Belvedere, Sheffield Corporation
You know I said that Sheffield was clearly the place to be for top quality punk rock on tour a few weeks ago? After fantastic turn outs at Anti Flag, AFI and other such large scale events, everything really hits home when you go to a gig such as this on a mild Friday evening. While Sheffield has some great venues, numerous fantastic bands traipsing through on their way around the world and a hell of a lot of cool people involved in the music scene (as well as a lot of idiots), it is still dominated by boys and girls of newly appointed teenager status bouncing up and down to whatever band with semi-major label backing appears at the Leadmill or the NMB. Unfortunately, this little gig went completely unnoticed, which could almost be considered a crime.
Just in case you’re wondering, the turn out to this little event was roughly 15 people, not including the band members. The word disappointing doesn’t even cover it. So, after an impromptu chat with The Take (which may or may not be transcribed as an interview, even though there isn’t much of an interview to transcribe) and a lengthier and more in depth conversation with Belvedere, the show finally kicked off with The Take’s post hardcore rumblings.
After missing them during the Lawrence Arms tour recently, I was pleased to be able to bask in the glory of THE TAKE’s set. With Quicksand-esque crunchiness and some very impressive switches in melody, the gathered throng of people (ok, ok, I know….) were quickly nodding their heads in appreciation. With lack of people, however, comes lack of energy and interest, and both the band and the audience seemed to have their minds on other things at times. Nevertheless, songs like set closer ‘Gene Pool’ clearly left a highly positive impression on both myself and everyone else. (7)
Unfortunately for The Take, their highly impressive set was completely and utterly blown out of the water by the fantastic BELVEDERE. Mixing melodic hardcore with technical skate punk and dashes of rock, metal and pretty much anything you want to pick out of the music, the Canadian four piece sounded absolutely huge. Kicking off with the blistering ‘The Only Problem With Wishful Thinking’, they then proceeded to assault everyone’s ears with their perfect blend of massive technical riffage, furious drumming and some truly mind blowing guitar solo’s. With ‘She Sells and Sea Sandwiches’ sounding like Rufio after their balls have dropped and ‘You Thought The Doctors Probe Hurt’ exploding from the speakers with no regard for anyone’s personal safety, as well as the bands excellent stage presence (it’s always a lot more enjoyable if the band playing look as though they’re having more fun than you are!), the annoyingly small number of people left the Corporation feeling like they’d witnessed something special. (9)
If you didn’t go, you really did miss out. While the annoyance of the lack of people and the fact that THINKTANK pulled out because of the vocalist suffering fluid on the lungs (?!) in Exeter didn’t really start the night off on a positive note, Belvedere certainly made up for that. They’re supporting Pulley on their UK tour this month, so make sure you catch them if you can. Stunning.
Ross
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