The Sheffield Scenester

Unfortunately I was running late on this, the second consecutive night down at The Plug for Soundclash, and so arrived just as the opening act, Russian Doll, where finishing their first song! Before continuing it might be rather prudent to point out that the running order for the night originally began with Broken Weekends, so what happened to them you might ask! Simples really, Broken Weekends had recently split up, artistic differences were given as the reason, and this was the new band called Russian Doll! Also when chatting to the singer Sam, afterwards, it turns out they had no bass player as of yet and so borrowed a guitarist from the group 10take to cover for tonight. He happened to be the drummer’s brother, a fortuitous approach if ever there was one!

When I did arrive, the first thing I heard was a pretty decent guitar solo screaming above a huge onslaught of drums and bass. It wasn’t exactly Indie and it wasn’t exactly metal, instead hovering somewhere in between, but in the process doing an impressive job, it has to be said. With a couple of covers, one from Arctic Monkeys and the other, ‘Always Where I Need To Be’, from one of their favourite bands, The Kooks, they played a thoroughly energetic and entertaining set. Their self penned songs more than held their own and whilst there was a crowd of about fifty or so present; they did offer quite a bit of well deserved support. Making sure that they had nothing but fun on stage, they were obviously relaxed in their performance as they enjoyed a bit of banter with the crowd. When it came to the final song of their set, ‘Silver Beach’, it was pretty obvious that the ‘on-loan’ bassist didn’t know it and wasn’t too keen on playing it, but Sam just turned to him and said, “Just have a go, it’s in the key of E!” So sure enough they played on without so much as a hiccup, okay the bass may have been out of synch on the final track but since they were having a good laugh doing it, I seriously doubt anybody noticed enough to care.

By now a larger crowd had formed and most of them were at the front of the stage, always a good sign when it comes to a band I’m seeing for the first time! By the time they arrived on stage the floor was practically full, were it not for the fact that they were crammed against the stage they would have easily spread out and filled the venue. Once on stage, with lead singer Alex Lantrua all dressed in black, looking like a die hard Green Day fan, they suddenly began. When I say began, they flew headlong into a brilliant array of well structured chords all buried beneath a blazing trail of hard and fast riffs...obviously the Green Day influence had extended beyond the wardrobe department! Alex was a genius when it came to getting the crowd behind him, not that they needed much encouragement as the music more than spoke volumes for itself. But to add extra spice to the proceedings he happily flaunted his fret skills along the front of the stage, teasing the crowd in practically every song. Credit where credit is due, the rest of the band seemed happy to let him hog the limelight as he stole the show, even bass player Lucy Patrick, took on the guise of a shrinking violet in the darkest corner of the stage. For a band so young, they certainly knew how to put together a polished act, maybe it wasn’t edgy enough to be truly groundbreaking, but it certainly had enough bite to it, leaving you lusting for more! And more was what they delivered as their set seemed to over run the usual thirty minutes, they even threw in a ‘Hey Jude’ sing-a-long moment which got the crowd singing and swaying along, pure genius! Each song was catchy and memorable, especially ‘Concrete Sinners’, I honestly believe these guys can put on a show in their sleep that a lot of bands can’t even achieve when going full pelt. It goes without saying that there was not a dull moment or a disappointed fan while they were on stage, and I have no doubt our paths will cross again!

Having reached that level of exhilaration, I really pitied the next band, but luckily The Stoops seemed up to the task in hand. A band, famous for their ‘Are you up for it!’ approach to good old British Indie rock and armed with a fistful of solid rhythm based songs, undeterred they set about their business. Encouraged by the familiar chant of “We are, we are, we are The Stoops!” from yet another large crowd, Dale Staniland and Co opened their set with ‘Can’t Get Through’, short, sharp and punchy as hell. Following this with a series of truly danceable indie anthems, the fans began moshing, at which point security took up position around the main floor to stave off any trouble. For now it was just a few isolated pockets of fun induced bouncing that was going on, but as the set progressed this soon spread across the entire stage front. Mind you with fast and catchy songs from the opening chord to the final note made it hard work just keeping your foot still! They finished with a cover of the Faithless classic ‘Insomnia’, and at this point the fans lost all inhibitions and let rip with some real moshing. If there was a prize for most overly enthusiastic fan base then these guys took it hands down tonight, of course security descended en masse but there really was no need as the crowd were just having harmless fun. This Way Up may have been a hard act to follow, but The Stoops more than lived up to the task, they are a band that seems to love what they do and just get better and better each time we see them!
The final band of the night was the usually reliable Stripey Jack; who normally bring a crowd of screaming girls along with them...but this time there were only half a dozen blonde girls at the front of the stage! Mind you what they lacked in female support they more than made up for in their music as it took on a slightly heavier sound which gave it a greater depth. This doesn’t mean they are a two dimensional band....it just means they seemed elevated out of the popiness of previous performances. Their singer Ryan Young also put in more of a meaningful show, sometimes in the past his vocals have come across as almost bored, but since the whole band seemed to be enjoying the night, this no doubt transferred to his performance as well. One thing which was blatantly odd, in fact downright weird was that the drummer Jacob Lewis was wearing a rubber gasmask for the duration of the set. Whether this was comfortable or not I have no idea...but being curious I asked him after the show why? To which he replied “It stops me looking gormless!” I really had no response to that other than to thank him for his time and wander off to order myself a drink.

For the second night in a row Soundclash had pulled out all the stops and put on a good, packed out show, how could they follow this? Easily, by putting on a show on the Sunday as well to make it a treble for the weekend, for on the Sunday was Searching 4 Evidence’s EP launch party down at The Boardwalk! If that is even half as good as either the Friday night or Saturday night shows than it will definitely be a weekend to remember!

Words & Photos by Geoff Buckthorpe