Beyond All Reason, Camden Underworld
A good show on a lazy Sunday is always a good way to end the weekend, especially if it’s at Carling’s nice new Academy complex. It was my first trip to the Bar Academy, (the Islington Academy’s little sister) it’s a small, cosy and very impressive place. Not knowing what any of the bands were going to sound like, I sat back and waited for the night’s proceedings to kick off….
…and that they did with a bang, when Reading’s 4-piece; FIVE SECOND HAND RULE blasted out some quality poppy-skate punk. It’s really nice to see bands put two guitars to good use and that they did; nice chunky chord progressions with cool picky riffs over the top, throw in some really big choruses and three way harmonies and you’ve got a winning formula. I was quite impressed by this band’s performance, not only were they comfortable on stage but the severe lack of anything that might have resembled a crowd (there were literally about 10 people excluding band members) didn’t put them off in the slightest. Half way through their set the stopped and detuned, slow downed and got a lot heavier which was unexpected. Somehow, it still roughley managed to sound like the same band and they wrapped their set with an exceptionally good number. (6.5)
Now I’d heard SECOND MONDAY were a pop-punk band. I soon realised my false perception when the floppy haired four-piece picked up their guitars. The crowd had picked up a bit now but you would have been more likely to see more movement at a teddy bear’s picnic. But it also didn’t deter SC one bit, I can’t remember if I have ever been blown away by a band with an average age of 16 before, but these guys were superb. A lot has been said about post-hardcore but SC are really something special; very experimental riffs and song structures, quiet bits, loud bits, soft bits, hard bits; it was all there, and all stylishly done. Just when I thought I had my head around a song and found myself guessing where it would go next I was slapped round the face by another clever direction change and found myself lapping up everything they played. In my experience, this sort of experimenting can lead a band into the clutches of pretentiousness, but SC just about manage to escape. Still, what amazed me is how young they are; if they can perform like this every night you’ll be finding this band over your stereo quicker than you can say BIFFY CLYRO in a car crash with BRAND NEW. (8.5)
It was going to take something special to top SC’s performance and a lot was resting on the shoulders of BEYOND ALL REASON to pull it off. When I saw them setting up with brutal BC RICH metal guitars and more cymbals than you’d find in a drum school along with sleeveless t-shirts on top of butch arms sporting tattoos I was expecting a real powerhouse hardcore band. I was wrong however, as I said earlier, a lot has been said about post-hardcore, and not all of it good. BAR just didn’t have any outstanding qualities to set them apart from the over saturated field. Admittedly they were very tight, they had some really good technical riffs and didn’t do a thing wrong. They just didn’t grab me in the way SC had done. I think someone also must have turned up the volume on the P.A as their set was unbearably loud and the high pitched vocals were just too much for me to take. Reading this back, I haven’t given them a particularly good write up; they’re not a bad band in the least, just under the circumstances I wasn’t left with a great impression. (6)
I left the show with mixed feelings, I was really impressed with SC but the lack of crowd resulting in less atmosphere than inside a Dyson kind of spoilt the night really, especially as there was another awesome show on a couple of miles away in Camden which left me feeling a little bit bitter at times. But still I got to check out three new bands and a cool new venue.
Mike Frankal
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