Now this is interesting, not our usual haunt, a Fucked Up gig, in London no
less could have been a real bore. However, we were left pleasantly
surprised by what we found.
The opening act are Invasion. The band kicked
the XFM showcase off by rocking out with their brightest material. The crew
shone through as stars of the future with their infectious brand of frantic
rock and roll. Kind of like a twisted female fronted version of System Of A
Down touched up with the dark tone of Joy Divison.
Sheffield’s own Rolo Tomassi are up next, and after your writer gets lost
outside a Pete Doherty gig just down from the Barfly, only to be rescued by
vocalist Eva. We were more than looking forward to finally checking out the
apparently explosive live performance of our Yorkshire counterparts. Like a
smaller KatieJane Garside, Eva’s schizophrenic vocals are soft and
seductive one minute and frankly frightening the next. She leads her
bandmates into a set of frantic chaos with bleeps and headbanging galore.
It¹s weird, and very very different to anything you have heard and probably
will ever hear. But, with bouncy choruses and an hysterical catalogue of
material It’s for you to decide whether that is your deal or not. On thing
is for sure, the ferocity of tunes like ‘Abraxas’ and the strangely
addictive ‘Film Noir’ will leave you bewildered in a good way.
As the headliners, Toronto Canada’s own Fucked Up take to the stage amidst
some shameless promo banter by the XFM host, we are taken for a wild ride.
While the band play some surprisingly melodic and intelligent punk, the
vocalist Pink Eye stands up front and dives on people. Anyone who has seen
this band before will know that this has the potential to be a very
dangerous situation. But no, everyone (yeah, me too) laps it up! It’s
catchy old school hardcore punk delivered with true passion and in a kick-ass fun
package, if you mixed Bad Religion with G.G.Allin with a pinch of Rancid you
might be close. It’s no wonder everyone is raving about them right now. As
the vocalist gets in the crowd, truly bringing it to his adoring public (9th
coolest person in the World according to the NME don’t ya know?) we
shamefully miss out on getting belly-flopped. It doesn’t matter though,
because with an epic live show packed with angry and emotive punk rock
anthems the crowd f***ing love it.
