Slam Dunk Midlands 2015 @ Wolverhampton City, 25th May 2015
You Me At Six
Birmingham Live! were lucky enough to have not one, but three reviewers at Slamdunk Midlands this year to enjoy all of the award winning festival’s action. Keep reading for a recout of their days and to see a whole host of pictures.
I start my day at the Impericon stage, the hardcore stage. Being As An Ocean are the first band I catch, and what better way to start. Bringing there own brand of melodic hardcore all the way from California, their set is filled with energy on and off the stage. There is good turn out, especially considering they’re so early on the bill, but they do everything they can to justify the support. Despite the sound being poor throughout the set, particularly the guitars which I can barely hear it is through no fault of the bands, the band still do their best to make sure everyone is having a good time. Front man Joel Quartuccio is everywhere apart from on the stage, towering over the crowd while standing on the barrier, screaming in the faces of the crowd members who are more than willing to scream the words back to him. Closer ‘This Loneliness Won’t Be The Death of Me’ receives the biggest response, all eyes are on Joel yet again as he prowls through the crowd finding his next target to join him on the mic.
Beartooth
Next up, Beartooth, over on the Monster stage. The Ohio natives have been touted as the one of the bright new prospects in the heavy music and their blend of Metalcore and Hardcore punk certainly attract a big crowd. Front-man Caleb Shomo certainly has experience of getting a crowd going, having been the front-man of Attack Attack! for numerous years before starting Beartooth. ‘In Between’ perfectly encapsulates what Beartooth are all about, with hardcore energies running through the more metal sound, and all the while whipping the crowd up into a frenzy. The strange placement of the stage means there is a big tree in the middle of the crowd, though at first a hindrance, the crowd soon found a use for it, as person after person would be climbing it and jumping in to the bubbling crowd below. If Beartooth’s aim today was to make sure people had a good time, well they certainly achieved it.
We Are The Ocean
I headed over to the main stage, situated in the Civic Hall, to check out We Are The Ocean a band whose early stuff I loved but went off with every following release. With the release of their fourth album ‘Ark’ I was keen to give them another try and see what they’re doing as a band. To say I was dissapointed would be an understatement. For a band that was once compared (albeit wrongly) to Alexisonfire to see them now is a massive dissapointment. They have become middle of the road rock, like an British Gaslight Anthem, but without the charm and songwriting skills to match. Sure, their music isn’t particularly bad but it’s also not particularly good, they seem to have lost any scrap of their early live energy and charisma. For a band that showed a lot of potential on their first album ‘Cutting Our Teeth’, they have now become a band that sounds like numerous other bands. For them to not play anything from that debut album was the nail in the coffin for me. Then again, there was a pretty big crowd for them and a lot of people seemed to enjoy their set, so I guess that counts for something.
Mariachi El Bronx
Next up, a band certain to brighten up anyone’s day Mariachi El Bronx, the Mariachi side-project to legendary LA punks The Bronx, who are also playing today. Complete with matching black and red matador costumes and a few extra members to fully pull off that authentic Mariachi sound, including violinist Rebecca Schlappich who was absolutely brilliant. They play a set filled with their biggest songs, including the brilliant ‘Cell Mates’, the impossible not to dance to ‘Revolution Girls’ and ‘Wildfires’ off their recent third album Mariachi El Bronx III. Front-man Matt Caughthran seems to take on a complete new persona, gone is the front-man’s crazy onstage/in the crowd antics and in their place comes a crooner, with a big smile on his face and a slight spanish tinge on voice. It’s as far from The Bronx as you could imagine, and I think, that’s why it works so well.
With Bayside over half way through their first full UK headline tour, they’re in no doubt high spirits after seeing fans sing back every word to them each night. I myself was at the Nottingham gig only a few days previous to SlamDunk and I witnessed a set that lived up to expectations from one of the tightest bands in the game at the moment. With Anthony Raneri showing off his excellent singing voice, while guitarist Jack O’Shea was pretty much shredding throughout, it was up to bassist Nick Ghanbarian to get the crowd going, it seemed like a pointless task from the start. There really wasn’t much energy from the crowd, there’s a few half hearted sing-alongs but I think people were more than happy just to just stand back and watch Bayside, especially Jack O’shea who’s guitar playing is brilliant throughout, do their thing.
Thy Art Is Murder
Comeback Kid arrive in Wolverhampton after playing a run of 25 gigs in a row, this being their 26. Opener Die Knowing, from their recent album of the same name is as simple as a hardcore song, it’s slow methodical build up plays over a single chord chugged under the whole beat. The sound coming from the stage is brutal, the chugging guitar sound is simple but brutal, meaning the crowd is already going a little nuts for Comeback Kid. The whole set is a master-class of how hardcore music should be done, plenty of energy given by the band, in particular front-man Andrew Neufield who prowls around the stage like a man possessed. Their is plenty of fast riffs, mixed in with some great vocals, Andrew’s voice is aggression personified with the occasional chance to do a bit of singing (which he is more than competent at, as shown with side-project Sights And Sounds’), like on the brilliant ‘G.M Vincent And I’. Ending the set with an appearance from Gallows front-man Wade Macneil, for their fan favourite ‘Wake The Dead’ which bought to an end a fantastic set of music in the most frantic of manners, from a band who show no signs of lethargy from their jam packed touring schedule.
Taking Back Sunday have been one of my favourite bands for a long time, I’ve seen them numerous occasions and can always rely on them to put on a good show. Front-man Adam Lazzara is always a crowd pleaser, with his mic swinging antics, his ability to get the crowd going and above all a strong voice. But, unfortunately, for me, Taking Back Sunday failed to live up to their own high standards today, Adam Is one of those people that always walks the line of being too egotistic but usually comes out on the right side of that line, but today he crossed the line, his ego was definitely out in full today. For a band like TBS, his performance is the tipping point of whether they’re brilliant or poor, because as always the rest of the band were as tight as ever, particularly guitarist Jon Nolan who’s vocal harmonies were a lot stronger than Adam’s voice. Sure, the set is brimming with hits and every song is an opportunity for the crowd to sing-along, which they do, but, it’s not enough to just have the hits, and for me the energy, passion and effort that is needed to back up the hits, was missing today.
Gallows
Closing the day on the Impericon stage were the mighty The Bronx, who always seem to deliver. They’re not just one the most energetic, frantic and aggressive bands of the day, they also have brilliantly put together music and most of all they’re just downright fun! Every song on the set is brilliant, with no two sounding the same, how many other punk bands can you say that about? But really, with a band like The , the music really takes a back seat to the actual antics had by everyone in attendance. Front-man Matt Caughthran is as far removed from his earlier Mariachi performance as possible, taking on a whole different persona, he is aggressive, in peoples faces and his smooth vocals have now morphed into a growl. Songs off their most recent album, inventively titled The Bronx IV, fit effortlessly within the set of their old favourites. ‘The Unholy Hand’ demonstrates a rhythmic approach to punk that just entices the crowd into dancing (moshing, pushing etc.). The set does have a small slower break during the effortlessly cool ‘White Guilt’ written about an LA prostitute, but it kicks back into life at the end as they finish with another fan favourite ‘ History’s Stranglers’. A fitting end to a brilliant day filled with brilliant music, entertainment and people having a genuinely good time. Bring on next year!
Reviewer: Francis Sebastianowitz
Pvris
After walking down a rabbit warren of corridors we finally found the illusive Desperados stage (aka the Punk and Ska stage). Since it had taken us longer than expected to find the stage, we only caught the end of the ‘Survay Says’ set but that was enough to find us wanting more. The New Jersey, ska punk band were energetic, interesting and entertaining; with the added little quirk of one of their main vocalists Dennis also being the trombone player for the set. (Although he also plays the bass and guitar during other sets!) Their sound appears to be what could only be described as a love child of ‘Less Than Jake’ and ‘New Found Glory.’ These guys will be returning in November and we shall definitely be there to catch the full set.
Neck Deep
Following Survay Says was one of main the bands that we were at the Desperados stage to see; Patent Pending. A five-piece American Pop Punk band that started gaining a UK fan base in 2013, it’s easy to see within the first 5 minutes of any set why they have gained such a big following in a short amount of time. They had drawn in a fair crowd today which was nice to see as it was still early on in the day and with such a wide choice of bands for the audience to see, it was obvious Patent Pending had already previously won over a lot of people, and for those who may not have known them already, odds were that they were about to do another set which would win them over too! Bouncing onto the stage they were as pumped as ever. Having such a fantastic rapport with their audience, they never fail to get a reaction and today was no different. They were only two songs in when front man, Joe Ragosta decided to get a circle pit going to their “one minute song” ‘Valentine’, he picked out “guy with big hair” in the crowd to get the pit started and he did just that; the crowd went wild, although we made the wise decision to stay out of it! Having done the “metal” thing in creating an insane mosh pit, they went on to play ‘Anti-Everything’ in which the guys perform a comedic dance routine that one might expect to see when watching your typical 90’s boyband proving that the band have an extremely varied set. If by this point there was anyone still to be won over by them, playing The Big Bang Theory theme tune (originally by Barenaked Ladies) was sure to do it; the moment Joe said the words “soft kitty”, the crowd were committed and continued to sing the well known tune from the show, which went into the actual theme tune and ended with the entire room shouting “BANG” in unison- amazing! Sticking with the covers, they then went on to perform ‘Every Time We Touch’ by Cascada, which had everyone dancing along. ‘Set It Off ‘singer Cody Carson also joined Joe on vocals to this song which the crowd thoroughly loved.
Unsurprisingly the room were more than happy when Patent Pending played their song ‘Hey Mario’, a song based on the life of Mario, the moustached hero that we all know from the Nintendo games. Earlier in the set Joe and Rob (guitar) had, had a crowd swimming race which saw them separate the crowd down the middle for them to run to the back of the room and crowd surf from the back to the front, the first one back on the stage was the winner, with it being a tiebreak situation, they both took it seriously and much to Joes’ disgust, Rob won, (much to his delight), meaning that he had won the ‘Slam Dunk Swimming Olympics’. This fun event however meant that they had taken too long and they had to cut out their final song ‘Douchebag’ but because it is a favourite song of the fans, they did let us sing the outro together, A majority of the people in the room joined in with the words that heard us all singing “Dude, I’m Not Your Bro”. As always we had such a fun time watching Patent Pending and have no bad words to say about them. They’re engaging, they’re fun, they’re talented and they are some of the nicest guys you could ever wish to meet. Honesty, if you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing them then they announced that they will be back in the UK in November and you should definitely check them out.
H2O
Next up on the same stage were Big D and the Kids Table, an old school 3rd wave Ska Punk band who formed back in 1995 in Massechusetts. Yet again, here was another band that had managed to get quite a crowd ready for their set and they didn’t fail to disappoint. They varied from older songs to newer songs and had the audience singing along to every single song. A personal highlight was one of their older songs ‘My Girlfriends On Drugs.’ They perfomed well and kept the audience entertained throughout.
Lightyear were next to bound onto the stage, all 7 of them! Having formed in 1997 in Derby, they have managed to elude a lot of the online music websites and mentioned as such during the set but this didn’t seem to stop fans from knowing all the words to all the songs. They also explained how this would be their last show, with a wink, as they had grown a reputation of being unpredictable, having previously already split up 5 times. These, amongst other things were conversations that Lightyear bantered about and definitely made the crowd feel involved. Their songs were infectiously catchy, thus great to skank to. Hopefully they shall continue to play in the future, as the English ska scene certainly needs these guys to keep the genre alive and kicking.
Shvpes
After the bounciness of Lightyear, the next band onto the stage were the 8 piece, ‘Mariachi El Bronx’ who are the alter ego of hardcore Punk band ‘The Bronx’ (who headlined later in the day on the Impericon stage). Mariachi music couldn’t really be further away from hardcore punk that fans are used to hearing from ‘The Bronx’ so were we about to witness something different and exciting? What were they going to be all about? Basically…no. They are what they say on the tin- a Mariachi band. Although we can fully understand why people were having a dance (especially since by this point there had been a lot of alcohol flowing!) and it is a catchy type of music, once you’ve heard a song or two, they kind of sound repetitive and all songs seemed to merge into one. This is not to say that Mariachi El Bronx are bad at what they do but they were not my cup of tea at all.
Zebrahead (pronounced by Americans as Zeebrahead) were up next on the ska and punk stage. Energy seemed to be buzzing in the room as the crowd anticipated a lively and energetic set from the Orange County 5 piece Punk Rap Ska band. As they walked on stage the crowd went mental as they went straight into ‘Rescue Me’. They moved quickly through their vigorous set with a lot of dancing, skanking and moshing going on which was only briefly slowed by a fully dressed Santa appearing on stage and trying to down a bottle of alcohol (to which he failed!). Not entirely sure what the point of him was but the crowd enjoyed it anyway. During the set, guitarist Dan Palmer and bass player Ben Osmundson were often seen dancing together and messing about on various parts of the stage, which added to the set and was fantastic. They also played such hits as ‘Hello Tomorrow’ and ‘Anthem’ but missed a crowd favourite, ‘Playmate Of The Year.’ At one point leas singer Ali Tabatabaee, informed the crowd that the security were really bored and they would appreciate as many crowdsurfers as possible during one song, to which the crowd were only too happy to oblige to and at least 20 people crowdsurfed over the barrier, much to the annoyance of the security! Another highlight of the set was when they played a song they called, ‘Drink Drink’, which mainly was ‘Drink drink oh England, Drink, drink with me, Drink, drink oh England, Until you have to pee.’ The majority of Patent Pending joined them on stage for this and ran around the santa who also returned on stage, drinking another beer. Marc Kantor however, (Who is primarily in Patent Pending but joins Zebrahead as a touring member) decided to crowdsurf into the crowd with his beer as he was completely drunk and really enjoying himself. One thing that we personally noticed, although we may be incorrect, but it seemed as though the lead singer Ali, had taken a slight step back in terms of being the lead vocalist, and Rhythm guitarist Matty Lewis had given more of an input than at previous gigs. This seemed to make Ali slightly redundant at times but without Ali, they would just be another punk rock ska band. Ali makes them special with his unique rapping and makes Zebrahead a band that will play songs to get stuck in your head for weeks. Also returning in November, this is one to put in your calendars.
Set It Off
Goldfinger were up next on the ska and punk stage and quickly made us all feel old by informing us they had been together 22 years. Jumping straight into one of their well-known hits, ‘Spokesman’, the crowd were immediately drawn in and the entire room was full of skanking people enjoying an old tune. Throughout their set, they consistently played brilliantly and stuck to more well known songs such as ‘Open Your Eyes’ and ‘Spokesman’. They enjoyed having a bit of banter too with the crowd which went down well and by finishing with the cover ’99 Red Balloons’ by Nena, they had made sure everyone was in the party mood and getting ready for the last few remaining bands.
As we sat down to watch ‘Taking Back Sunday’, it was incredible to see just how many people had decided to go to the main stage to watch them. A big band in the early naughties, we hadn’t realised that they still had such a large fan base, but this certainly became apparent very quickly after watching a mosh pit get into full swing very early into the set. Now sporting long rockier hair, the lead singer Adam Lazzara seems to have completely lost his old emo look, opting to look much more mature and having a sound that matched his look seemed to be the case. Their songs seemed to edge more into the post hardcore genre but still had tinges of their emo days with such songs as ‘Cute without the E’, ‘What’s It Feel Like To Be A Ghost’, ‘A Decade Under The Influence’ and of course they had to finish on one of their best old school emo songs, ‘MakeDamnSure.’ A great strong set by a band who have managed to change through the times but keep their core sound.
Getting quite late on in the day, we find ourselves waiting for the Detroit pop punk band, ‘Fireworks.’ Having heard very little from this band, we were filled with anticipation as to whether they would be any good and we were not disappointed. Lead singer David Mackinder jumped straight into the set with ‘Arrows’ and the sound was unique but with distinct twangs of ‘New Found Glory’, ‘Hit The Lights’ and ‘The Story So Far’. Although we had to leave rather early in this bands set to go see Reel Big Fish, this is definitely a band we would love to see in the future and will be keeping an eye out for any UK tours later in the year.
Crossfaith
We had reached the finale; Reel Big Fish. They had drawn in a big crowd that had pretty much filled the room and it was quite clear that by this time a large chunk of the fans were rather drunk, this certainly was going to add to the fun that was to unravel. Having not seen Reel Big Fish for such a long time, we were interested to see if they were still the same as we remembered them, and they really were, down to the Hawaiian shirt worn by front man Aaron Barrett. (Which could have in fact been the same shirt as the last time we had seen them live!) This crowd were pretty rowdy before the band had even started and that only increased when the band started playing; almost everyone in the room was singing along and dancing. With such fun music, the dancing just couldn’t be helped, whether it was a bobbing of the head, tapping of the foot or full on skanking, the whole room was moving. Their set well and truly took hold from around half way through when they played ‘She Has A Girlfriend Now’ from their more successful 1996 (!) album ‘Turn The Radio Off’. Before they performed ‘Sell Out’ from the same 1996 album, they played the intro to Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ which went down well with the fans, they stopped at only intro though, making a joke that “that’s the wrong 90’s song!” that was their queue to play ‘Sell Out’ which the crowd went wild for. At one point they also did a cover of ‘Call Me Maybe’, which was absolutely fantastic and should be released as a single because it is better than the original. They cut that one short though when they asked the men in the audience to sing the lyrics to the second verse to which silence ensued. When the band left the stage, the fans chanted Reel Big Fish, over and over, they continued to cheer and shouted for more. We were actually preparing to leave before Reel Big Fish returned for their encore to avoid the rush but as they came back and we heard the intro to Toots And The Maytals ‘Monkey Man’, we were back under the skanking spell, mesmerised and unable to leave. This band had us hook, line and sinker. Their second song of the encore was ‘Beer’, part way through the song they went into The Offspring’s ‘Self Esteem’ before resuming with their song, it was fantastic. Much to everyone’s delight, Reel Big Fish closed their set with A-ha cover ‘Take On Me’ which the band originally performed in the 1998 film BASEketball and since then it has been a fan favourite. It is safe to say that everyone sang the song from beginning to end and it was entertaining to hear an entire room sing the famous high pitched note that features in the song. It may have been a long time since we last saw Reel Big Fish but they were as awesome as ever and as long as they return to the UK in the near future, we don’t plan to leave it so long again!
Reviewers: Shaz Rafferty + Gemma Bywater