
Capsize + ’68 + Casey + Conduit @ The Flapper, 21st May 2015
Despite suffering the dreaded lurgy all too common to bands spending extended periods out on the road, Capsize delivered an impassioned set that summed up perfectly the character of their current release ‘The Angst In My Veins’.
The first band that I caught was Conduit, a progressive melodic hardcore outfit from Coventry. Their sound is driven by the bass and clean vocals of Dave Boyle and tonight saw the usual band members joined by Matt McKay who did a great job in stepping in to provide some screams. There were a few issues with feedback and mic leveling but their relatively short set drew a good crowd and gave me reason to go check out their upcoming album ‘Life On Repeat’.
As the crowd reconvened for Casey’s set, singer Tom set his mic stand in the middle of the floor, naturally causing the audience to circle around him and gave his opening evocative delivery of some well written lyrics all the more intimate feel. Second track, ‘Fade’, gave more insight into what Casey as a band are all about, right out of the gate gritty vocals highlighted the passion in their sound and further showcased some great guitar work and drumming. Interestingly, ‘Haze’ was dedicated to the memory of Biggie Smalls who would have been celebrating his 43rd birthday on the evening of the gig, Casey offered up their set as a celebration of his life. Tom expressed the band’s gratitude for being offered a slot on the tour with Capsize and ’68 despite having only being a band for a short amount of time, but based on this evening and subsequently watching the excellent videos for ‘Teeth’ and ‘Fade’, I can see the lads from South Wales picking up plenty more support slots in the future.
I have to take my hat off to Surprise You’re Dead Music for being able to book the likes of AC/DC and Lynyrd Skynyrd for The Flapper in Birmingham on a Thursday night… or so Josh Scogin of ’68 would have had us believe from the introductions he provided between tracks!
Right from the soundcheck ’68 exuded confidence and attitude and it wasn’t long before I realised the magnitude of the noise these two guys can create. Josh, along with drummer Michael McClellan produce a sound that transcends the noise rock pigeonhole that they seem to have been placed into, juxtaposing roots from old-time southern rock n’ roll with jilting mathcore atmospherics. Seeing ’68 live goes further than just their music though, Scogin provides genuinely funny comedy relief between tracks; audience interaction, tour stories and slapstick elements all tie the overall feel of the band together perfectly. While most of the tracks came from their debut album ‘In Humor And Sadness’ much of their set time is used with solos and jamming that gives their performance a real feeling of uniqueness. Mention has to go to Josh’s confession that he’d managed to leave his guitar in a “little place called Germany” and that he’d had to borrow one for this evening from one of the guitarists from Casey. Based on this he made a heart felt plea to the crowd not to buy any merch from them as “it’ll only make things worse.” This was the first time that I’d seen ’68 live but I’m certainly hoping it wont be the last.
Personally I feel that in the world of melodic hardcore, bands have two choices if they want to be successful, they can either try to find a way to make their music stand out from the crowd or they can follow a similar pattern to many of their peers but stand out by dong what they do really well, for me Capsize fall into the latter category. Anguish filled lyrics, the blend of screams and cleans, the breakdowns and the melodic guitar riffs aren’t anything that you wont have heard before but they’re all put together extremely well and performed with a huge amount of passion and energy.
Their performance tonight certainly hid the fact that they were all suffering from illness picked up from being on the road for three months straight. The Flapper felt pretty full for their set and saw vocalist Daniel Wand career around the small floor in front of the stage for the opening three tracks before climbing onto the stage to join his band mates for the rest of their set. Highlights included ‘Linger’ and title track ‘The Angst In My Veins’ as well as final track, ‘I’ll Take The Blame’, from their EP ‘I’ve Been Tearing Myself Apart’ which saw a great reaction from crowd.
In all, a great evening of music with a great performance from Capsize at the top of the bill, but for me the show was stolen by ’68 whose whirlwind of chaos, dissonance and comedy just left me wanting more.
Review: Steve Kilmister
Photographs: Steve Gerrard