The Pitz has given me some good memories of Christmas, back in the day I remember Ollie & The Wallies, Son Of A Gun/Slideshow and Titan System giving a packed house a good time, with Titan System throwing chocolate into the audience, mad times! Tonight has a bit more of an inclination with those times than recent years, the bands tonight being quite far apart as far as genres are concerned. Heart Of A Coward have the aggressive screams, This Contrast Kills supply the punk and Tesseract have the progressive moods. Unfortunately Godsacksman don’t make it to the night, but sod the snow, there’s still some good bands on.
Heart Of A Coward are no strangers at all being one of the local names that’s joined the rising hardcore scene. Schizophrenic sounds soon resound through the hall at the Pitz. Something marks this gig as something different for the five-piece though, the news in the HOAC camp is some new material in the form of “Break These Chains” that’s been making waves online through their Myspace recently which is slated to be played out along with their older tunes. As for their new material, it doesn’t seem to hit quite the same spot, it seems a bit slower to develop over it’s course, but it might still be a grower, bearing in mind how long their previous material has been in circulation. Otherwise, it’s an expectedly good show on their side of the barrier, Ben jumping over to the barriers to get up close and personal to the crowd while the band provided a tight backdrop of mental metal and passive progressive harmonies, plus a finish of “City In Exile” it hasn’t been a bad performance at all, just maybe a little bit predictable.
One of the big things about tonight is the rising of This Contrast Kills, who you may find familiar from a certain ska-punk band. The first thing they make clear is that they don’t play metal, instead this three piece have gone back to their punk roots though putting a bit of a techno-viral slant on things, which they lovingly dub as “disco sh*t”. The result is actually quite surprising, usually the addition of synths spells either a mix of trance or crazy noise rock pastiche, but the sounds a little more reigned into the realm of classic hip hop that blends in refreshingly with their punk rock workings and forms something pretty new. As a first gig, it isn’t without it’s cock-ups as samples take a while to introduce songs, but all the same, that’s part of playing a gig and the three seem to be loving it, whatever happens. It’s not exactly a big show either but it does seem to be more of a case of the guys getting back into the groove, something the lads find fairly quickly, be sure to keep an eye on them.
Last time I managed to catch Tesseract was a good while ago, back when the Sno! Bar was comparitively young. Back then I was amazed with what I head, massive morphing soundscapes that were admittedly a litle rough around the edges but nonetheless breathtraking. Right now the guys are about to take up their headline slot and there’s a healthy amount of people behind the barriers to see them. As the first ethereal notes kick in, it seems that, somehow, Tesseract have upped their game of intelligent, measured metal, using technical slants from math beats, slap bass and dual virtuoso guitars to form some awesome sounds on the open canvas that is the Pitz stage. I’m loving the progressive knocks of Dream Theatre, Porcupine Tree tag along with the old screamo styles that have been popular over the past couple of years, but this isn’t screaming just for the sake of it and it’s a lot more controlled, letting the music do most of the talking as the vocals flit constantly between angsty volume and some beautiful dispositions. It seems their new vocalist fits in supremely well and as far as I’m concerned, along with a lot of the people lurking in the hall, Tesseract have definitely been the highlight of the night!
And it’s been a good night overall, it seems that a few people who haven’t been to the Pitz for a good while have also turned up. Its a given that the numbers aren’t exactly huge, but the bands on made up for it, even if the snow caused a few problems. The night’s also fitted in with the old ideal of a Pitz Xmas bash too, a mix of bands, a mix of fans and the need to celebrate.
Craig \m/
Tesseract on Myspace
This Contrast Kills on Myspace
Heart Of A Coward on Myspace
