sing, and when he wants them to move before diving in to join them. As the room divides with bodies falling left right and centre, BMTH rip through a short set of tracks that make up their latest E.P with ‘Traitors Never Play Hangman’ being the best of the bunch and creating the most reaction from the crowd as they pile forward to grab the mic and sing a long. (9)
Expect big things from BMTH over the next 6 months, although most people are writing off their genre, and counting down the days until its extinction, in my opinion, if it continues to create as much excitement and passion as it did tonight, then there is still a lot of life left in it yet.
Pete Punktastic