After covering festivals, birthday gigs, the Blitz and other larger projects we finally get time to review the normal goings on in the scene. Symbo unveiled news on an album they were recording so the Sno! Bar was a good gig to check out and see what I could find out. Also playing are Vision Fall, who Beatdown have been recommending. It’s not exactly as busy as it can be upon arrival, but bearing in mind it’s only two bands playing as it is I’m expecting a fairly easy, laid back night.
First up on the stage are Symbo, the lads have been busy since I last caught them at Musik 4U, recording the album is one thing, but along with that their set is also becoming a bit tighter, something that really matters in the three-piece formula. Taking some punk influences, adding elements of metal, mixing in some alternative and kicking in a spunky performance, their sound is really coming together now, rapid solos, pounding drums, gritty basslines and a loose swagger belie that fact that the audience is smaller than it should be tonight. As for the set itself, “On And On” takes us into their set, hammering in the beat early on while regular tracks like “My Disguise” and “Myliner” follow up later on to keep that pace up. Apart from narrowing down their set and sound, the guys seem a little more focused too, not trying being too over the top but still packing enough energy to deliver some killer riffs and jump around, dare I say this is the sound of twenty-first century punk?
With the next band setting up, the sound guys remark that their lead guitarist looks like Jack Osbourne, there may be similarities but the band setting up is VisionFall, who definitely don’t have Jack in their lineup. The majority of the set revolves around “At Sanity’s Wake”, their latest Ep. It’s fair to say they play with a relentless vigour that livens the place up a bit. VisionFall do seem to sound familiar to some other bands I hear, a lot of local bands play metal and a few of them try for the screamo lyrics and big guitars, harmonies and a heavy beat, the lads fall into a similar sound to the likes of locals Rise Inside and a few more worldwide names like The Absence and Children Of Bodom. But saying it doesn’t sound new isn’t by all means putting a band down. At the end of the day they played their sound of choice well, there were people up front and the guys played a decent set with a Killswitch Engage cover and play an enviably tight set all the way through to their closer, “Follow”, it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it and VisionFall do it well.
It wasn’t a great night, the bands were pretty tight but in the usual Beatdown terms it was a fairly standard night and even then it was fairly quiet due to only two bands playing. But that did result in some time to chat with Symbo and Oz about various things like albums, lighting ideas and suchforth. Even the crew were feeling a bit of an easy night, throwing out light-hearted sarcasm to the bands, I guess it felt more of a social than a gig which isn’t all that bad. But after taking shots, having a Bulmers, chatting like a spaz and resorting to the old KFC for some post-gig munchies, it hits me that things are back to normal with the reviews, just the way I like it.
Craig \m/
