Four to the (hard)core start the working week with a bang!
Sigh. Yes, it’s a cold Monday evening, but with four quality bands (including one that’s come all the way from Portugal) for only seven quid, there really should be more people at the New Cross Inn tonight. Oh well, just about every band has cut their teeth playing sparsely-attended shows, so hopefully – in the future – there’ll be dozens more people claiming they were here seeing RAD in the days before they could sell out Brixton Academy. Something like that, anyway.
“We’re Skrapper and we’re not usually that shit!” So says their dejected vocalist after a set somewhat beset with technical gremlins. He’s being a bit hard on himself on his band; sound issues or not, the songs are there, and they do a fine job of blasting away our post-work blues.
Brighton crossover thrash crew RAD are clearly determined to get the party started by whatever means necessary. Their frontman is hyperactive even by hardcore vocalist standards, even jumping onto the merch table for a bruising finale of ‘Dying To Live’. Their set is a feast of razor-sharp riffs, powerhouse vocals and the kind of chunky breakdowns that can’t fail to get even those at the bar bobbing their heads enthusiastically. Watch these guys closely.
“I thought this was supposed to be a hardcore show!” King Street’s man-mountain of a vocalist, Amo, needs us to up our game, and he soon gets his wish. You can always rely on these guys to turn any self-respecting pit into a war zone, and that’s exactly what the brutally heavy hardcore attack of ‘Bloodsport’ and ‘Hard Target’ do tonight. Their love and passion for London hardcore shines through, and with a debut album just around the corner, they’re set to become one of the genre’s brightest lights.
Initially, headliners Fear The Lord struggle to follow this vulgar display of power, but with cast-iron anthems like ‘Behind Christ’ and new single ‘Moved By Guilt’ in their arsenal, the Portuguese quintet more than hold their own. There’s a twist of hip-hop to their sound, and as a result, no other band gets the place bouncing quite as much as they do. The as-yet unreleased ‘Street By Street’ and ‘Justice By Design’ hint at greater things to come, and a closing cover of Sunami’s ‘MS Style’ ensures we leave feeling glad that we showed up tonight.
Cheers to everyone involved!
Main Photo Credit: GRIFFIN instagram.com/xstraydogsickx
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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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