05/03/04 – Junktion 7 (Nottingham)
A long awaited return to one of my favourite stomping grounds in Nottingham, Junktion 7 provides, an upstairs bar, quality sound, and the basement feel that you want from a small rock venue.
Running With Scissors started the entertainment. They certainly had the individual talent when it came to the instruments, I was very impressed with the music, and it’s just a shame that they were not an instrumental band. The vocals left a lot to be desired. The front man only seemed to have one dynamic to his voice, and that was used the whole way through, the bassist’s vocals were drowned out by his own amp (but then, to be fair, that was partially the soundman’s fault). When it came to stage presence, they need practice, they looked at a loss on the stage, it looked far too big for them, and they were very static. By the time we were half way through their set, I just wanted to throttle the guitarist and scream ‘ENJOY IT, DAMN YOU!!’ or at least get a smile out of him. All in all, the general feel from them was, that they just wanted to get it over with, and that didn’t make such a great show, which is a shame because with a little more confidence they would have a great chance of making it.
In recent years ‘Scremo’ bands have become increasingly popular in the UK. Kid Conspiracy are a product of that. There are a lot of them about, but the difference that these guys showed, was that they could pull it off. They were all incredibly energetic, and had to be to keep music of the same calibre up. The interaction of vocals between the front man and the guitarist was great to watch. The stage seemed to shrink for these guys, they needed more room, and the singer and guitarist were in danger of falling over and taking the cabinets with them. They managed to stay on their feet and provided a lively show that definitely got the crowd warmed up for the headline act.
Skindred were that act, and very professional they were too, you could tell that these guys had been around for ages, they just fit the place perfectly. There was no banging into each other, but there was plenty of movement. The front man had great crowd interaction and made everyone to start moving, there really wasn’t a choice, Skindred’s sound of nu-metal crossed with reggae had an infectious beat, and even the stiffs in the back couldn’t help themselves The music was eye-blindingly polished off, and it seemed effortless, but it was brutal, and just the way Skindred like it. The best of the stage lighting was obviously saved until the last, and with the strobes complimenting the drums, you can imagine the brutality I’m talking about. The one thing that disappointed me was that they used Ye Olde ‘say goodnight, and wait for them to shout “more” routine’ bit of a cliché, but lucky for them it worked, and they came back with another song to blow our minds.
Skindred’s début album ‘Babylon’ is out now.
