Written By: NICK ASHTON
Photos By: NICK ASHTON
Tonight’s venue is Satan’s Hollow, an alternative / rock club located in a dingy Manchester backstreet. The doors are at a rather un-Satanic 6 pm, but with five bands to cram in before the 10pm curfew and the start of the club night, we are here bright and early for the first band of the night, Mere Amore. This young five-piece have only been around for about a year, but they have a couple of punky, angsty singles under their belts and are building a following on the alternative circuit. They are brash, energetic and angry in equal measures, taking swipes at social inequalities, politicians, mental health and alcoholism from a feminist/queer counterculture perspective. Vocals switch between spoken, atonal diatribes and primal screams while spiky guitars lash out. Their short set culminates in current single Micromac which sees each band member taking turns to scream their inner rage into the mic. It’s not pretty, but anger isn’t meant to be safe and cosy. Up next we have Loud George, an emotionally driven alt-rock / grungy trio who hit the stage stripped to the waist and ready give it their best. Opener Jellybean has a catchy riff and memorable chorus that draws you in, before Monster offers up a sucker punch to knock you out. Vocals are powerful, veering between shouty in the choruses and mellower during the verses which makes for some welcome light and shade as well as the opportunity to yell along. Lobotomy does what it says on the tin, with an insistent bassline drilling into your prefrontal cortex and messing with the connections in your head, before the set concludes with the punky and frenetic Bottles.
And so on to the first of the out-of-town co-headliners in the form of Buried in Bermuda who trade in metal flavoured alt-rock that really packs a punch. Sporting a Metallica-influenced none-more-black look, it quickly becomes apparent that these guys have the chops to match. Gilles Macey has a rich, powerful voice that can cut through the riffage and pin you to the wall. He displays some deft control, pushing the volume without drifting over into screaming whereas in other passages he shows an impressive range and the ability to really hold a note. The rest of the band are no slouches either: rhythm guitarist Kyle Needham riffs like his life depends on it while bassist Ben Hussey drives the bottom end and drummer Alex Bowyers is a machine behind the kit. The standout track is Electric, which combines hardcore riffing with lighter passages that build relentlessly over its 7-plus minutes into a truly epic tune. This is the work of a band that clearly has the ambition to make it on to those big stages and I wish them good luck. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for them in future and I recommend that you do too.
Tour partners Lucky Number Seven are a different beast altogether. A high energy, post-punk duo who rattle through their set at a hundred miles an hour. At times it’s hard to believe that there are just two people in the band. Jack Bell (guitar and vocals) occupies every inch of Satan’s ‘in the round’ stage to the point that it’s hard to photograph him because he rarely stands still for long enough! Drummer Luke Bartels is a blur, battering the kit and more than holding his own in the maelstrom even though he is tied down to a drum stool. Entertainment sounds like an angry wasp, SexSick is a raw, broken howl and Get A Grip is a wide-eyed amphetamine-fueled rampage. It’s not all frenetic energy though, as slower brooding numbers such as Marker Pen slowly build the tension up into a menacing thing of twisted beauty. Latest single ObSensitive has a droning quality that spills over into a free for all, slash and burn riff which takes no prisoners. This is invigorating stuff which threatens to explode in a ball of flame at any second, taking you out as collateral damage.
Band Members
Rox Capriotti- Vocals / Bass / Keyboards
Luca De Falco – Guitar
Tom Monk – Drums