Stretch Arm Strong, Ferryboat, Norwich
Upon walking into the 150-capacity Ferryboat one thing becomes very clear to me. I am one of about 5 people that don’t have jet black hair, a piercing of any kind, flesh tunnels, and a severe case of acne - for some reason all of these characteristics were exhibited by the majority of the crowd, individualistic trailblazers such as they are. With the ‘Norwich Crucial Moves’ squad out in force (I’m not making this up. They made a name for themselves up, THAT is just how ‘core they are) I was determined not to let a bunch of meathead fucks spoil an evening I’d been looking forward to for ages.
INNOCENT BLOOD (or something equally macho) were up first, and their sludgy one-fingered riffs seemed to appeal to the less cerebral members of the crowd while throwing all the right poses. They tried to play the same kind of beat down-laden hardcore that Raised Fist pull off with confidence and aplomb but there wasn’t a single original idea expressed in the entire set and all the songs followed the same ‘Riff - fast riff - slow riff - beat down - fast riff’ structure to the letter. If you get the chance to see this lot, don’t (3).
But then JETS VS SHARKS take the stage and prove that hardcore doesn’t have to appeal to the lowest common denominator of scenester or fit into any particular template. With a ferocious set characterised by front man Joe’s tightly-focused energy and the crunching heft of the twin guitars, JvS were hugely impressive. With vicious riffs feeding smoothly into calm, more reflective moments this band showed that they don’t want to fit into any particular subsubsubgenre, especially considering Joe wore a red t-shirt instead of a black one. Definitely promising, and while it’s been a given for a while that JvS can come up with the goods on CD this proves that they can kick it live too. Go see (8).
When STRETCH ARMSTRONG walk onto the tiny ‘stage’ the place goes mental. Not with kids going nuts for the music but coordinated pit moves carried out by arrogant fuckheads that didn’t look at the band or sing a single word, but that wanted to be as macho as possible. I’m all for a bit of pit action (for a reference point when Strike Anywhere played at this same venue there was none of this posing bullshit) but this was stupid. My favourite bit was when the singer of Innocent Blood stood at the front and folded his arms, nodding slowly as if to say “Yeah man…I’m hard…I’m core…I’m hardcore” while people were trying to have a bit of fun around him without having some dick in a Hulk Hogan jacket walk on their heads.
But anyway - bloody hell SAS are good. Huge riffs and frantic drumming that refuses to relent at any moment, as well as a positive message of unity rather than posturing meant that the Ferryboat was turned into a seething mass of sweat and flying limbs. Playing a selection of old and new material with the particular highlight being ‘We Bleed’, SAS started strongly and only succeeded in raising the pace consistently, never once slipping out of perfect tightness or hitting a bum note. If it wasn’t for the twats, this could’ve been classic - ‘extremely good’ will have to suffice (8).
ben@punktastic.com
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