Strike Anywhere, Ferryboat, Norwich
I’ve never seen The Ferryboat so rammed as this, and it’s not even 8pm. Right away I get the feeling that tonight is going to be utterly mental, but before Strike Anywhere take the stage there’s the small matter of the support acts. I miss almost the entirety of INSANIAC’s set so I won’t rate them, but what I heard of them was pleasing. Driven rock with big vocals is fine by me. BLEED 13 are up next, all clad in the requisite black t shirt, black sweat band and just about every fashion cliché in the book. It would be forgivable if they were anything but dull, repetitive hardcore, playing what seems to be the same song over and over again for half an hour. There’s little or no imagination, and the screamed vocals quickly grate as the singer pulls all the traditional stage poses and you try like hell to work out just why you’re bothering watching this extended “We want to be on Victory Records” audition. Frankly, Bleed 13 have absolutely nothing special or unique about them except the fact that they take themselves far too seriously. (2)
It’s up to the excellently-named NEW MEXICAN DISASTER SQUAD to hopefully up the ante and they certainly give it a shot. No one in the crowd seems to know their music and there is hardly any movement down the front, but NMDS acquit themselves well and rip out an impressively tight set of melodic hardcore numbers that judder from the amps like a slightly faster Rise Against. Unfortunately, after a powerful start they take their collective feet off the gas and settle into what feels like a distinctively under-par performance. It’s tough playing to a room full of people unfamiliar with the music you play but NMDS’s particular brand of harsh punk rock doesn’t win too many punters over. Perhaps when they’re a little more well-known they’ll rise to the challenge but on tonight’s evidence they’re not going to set the world alight. (6)
But it’s STRIKE ANYWHERE that has caused this place to fill literally to the rafters – those of us who have braved being at the front have to hang onto the low beams spanning the ceiling in order to stop crashing into the band who are playing within an inch of their lives less than a foot from us. There’s an intensity and a passion about SA that, when married to the fact that they write excellent songs which swerve from brutal to tuneful in the space of a moment, translates into a fantastic gig. Combining hardcore breakdowns with huge-sounding choruses that turn a few square metres into a sweaty corner of Hell, Strike Anywhere exhibit a strange dual nature – being stunningly technical while still appealing to the masses, being politically relevant without slipping into recycled propaganda. You believe every word SA sing and scream tonight because they’re so fucking raw – fantastic stuff.
Ben
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