October 7, 2004
Starting off with a loud and chaotic set Everything For Some a signed band touring the area, pounced into action and onto the floor in front of the stage, making the most of the room left by the crowd who seemed to be hugging the back wall for comfort.
The guitarist and obviously the drummer, held the fort on stage, whilst the bassist and frontman (screaming guy) attacked the ground, panting and gasping for air and water throughout the set, these guys know how to put a whole new meaning to the word ‘effort’ into their live performances.
And it never let up. Pounding hardcore with an awesome boom-boom bass and drum sound that was distinct and made them a little different, which meant that their set wasn’t as hard going as a lot of half hour hardcore sets so very often are.
In amongst the barrage of sound there were some storming metal riffs, and occasionally some nice effects used on the guitar, which gave them a hint of some much needed dynamics.
The vocalist had a good healthy scream on him, not unlike a raving mad Zack De La Roch as they’re dragging him off to the asylum.
Although they were undoubtedly entertaining during their songs, with high speed lunges and skull cracking head banging going on all over the place, they didn’t speak to the crowd at all, understandable seeing as all you could hear was gasping and panting coming from the frontman as he lay rolling and twitching on the ground for the 10 second silence between tracks.
Think of Dillenger Escape Plan and Sikth, add some party hard Andrew WK style drums, stand well back, and you wont be far from an Everything For Some gig.
El Cielo were next on the scene and they brought with them a flowing melodic backline acting as the scaffolding for the full and complex guitar riffs and thrashing power-chord riffs alike, and the opposing bass lines that had a perfect sound which stood out clearly above to rest of the sound. The vocalist had an established and accomplished singing voice and this was used for the majority of the songs, but he switched to a deep throaty scream with complete ease when it was deemed necessary. One thing that struck me about El Cielo when I saw them the first time was the obscure drum patterns, and tonight confirmed that strike, the drums never settle into a constant, yet still managed to keep faultlessly accurate timing, obviously this drummer knows what he’s doing. Although I would be very surprised if it was the same at every show, surely far too complex, far too improvised, but far too classy to pick fault. Apart from a slightly nervous air surrounding the bassist, El Cielo look very comfortable on stage, and look as though they fit together well as band, and they’re certainly on a roll, as the sheer impressiveness of the title track from the second Ep ‘The Tree’ suggests. These guys come together to make music that if you knew the words, you’d be sure to sing your lungs out to it.
The winners of last years Junktion 7 Battle of the Bands come back again to finish off tonight’s line-up. Splint don’t hang around in showing us exactly why they were given such a title.
They were obviously very comfortable with their songs, presenting endlessly engineered instrumental and rhythmical sections, and adding lengthy, teasing outros which would promptly lead into another powerful, melodic grind of a song.
That power was emphasised at pints by the two guitars and the bass all playing in unison, which then progressed into 3 individual mellow lines, showing off a dazzling display of how to use dynamics.
Splint gave a very professional and well practiced live show. They possess plenty of talent and show great technique with their instruments.
But alas! There were a couple of things that let down the Splint performance, and that was the fact that despite all the complexities of the other 3 members, the drumming was repetitive and too simple to conform to the rest of their sound.
The other thing was the almost complete lack of movement by the band, it was music to listen to, but find something more interesting to look at.
To see more pictures from this gig click here Review ~ Steph Photos ~ Glynn
Written By Steph
Photos ~ Glynn
