Rolo Tomassi, Trash Talk + Throats.

Arrived early enough and went looking for The Flapper. All I knew was it was near the NIA and on a Canal. So off we went winding through the streets of Brummland. After giving up and asking where it was it turned out it was only a minute away and we were facing the wrong direction. Good game.

Arrived at the pub which was a nice little place, I got IDed which was interesting as I'm not used to this, made me feel young and already put me in a good mood for the night. Had a beer and sat down watching the canal boats go by/various people with Black Flag bars tattooed on them walk past. Doors opened at 8pm which worried me a little since the train back was at 11.

Doors finally opened and we went into the downstairs area which is grotty, painted black and resembles a Canal House that's had wooden planks placed over the floor to stop it from falling into the canal.

Five unassuming young lads took the stage and began to thrash the living fuck out of everything. Bit of a Converge meets Magrudergrind vibe. No one really knew what to do for them but I think that's because no one knew who they were. I enjoyed them though, nice sludgey doom parts amidst the grinding and spazz attack. They fucked my ears reet good, being the moron I am I forgot my ear plugs. Sadface.

Afterwards was Trash Talk, and the energy in the room was pretty electric, as soon as they hit the stage the pit erupted and most people got covered in beer and coca-cola. Two-steppin commenced and only stopped for a Circle-Pit or a pile-on/shout a long. Fun stuff, I can't wait for them to come back to the UK. I nearly broke my leg too, which was not fun, went straight back to throwing down after, which I haven't done in a fuckin' age.

Rolo Tomassi took forever to come on and as such I could only stay for 3 songs before running for the train, but I will say they are a great band and I'm pretty down about not being able to stay for their full set. Their frontlady is incredibly pretty too and has a bark and shriek that I didn't expect. Lots of flailing about for the band but as I said had to go catch a train.

Good times.

Litmus, Diagonal and Astra last week at The Scala.

Litmus were okay, Hawkwind by numbers.

Astra were very good.

Diagonal were fucking brilliant, very tight and very heavy. They looked like a group of second-year electrical engineering students.

Shrinebuilder got cancelled because of that fucking volcano so I went for (nearly) all of the Hardcore all dayer my friend put on in Chatham, highlights included:

A Long Time Dead: Macho Metalcore with a relatively nice looking female singer.

Almost Home: Anthemic Bane type Hardcore played by Northern teenagers.

Feed The Rhino: Local Hardcore band with an album on In At The Deep End coming out in June.

Cold Snap: Straight Edge Canterbury Mosh with ex-Break In members.

Deadlife Portrait: OG Kent Progressive Metalcore reunion to celibrate the reissue of the EP they put out in 2000.

Also worth mentioning I saw Trash Talk with Cancer Bats on Friday. The venue actually called the police on Trash Talk because of the argument they had with the security, They didn't want them in front of them while they played and kept incouraging kids to stage dive. After they came off one member of security accused the singer of hitting him, point to a barely noticable bump next to his eye. Cancer Bats were fun too, but not nearly as insane.

The Besnard Lakes at the Legion. Never been before, mainly because I don't remember it ever hosting a gig before. As expected it was a pretty unvenue venue, with the horrid long thin shape of the ghastly Islington Academy, only without the awful manufactured "rawk" vibe. Nonetheless it was full of Shoreditch people buying Shoreditch beer for Shoreditch prices (fuck off, £3.60 pint) so to that end the night didn't start well. The only support band (there were supposed to be two but one had to cancel due to volcano-related difficulties) were so thoroughly unmemorable that I was in quite a bad mood when the Lakes came onstage, so it was quite fortunate that they were utterly stunning. Their frontman may look like his hair's on backwards but he is an incredible singer, as is his bass-playing wife, and for the duration of their set they hit every high note, low note and sweet harmony with album-crisp perfection. Left before the encore, but I felt I'd got more than my £8's worth from a truly exceptional band.

I like the Islington Academy! It's similar to the LA2 except there's no stupid step and you can see the stage from everywhere.

Upstairs or downstairs? I was talking about upstairs, which is my least favourite venue in London. Never actually been downstairs.

Rotten Sound and Aborted at the Underworld. Contrasting, but equally slamming sets of Napalm-style grind (including a cover of Missing Link), and Carcass gore-worship. Unfortunately, The Red Chord were volcanoed, and unable to fulfil their headline slot.

Voorhees last night, I fucking love Leeds, the hardcore scene is better than anything going on down here and I want to move there now.

Torn Apart: Raging Powerviolence

Nowhere Fast: Proper old school style Hardcore (think Boston 1982), last show, shame, hope they do other bands.

Mob Rules: More raging Powerviolence, singer threw a temper tantrum before the end of one song because there was strobe lights when he specifically told them not to do that.

Deal With It: Have the best frontman of any UKHC band, some great between song banter.

"If you like Down To Nothing, start a band that sounds like Down To Nothing, if you like Infest, don't bother starting a band that sounds like Infest 'cos there's like twenty other bands like that now"

"To those of you doing a degree in art, photography, design...learn a proper trade"

"This next song goes out to pete Steele, Type O got me through some tough times...DON'T FUCKING LAUGH AT THAT! It might not be cool to admit that but it's true...may his ten inch dick be getting loads of pussy in heaven or hell, wherever he is."

Brain Dead: This was one of the main selling points for me making a treck to the other side of the country for this show. Never got to see this band as they rarely came down south, and they nearly didn't play this last show as their drummer had his snare and symbols lifted from the backstage before they went on. After Deal With It lending him their gear they played a fucking beast of a set, screamed a long up front 'til I completely thrashed my voice.

The Horror: Members of latter Voorhees line up playing ripping Thrashcore.

Voorhees: This was supposed to be the original line up, however the volcano (and a couple of members now living in the US and Mexico) kind of ruined that. They got the singer from Bonestorm to play bass and just didn't bother with a rythem guitarist. I thought Trash Talk were violent, Ian Leck was actually punching and kicking people he took a dislike to, I actually saw people coming out of the pit with cuts on them. They played just as good as the old records and through in loads of Hardcore classics (and a surprise cover of Commando by The Ramones). This will probably be my top gig of the year.

I went to The Rumble in Chicago last weekend and saw Duress, Doomhammer, The Killer, xThe Warx, The Mongoloids, Weekend Nachos, Death Before Dishonor, Death Threat, Lifeless, Steel Nation, Harms Way, Mother Of Mercy, Reign Supreme, Forfeit and Wisdom In Chains.

I am terribly jealous.

I am jealous of my past self.

how were weekend nachos? - they were a blast when i saw them but that was a while ago now

Ripping as always.

Barf.

Why are you sucking up to Red?

My exes aren't worth agony.

Spandau Ballet with Tears for Fears....

"play Gold and True already so I can go home"

Behemoth/Job For A Cowboy/Goatwhore. Behemoth were great as usual- incredibly tight, yet great theatrics as well. JFAC were solid, but were eaisly the last impressive of the three bands. Goatwhore exceeded expectations- energetic, raw and relentless.

Cathedral last night it was a great gig,good set plenty of there new album,Are church of misery playing the london date?one of the worst bands i have ever seen,which puzzled me as the rest of the crowd seemed to be going mental about them.

Church Of Misery are awesome. Clearly, you are a fool.