Local duo Bone Cult kicked things off with their unique blend of ‘Death-Electronica’. They marched onto a smoky stage donning a pair of Purge-esque masks, armed with nothing but their instruments and a dazzling light show. The set was energetic and engaging, but the small gathering of early attendees didn’t feed that energy back to them. It was an impressive display nonetheless, and an intriguing start to the evening.

Next up was Cassus, a quartet hailing from Norwich. Unlike the openers, they stepped out wearing regular clothes. Not scary at all, right? Well, the music was. It was immediately obvious why they were on tour with Rolo Tomassi; every song was frantic, chaotic, loud and bursting with energy. The performance matched the music too, with each member of the band thrashing about for every sweat inducing second of their set.

The main support came from Norwegian punk rock outfit Blood Command. They’re no strangers to big support slots, having supported Comeback Kid and Biffy Clyro across Europe in the past. This was their first time in the UK, and they impressed the now full room in Nottingham. Front woman Karina Ljone screamed and danced her way across the stage throughout their fun and explosive set, with big rock riffs and gigantic drums flying at you from every angle – picture Cancer Bats and Steel Panther going to the pub and writing some songs together after a few beers. That’s how Blood Command sound. The crowd lapped up every note and, after the last one rang out, they were all prepared for the main event.

Creeping out onto a murky stage covered in corpse paint, Rolo Tomassi wasted no time bursting straight into ‘Rituals’ from their 2018 record ‘Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It’. A rollercoaster ride of black metal tinged riffs, blast beats and blood curdling screams, the energy levels hit an instant high and left the crowd stunned. And that was after one song. The set was nothing short of brilliant, with songs spanning their entire career. There were mass singalongs to golden oldie ‘Party Wounds’, lethal pits to ‘Alma Mater’, sways of appreciation for ‘Opalescent’ and ‘Contretemps’. It was a beautifully structured, well navigated set that shone a light on every weapon they have. The highlight of the night was the set closer ‘A Flood Of Light’; enormous walls of sound, decorated with Eva Spence’s blend of venomous and angelic vocals and masterful musical shifts.

Not only was the set incredible, but the show that they put on was the best of the evening too. Guitarist Chris Cayford and bassist Nathan Fairweather balanced their erratic and gentle movements to match the vibe of the music. The most impressive thing, though, was that their playing during the erratic moments didn’t suffer, with not a single note out of place. Drummer Tom Pitts followed the same suit, not missing a beat for the entire evening. A total powerhouse. Vocalist and synth player James Spence was the most reserved of the band when on the synth; yet when he abandoned his post for vocal duties he was as chaotic as the rest. The real star of the show, though, was Spence. She put on a hypnotic and haunting display, switching from ballet-like flowing movements to erratic thrashing – a real Jekyll and Hyde type performance. It was hard to focus attention elsewhere, as her command of the stage was masterful. The set was as visually stunning as it was aurally. It was flawless.

Rolo Tomassi are at the top of their game right now. Having released the best record of their career earlier this year, they’ve now mastered the art of live performance, and are going from strength to strength. If you aren’t already on this hype train, get on it now. A perfect evening from a perfect band.

DAVE STEWART

The venue is fairly packed and already pretty sweaty as sole support Gender Roles take to the stage. Their catchy but hard-hitting pop-grunge is well received by the enthusiastic crowd, some of whom are clearly already familiar with the band, and tracks like ‘Plastic’ and ‘Gills’ stand out as fantastic examples of the kind of quality songwriting these relative youngsters are capable of. This style of music has seen a bit of a resurgence in the last few years, but Gender Roles make it their own with off-kilter lead guitar work and interesting vocal arrangements. Combine this with their killer sound, infectious cheekiness and charming stage banter, and the Brighton lads may well have cracked the recipe for success.

Touché Amoré don’t waste any time as they launch headfirst into ‘Tilde’ (or ~), the crowd roaring back every word to revered vocalist Jeremy Bolm, particularly the iconic closing lines. The band barely take a breath before then breaking straight into a double-whammy of ‘Rapture’ and ‘Just Exist’, the closing lines of ‘I’ll just bow my head, and leave out the back’ echoing through the hall of ravenous fans.

The beauty of this band is that with their short songs and extremely memorable lyrics, there isn’t really such a thing as obvious songs and deeper cuts, just hit after hit after hit and the crowd eagerly laps up every moment. The majority of tonight’s set is made up of tracks from their 2011 breakthrough record ‘Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me’ and most recent (absolutely heartbreaking) full-length ‘Stage Four’, with a few choice numbers from across the rest of their back-catalogue.

Every song is delivered with the kind of breathtaking intensity we’ve come to expect from Touché Amoré, with angrier tracks like ‘Art Official’ and ‘Uppers Downers’ being broken up by the melancholy of ‘Praise / Love’ and ‘New Halloween’, the latter of which sees Bolm change the lyrics to reflect the real time that’s elapsed since his mother’s passing. It’s these deeply personal moments that make Touché Amoré a band that people flock to.

The main body of the set draws to a close with ‘Skyscraper’, which features some slightly dodgy clean vocals, but once it builds to the crescendo ending it more than serves its purpose. This is followed by a short, sharp encore of ‘History Reshits Itself’ and ‘Nine’, that allows the crowd to expunge their last few drops of energy before pouring out of the venue into the warm, clear air as the sun is setting; a fittingly pleasant end to a truly special evening.

LIAM KNOWLES

Thousand Below take to the stage first and do a decent job of recreating tracks from their recent debut album ‘The Love You Let Too Close’. They perform their songs admirably, but James Deberg’s vocals lack power and their brand of post-hardcore is a little too vanilla to leave a lasting impression among this line-up.

It doesn’t take long for Veil of Maya to warm up and as they kick into ‘Whistleblower’, the power of the instrumentals is like being hit by a backdraught. Marc Okubo’s djent-like guitar riffs pack a huge punch when locked in sync with Sam Applebaum’s powerful drumming and Dan Hauser’s low bass tones and once the three of them lock into time, they don’t fall out of it for a single moment of their set, staying watertight throughout an impressively technical sequence of songs.

The band’s latest album ‘False Idol’ continues the trend started by ‘Matriarch’, where more melody was added to the band’s sound, but as the album’s lead singles ‘Overthrow’ and ‘Doublespeak’ kick in, they’re not short of power either, engulfing the venue with massive tones. Not wanting to be outdone by the pristine performance of the musicians around him, vocalist Lukas Magyar manages to balance low, guttural screams with clean, melodic choruses admirably, rounding off a solid all-round performance.

The band strike a powerful image on stage; Magyar commands it well, prowling back and forth, with the sight of Hauser taming a massive seven string base provides a good metaphor for the set. The band often wrestle with large ideas, but their ability to tame them and harness their ideas into impactful songs makes for a thoroughly impressive, technically superb experience.
The bar may well have been set high, but as Dance Gavin Dance appear, there’s not a shred of pressure reflected in Will Swan’s typically stoic expression. Leading his bandmates into opener ‘Chucky vs. The Giant Tortoise’ he simply gets on with what he does best, laying out wonderfully infectious, groove-led guitar licks that dance off the guitar strings and move the entire audience’s feet as though the floor was suddenly red hot.

Will Swan has an iconic influence in the experimental post hardcore scene; not only has he managed to uncover three superb vocalists for his band over Dance Gavin Dance’s thirteen year career, but his network of touring musicians is also highly impressive. Eidola’s Andrew Wells and Hail The Sun’s Aric Garcia have both answered Swan’s call in the past and on this tour, Icarus the Owl frontman Joey Rubenstein drops in on rhythm guitar, as well as lending some impressive backing vocals.

Tilian Pearson enjoys one of his best performances to date, nailing every one of the expansive range of notes he employs. They’ve had their fair share of line-up changes in the past, but Pearson looks extremely well settled and having just completed their fourth album with the same line-up (something never before managed by Dance Gavin Dance), it’s clear that this consistency is paying dividends. With three records already in the bag, there’s enough ‘Tilian material’ to pad out the entire set and that’s how it plays out, with only ‘Me And Zoloft Get Along Fine’ making the cut from the older material. As good as the new material is, this old favourite gets the best response of the night, and it’s a shame we don’t get to hear more from the extensive Dance Gavin Dance vault during the course of the night.

Also disappointing is the lack of new material, given that production has just been wrapped up on album number eight. As nice as it would be to hear, it’s understandable why they’re keeping this under their hats; with so many people watching shows through their phone screens these days, the prospect of having the public’s first taste of new material be a poor-quality bootleg is not as compelling as waiting for a well produced, well marketed single launch instead.

They may not be a natural fit on paper, but Dance Gavin Dance and Veil of Maya complement each other well, providing the audience with an evening of technical superiority that’s on the one part blisteringly heavy and the next, infectiously groovy. Both bands are in their element on stage and it’s a pleasure to watch two bands at the top of their game entertain a crowd.

MARK JOHNSON

The band are no strangers to surprises. Fourth album ‘Mesmer’, released back in March, appeared with no prior warning or announcements, sending their fan-base into a frenzy. Now that the the record has had time to breathe, they arrive in the UK ready to air the its finer moments.

To combat the bitterly cold temperature outside, ERRA take to the stage, and it doesn’t take long for things to start hotting up inside Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms. Alabama-based ERRA have built a passionate and loyal fan-base in the UK and those gathered in the room tonight greet the band with plenty of energy, whipping the floor into a mosh pit as soon as guitarists Jesse Cash and Sean Price strike their first notes. And the acclaim is well deserved – Cash and Price trade complex, interesting guitar parts that are heavy and intricate, and beneath then the drums maintain ferocious rhythms that add more fuel to the crowd’s fire.

Vocalist J.T. Cavey is a commanding front-man. His presence engulfs the stage as he confidently parades back and forth, impressing with his deep, resonant screams that carry much more impact live than on record. Cash’s clean vocals are crisp and clear, adding a well-balanced melodic edge to each track, rounding off a performance that deserves the huge reception it gets from the audience.

With the crowd nicely warmed, Northlane emerge on stage and continue to stoke the crowd’s enthusiasm, charging into ‘Colourwave’ from latest album ‘Mesmer’, which is met with an energetic mosh pit. As expected from a new album tour, tracks from ‘Mesmer’ dominate the set, the band choosing to play two-thirds of the album, amongst favourites from ‘Singularity’ and ‘Node’, as well as ‘Dispossession’ from the band’s debut ‘Discoveries’, to the delight of long-serving fans.

The mix in the Rescue Rooms is perfectly balanced, allowing devastating heaviness to spill from the speakers during the band’s many, well-crafted breakdowns, yet in the softer moments, the intricacies of the guitars and subtle ghost notes of the snare-drum permeate the atmosphere. If there can be one criticism of Northlane’s recent albums it’s the lack of dynamism – they’re experts at locking into a fantastic groove, but after a while this becomes one-dimensional and predictable. Yet here in a live environment, the wonderfully rich layers make tracks like ‘Citizen’ and ‘Solar’ come alive in new ways.

Bassist Alex Milovic helps add to the rich texture, his bass tone warm yet punishing, and as Milovic spins and twists on stage, his presence lifts the band’s performance visually as well. With two albums under his belt, vocalist Marcus Bridge has cemented his position and his live performances continue to go from strength to strength. His screams, harsh and impactful, transition seamlessly into flawlessly executed clean melodies and his ability to perform the older material as effortlessly as his own makes Bridge a natural, worthy front-man for the band.

These excellent individual performances are great to witness, but it’s the way everything pulls together that makes Northlane such an impressive live act. Each instrument combines with machine-like precision, locking into infectious grooves that last just long enough to command your limbs with movement before throwing you off with well-timed offbeats, and brutally pummelling you with breakdowns. The release of ‘Mesmer’ this year may have been a surprise, but at this stage in the band’s history, their ability to deliver a sublime performance is far from it.

MARK JOHNSON

Having been a solo performer thus far in his career, it’s no surprise that the full band set-up still needed time to bed in before it came across naturally, and for the first couple of songs Barrie was masked by the volume of the other instruments, his acoustic guitar and vocals getting lost in the mix. After an opening burst of fully electric material, the touring musicians passed control of the stage to Barrie, leaving him to perform a couple of songs alone. Playing acoustically is clearly his comfort zone and with the freedom to dictate the timing and volume level, Barrie’s excellent vocals shone through as he grew into the performance. By the time the band rejoined the stage, Barrie was in full stride and with the volume mix corrected, the rest of the set sounded natural and impressive.

Despite struggling to acclimatise to the British weather, which seemed a likely suspect for his unshakable virus, Barrie’s vocals were flawless throughout the performance. It’s clear that he’s invested time in perfecting his instrument and the control that he has over his voice is testament to that. During the volume issues at the start of the set, there was no attempt to overcompensate by straining his voice, Barrie kept it level and stable, meaning that when he did need to reach for the higher notes his voice never let him down. Often when singers are under the weather they choose to not sing portions of songs but Barrie persisted with every note and executed them perfectly.

As well as having an excellent voice, Barrie is also a great songwriter. His endless catalogue of catchy pop-rock songs comes across strongly in a live setting, so it’s a surprise to see the crowd consisting almost entirely of girls under 16. That’s not a criticism of the SayWeCanFly fan-base, but more of a call to other demographics to give Barrie’s work some attention. Perhaps a continuation of the style shown on ‘Darling’, where more full band songs were present in the mix, and with more evolution in the subject matter of his songs, this demographic may widen. With the talent that he has and the backing of Epitaph records, there’s certainly every possibility.

MARK JOHNSON

Canadian metal maestros Lord Dying put on a surprisingly loud set for a support band, especially one without a bass player. Still, it is impossible to knock the groove that they bring to the table. Even though their live set was nothing particularly impressive to look at (the band preferring to stick to the microphones on the sides of the stages) their out-and-0ut heaviness and stirring riff-craft entice a notable number of people into headbanging along in approval. As a support band in a foreign country they were good – at their own show, potentially a bloody good time.

Now hometown boys Palm Reader kick off their whirlwind of a set with one of the noisiest intros ever. A lot of rumblings have been coming out about Palm Reader, and how excellent they are, and we are pleased to confirm the hype is entirely justified. The guys tore a new hole in the already Swiss-cheese-esque Rescue Rooms’ panoply of bands to have played an absolute blinder of a set, and despite the poor vocal sound they carried on as though they were playing to triple the amount of people they were. Although musically they sound closer to Converge or The Dillinger Escape Plan, Palm Reader seem to be lumped in with the rest of the UK hardcore scene – if this were the case all bar maybe one or two of those bands should take notes, because Palm Reader are in a class of their own, particularly when it comes to pulling off a minor riot on stage.

Some people criticised the quality of production on the latest Cancer Bats record (which is quite frankly a silly thing to do) but their live shows have never been up for debate as anything other than one of the greatest things you will ever witness. The boys do not disappoint – even with the set times cut shorter tonight Cancer Bats make up for it by playing fast, and playing fucking loud, only taking time out of their set to briefly thank the masses of people who turned up and for singer Liam Cormier to give an impassioned speech about the money he is raising for cancer research.

Old favourites like Pneumonia Hawk and the hardcore-punk staple that is Hail Destroyer go down a treat, and new songs like Arsenic In The Year Of The Snake and closing banger Satellites show that Cancer Bats have always been better at writing songs than over 90% of their peers. Watching them on stage you don’t even get the impression that they even want to break out into the mainstream – they seem perfectly happy to forego playing the mainstage at Reading & Leeds or Download for playing shows of a few hundred absolute lunatics, in a reasonably small venue, and show people how to really put on a good show.

Playing the music they do Cancer Bats will never be a huge, commercial band – and thank fuck for that.

ANDY LEDDINGTON