The Sheffield Scenester

Chayser were the first up tonight and knowing tonight was a heavily biased rock/metal night, I was eager to get some adrenalin pumping through these old cold veins. They began with the song ‘Sound’, rather an apt title considering…luckily it lived up to it’s name and didn’t push beyond into ‘noise’ territory. Still it was rock, but rock with vocal depth since all three front men offered up their services for this track, normally you might expect a bit of backing vocals here and there, but what they did was to enhance the music with layers of harmony. It may not reach the majesty of The Beach Boys…but they were definitely heading in the right direction and for that I applaud them. Musically they played a pretty traditional style of British modern rock and they know how to put on a good act, the choreographed guitar thrashing came in bucketfuls, and they had no problems banging out a good solo as was proved beyond a shadow of a doubt in their final song of the night ‘Superphonic’! With a good sized crowd and some interesting song inspirations…the track ‘Refreshment’ was about the time one of them went to buy a sandwich, not exactly dark and menacing….but a good place as any to start, I look forward to what they come up with in the future!

With a good start to the evening it was the job of Lord Jester to keep momentum going, now we’ve seen them on quite a few occasions and generally they manage to come up with something new, however surreal it may be, so I was curious what tonight’s show would have to offer. The lights dropped and the room was filled with the dark foreboding theme used in the Lord Of The Rings films to announce the arrival of the Ringwraiths, a far cry from their Mexican Hat Dance that I remember so well last time they were here! Both front men, Liam and Johnathan had black capes and stocking masks to look the part and kept them on throughout the first song….but it was obvious this was getting too much as Liam ripped his off straight afterwards gasping for air. He literally was sweating like a pig which was convenient as the track ‘Squeal Like A Piggy’ soon followed. With a heavy drum barrage and a homage to the film Deliverance with dueling guitar and bass it was obvious what the subject matter was. Generally these lads never really take themselves seriously as they know full well they are a fun band however musically talented they may be, but tonight they seemed out of sorts. Afterwards even they admitted they’d had a bad show by their standards, but no doubt they will bounce back stronger than before as we’ll find out at the Summer Sizzler on August 13th!

Next up were The Recroots who offered quite a mixed bag in terms of musical output, ranging from the sharp and choppy outburst of ‘In The Morning’ to the almost grinding hard blues on the final track of their set, ‘4th July’, but by far the best song of their set was ‘In Any Soul’. The tune alone would stand up in any soundtrack but with quite touching lyrics delicately woven into it, the whole experience became quite fascinating as we were given what comes across as a long lost love story. Love and relationships seem to be a common theme in their vocals but their actual sound is as diverse as their line up, not one of them looks like they should be part of this collective, but whatever the reason these guys came together, it certainly makes for an interesting collection of tracks, because Arctic Monkeys wannabe’s they most definitely are not!

Hot on the tails of The Recroots were Velozity, a band who have totally re-invented themselves since we last saw them, not only was it a whole new line up…but their sound and presentation were designed with attitude in mind! It was still rock, but instead of the more radio friendly retro rock they performed so well before….this had bite, it had anger and it was in your face from the very first chord of ‘Re-education’ right through to the final ear ringing riff in ‘All About You’. Up front was Silv, Bones and Pepper, the combined power of these three proved to be quite a force to be reckoned with, whether it be in synchronized axe thrashing or harmonized choral screaming , ‘Waste Away’ was a prime example of this particular skill…they all knew what the others were doing and went with it! On the final song, ‘All About You’ we were all asked to dance along, not exactly a dance number, but since it belted along with jack-hammer ferocity the crowd loved the idea and went for it, that was until the spectacle of an all out thrash-a-thon brought them to a standstill as they gazed in awe. An outstanding case of rebranding, for the first time they look the part, they sound the part and they certainly played the sh*t out of the part!

One of Sheffield’s finest headliners, Jackson Caged, were here to close the show and it was good to see them back in some deranged make up, though the sight of lead singer Fraz wearing a Thor mask And T-shirt did raise quite a few smiles around the floor. With a pretty big crowd tonight it was good to see people dancing along especially when they covered Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing In The Name’. Of course their set wouldn’t be complete with out a certain degree of profanity so when ‘Porn Star’ was played the crowd loved it, unfortunately just as they were about to let go with ‘Pardon Me Miss’, drummer Mike smashed through his kick drum! So whilst several people gave him a hand to turn it around, Rich turned on an improvised guitar solo before Fraz decided to have a go at singing ‘Amazing Grace’…it may not of been classic JC….but it was certainly entertaining! Once the drum was sorted Fraz couldn’t resist a few jokes about Mike going back to the clinic about his skin, one of the reasons these guys are so watchable is that despite all the sadistic and depraved lyrics, you know deep down its done with a certain degree of twisted humour. Finishing with the classic double-barreled helping of ‘Everyfall’ and ‘Jaws’, just re-affirmed their status as one of the best live bands in Sheffield today!

An outstanding night for Soundclash, though with virtually an all out helping of rock it was more of an overview than a clash of sounds, but I was happy to be there all the same.

Words and Photographs by Geoff Buckthorpe