The Sheffield Scenester

Saturday night wouldn’t be the same without a Soundclash gig going on somewhere in the city....and yet again Joolz has put together a top show....this line up was a complimentary one with the emphasis definitely on metal.

To begin with, the youngest group of the night, Velozity...who supplied their fair share of support with a collection of family and friends. Opening with a solid drum and screeching guitar, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the Deep Purple classic ‘Highway Star’. Normally young bands cover modern tracks like Kings Of Leon or Green Day, but for them to go for the complexities of one of the true metal giants showed a certain degree of bravery if nothing else. Still they pulled it off quite admirably...certainly enough to make me and several others around the room stop and watch. Following this with a couple of their self penned numbers ‘Good Man Dies’ and ‘All About You’, worked well as they both came across as accomplished tracks, with strong guitar solos and quality drumming at the back. It made a change to see a girl on bass too, but it wasn’t until they did a cover of ‘Seven Nation Army’ that Steph Matu came into her own, but a lot of the credit for Velozity’s sound has to go to lead guitarist Tom, as he had no qualms about flaunting his skill on the fret. Generally speaking they show a lot of promise with some good tracks of their own as well as a good selection of covers to pad out their set, but as with most young bands they seemed to lack some confidence whilst playing live. The guitarists did pair up for a while, and I feel the singer Sam Rose at times needed stronger vocals...but he did come to life during the cover of Velvet Revolver’s ‘Slither’, a belter of a tune where he incorporated a cow bell! Their on stage persona needs a little work too, but otherwise they made a good opening act and I look forward to hearing from them again.

As a passing observation they came from Stocksbridge High School, the very same one that spawned Lord Jester, so if nothing else they must have one hell of a music department! To follow these guys (and girl) was the three piece Steel Trees (formerly known as Airburst), who flew straight into their set with smashing drums and thrashing guitar....to be fair though it was attacked with such ferocity, that you could have mistaken it for several guitars...all backed up by a more than a competent bass. The vocals came across as slightly harsh and at times inaudible but the guitar work was impeccable in a near manic way. He did stop at one point to ask “Who likes Oasis?”, with a few yelps from the crowd he then turned to say “Well f**k off”...an interesting if brief bit of banter! Winding up their set with more mayhem on the fret, the final track seemed to spiral out of control until finally the guitarist made a half hearted attempt at smashing his ‘axe’ on the stage. I’m sure if he had the money to replace his instrument after every performance then I don’t doubt for one second that he would happily go ahead...but until those days beckon I’m afraid he could only pretend! However this final act of fake rebellion did raise a smile across the audience though!

Next up was one of my favourite rising bands who just seem to get better with each show, with a solid well defined sound. Beginning with the unmistakable fast paced drum intro from Skinny leading into the track ‘Get Away’, unfortunately at this point they were hit by gremlins. They seemed to lose both mic and guitar on the opening track but after a bit of on-stage bustling everything came together and they were soon flying through their set! Having seen them several times I was becoming familiar with their set...so it was refreshing to hear a new track, ‘Deville’, with its slightly atmospheric intro – apparently it was named after his new amp – still a good track culminating in a catchy chorus. As each of their tracks were ground out, the gremlins eased off and they settled into a typically solid set, though it has to be said the vocals seemed too quiet at times, but the guitars and drums more than made up for this slight shortfall! The last song for them, was ironically called ‘The Start’, and what makes this one stand apart from the rest is the whole marching band effect employed on one level, whilst it is woven around a near melodic over tune. An excellent ending to a technically dogged set but these mishaps won’t stop me seeing these guys again!

Finally it was time for Jackson Caged, for me one of Sheffield’s finest and most promising bands. Never afraid to try new things to improve their act....which was proven when I saw them support The Bon Jovi Experience...as they entered the stage caked in blood – obviously not real but it had the desired effect! This time around whilst watching Sleepwalker I noticed guitarist Big M in the audience decorated in a near demonic clown face...think more Pennywise than Ronald McDonald! Sure enough as they mounted the stage it was the theme for the night, though next time I think they ought to paint their mascot with the same design (they have a burnt and battered doll hung on the microphone stand with the word ‘EVERYFALL’ scrawled across it, which would have looked lovely as a mini-psycho-clown!) Opening with ‘Welcome To The Show’ was just a taster of what is about to come, especially with their particular brand of hardcore metal induced mayhem. With more sexual references, violent descriptions and general foul mouthed observations than your average Quentin Tarantino film, you have to remember it’s all done with a sense of fun in mind. One downer on the whole show was that drummer Mike had recently been in bed for two weeks with glandular fever and so was definitely not his usual self...at times it looked like he was slumped over his kit instead of beating the hell out of it. This may have been the reason that their performance seemed a bit subdued, but Fraz and Big M did their best to compensate and when it came to tracks like ‘Every Fall’ and the final track ‘Jaws’, they let rip as usual and I was more than happy!

A good metal night for Soundclash, and at the end of the day I still enjoyed the show and would like in particular to wish Jackson Caged all the best at the O2 in London (they have reached the finals of Live And Unsigned and will be playing down there on July 10th ).

Words and photos by Geoff and Gail Buckthorpe.
further photos by Malcolm White