It’s not particularly often that you can look at a five band bill in Camden on a Sunday and go “I like all of those bands”, but tonight’s gig at The Barfly is a gig like no other. The dissolution of Hevy Fest this year left bands with pieces to pick up, and Comeback Kid decided that they may as well do something in a tiny venue before they headed home rather than nothing at all. Once announced, the scramble for supports happened, and the decision was made to pull three shows in to one, to keep crowds focused on a day that Killswitch Engage and Hatebreed played the Garage and Texas Is The Reason played down the road.
The first two bands came from a show at the Old Blue Last, with Death Of An Artist opening things up. Despite being the first band on of a five band bill on a Sunday, there’s already a good crowd in the Barfly, and they do a fine job of kicking things off. It’s the first time we’ve seen the band live, and it’s pretty clear that they’ve got plenty to offer the UK scene, with a fairly fresh take on dropping melodic vocals into heavier music.
After their set flies by, we’re treated to something excellent next in a rampageous CB6 – originally heading up the Old Blue Last. The band, led by bassist/vocalist Ryan Monteith, deliver tracks from their new album ‘Succession’ with stacks of energy, and the one thing that really strikes about their undeniably London twinged take on US thrash is just how fucking tight they are live. It’s an absolute pleasure to watch a new band going at it with great guns, and we’re pretty sure they’re going to be filling venues this size in no time.
Next, we move on to bands originally scheduled in to play the Black Heart – the first of which is skate/hardcore band GIANTS. We’ve got them playing Southsea Fest in September, and tonight is a taster on just what they’re going to bring to the table – a wall of great riffs, speedy hardcore and big tunes. The band seem to have found their focus recently, and performances like this – on bills like this – will make them new fans very quickly indeed.
Last of the supports tonight are the ever entertaining Evergreen Terrace, they batter through a typically quite silly 40 ish minutes of dirty riffs and oddball stage banter, and get everyone suitably pumped for the headliner. By this point, the venue is absolutely rammed, so a few are struggling to see round the corner, we opt to duck out just before the end of Evergreen Terrace so that we get a good spot, and by the tme we get a prime position against the bar for the end of the show – we’re ready for the main event.
This is probably the smallest venue most of the people here will have ever seen Comeback Kid in, and the excitement in the room is pretty much something else. From the word go, the crowd are throwing themselves around the room, lapping up every moment, and the entire next hour is a blur of massive tunes and bodies/fists in the air. The circumstances that created the need for this gig weren’t the best, but it’s a happy accident that it’s led to a band like Comeback Kid playing this kind of show, because they seem right at home when they can smell the crowd. Not so unpredictably ending on ‘Wake The Dead’ to everyone in the room’s final bit of energy, the room goes off before the lights come back on to signal that 11pm is probably quite enough on a Sunday night… an amazing night all around, and one that no one here will forget for quite some time.
TOM AYLOTT
