Eastpak Resistance Tour
16 November 2003
The Forum, London

At last years Eastpak Resistance Tour, the tickets had a much earlier door time than the actually gig and consequently we were left freezing in Kentish Town for hours. This time, the opposite has occurred, with tickets showing 7pm, we discovered before hand, doors were actually at 5pm. Consequently it`s a much shorter queue outside The Forum this afternoon, who are still kept waiting for an additional half an hour.

It appears Knuckledust aren`t allowed to wait for us though and must have started before anyone actually got in the venue. As a result, we only catch three songs of their set, though I was completely distracted by the ridiculous kung-fu dancing occurring in a huge circular cleared area in front of the stage. It seems you must perform a bizarre "look at me" dance, which, as my Mother might say, "...could have someone`s eye out!". I think next time I may take some score cards to rate the dancing, "5.9 for the guy with the backpack".

Back to our brief experience of Knuckledust, and the sound hasn`t settled down yet, which made it quite difficult to get a grasp of the songs. Lead singer Pierre, resembles Goldie, without the gold teeth and barks out caustic vocals on the likes of Against All Odds. Meanwhile the rest of the band all have something to say to the crowd, but soon enough it`s goodbye as they`re hurried off stage before any conclusive views can be made.

Length Of Time from Brussels were up next adding a bit of metal to proceedings. Their sound is not dissimilar to early Life Of Agony, with a dash of metalcore and death metal. Providing all the song introductions and the obvious leader of the band is long haired, flying-V wielding guitarist Kirby, also of Deviate and Arkangel. It wasn`t until afterwards I realised that the band were playing with a new singer, as his vocals closely resemble those on the latest CD Antiworld, though his haircut had me thinking of The Human League.

The sound had definitely improved which benefited Length Of Time`s heavy crunch and I found myself nodding along during the set. What the band struggle with though is a lack of memorable songs. Having had the latest CD for a few months, I was unable to pick out any that they played from it. However, I did make a note of Losing My Heaven and Broken Peace from third album How Good The World Could Be Again and Though Of The Enslaved from second album Shame To The Weakness Modern World.

After a brief change over the PA suddenly sprung into life with a Country music hoedown introduction and a Backfire! logo was lowered into place. If you`ve heard Backfire! before you`ll know that, despite being from Holland, they worship at the altar of all things NYHC, vocalist Pat`s Cro-Mags Best Wishes shirt hardly hiding that fact. This is no bad thing though as Backfire! do the sound justice on material such as The War Starts Here.

Guitarist Wyb, is a blur of activity throughout, causing me to study how he manages to play guitar whilst flying through the air and it`s no surprise that from being zipped up to the neck in his coat he ends the set bare cheasted. Backfire! include a Warzone cover in dedication to the first band they played the UK with, though they seemed a bit put out by the stand-offish nature of the crowd, which I`d put this down to preservation against the wind milling dancing. Once Again and the very Sick Of It All like Still Dedicated close a well received set.

Having not heard any Sworn Enemy previously we had decided to take a break and get some food during their set. In keeping with other organisation, The Forum had not prepared for the fact that people might want to eat something during an extended gig and our choice consisted of two sausage rolls or a dodgy piece of quiche. The sausage rolls won the day, meanwhile in the distance on stage Sworn Enemy seemed to be winning over the crowd with their Merauder like shouty metalcore. I have to say I found the shouty style a bit tiresome but was certainly impressed with what I heard of the instrumentation.

I had been really looking forward to seeing Death By Stereo and they certainly didn`t disappoint. How do you categorise these guys? Their on Epitaph and certainly there`s hints of that sound, but also Iron Maiden twin guitar attacks, political lyrics and touches of the likes of Fugazi. Decked in uniform black with DBS logos on their sleeves, mirrored on the largest back drop of the day it`s akin to being at the kind of red & black rally depicted in their latest CD insert.

Vocalist Efrem Schulz continues the red and black look with his mowhawk, and his fixated eye glare brought to mind Killing Joke`s Jaz Coleman, though Coleman doesn`t spend half the gig in the crowd as Schulz does starting with second song Read Between The Lines. This isn`t just diving in, this is performing in the crowd and by the quick responses of the stage techs holding up his mic lead it appears this is where he likes to spend most gigs.

Schulz`s antics would be pretty pointless without a solid band to back him and in Dan Palmer and Tito, DBS have a guitar duo to revival Murray & Smith or Tipton & Downing. Neither are they afraid to strike the odd guitar pose nor flash devil horns at the crowd and you found yourself looking up and down trying to follow both what Schultz in the crowd and the rest of the band on stage are up to.

The set list covers all three releases to date, from the more punky Looking Out For No.1, via the Fugazi-like Desperation Train, featuring synchronized marching and guitar posing from the band, to the fantastic Wasted Words complete with Annihilator Alice In Hell like acoustic moments. Best set of the day for me and I`d advise you not to miss them next time they pass through.

Death By Stereo Set List:
The Plague / Read Between The Lines / Looking Out For No.1 / These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things / Desperation Train / Singalong With The Patriotic Punks / Wasted Words / Emo Holocaust / Holding $60 On A Burning Bridge / No Shirt, No Shoes, No Salvation

Ignite was the only other band I hadn`t heard before tonight and again I took the opportunity to have a quick break. What I did see was certainly impressive and it was apparent that a good proportion of the crowd were here for them tonight. Hailing from Orange County, USA, they reminded me of a heavied up Offspring. Vocalist Zoli Teglas with his bleached blonde hair reminded me of A`s Jason Perry with a voice like Perry`s and a range similar to Sting.

Not knowing any of their material I did hear Burned Up introduced and there was a well received punked up cover of U2`s Sunday Bloody Sunday. The only slip-up of the set was when Teglas announced his love for The Darkness which went down like a lead balloon with partisan hardcore following …except for me!

Freddy Cricien may be Agnostic Front`s Roger Mirret`s kid brother, but Cricien is no longer the kid on the scene, Madball now being one of the elder statesmen. With a couple of years in legal limbo now behind them, following appropriate intro music from The Terminator, Madball hit the stage running and are greeted like returning heroes.

Along with Cricien is mainstay Hoya Roc on bass, and the latest line up is rounded out by Mitts (Skarhead, Rag Men) on guitar and Rigg Ross (Skarhead, ex-Hatebreed) on the drums. Madball can do know wrong for this crowd tonight, the sound is great, the selection of material one classic after another and the pit ferocious.

Cricien has a wealth of experience both personal and inherited of how to work a hardcore crowd and he`s a dynamo of energy throughout whether bounding across the stage, holding the mic in the crowd for the singalongs or actually when in or on top of the crowd. Stand out songs are hard to pick as it seems everyone knows all the songs.

The set is admittedly biased to the older classics such as Set It Off, Get Out and Lockdown, though new song For My Enemies hints little has changed in the Madball style. Biggest response of the night is saved for the anthemic Pride (Times Are Changing) from 1996`s Demonstrating My Style.

Madball Set List:
Can`t Stop, Won`t Stop / Set It Off / Smell The Bacon (What`s With You) / Get Out / Lockdown / For My Enemies / Down By Law / Never Had It / Nuestra Familia / Done / It`s My Life / Demonstrating My Style / Pride (Times Are Changing)

With Suicidal Tendencies not taking to the stage until 10.30pm, given it`s a Sunday, a fair few people have already departed to get their last trains home and the exodus continues throughout the set, myself included at 11.15 …and I still missed my connecting tube!

It`s therefore with one eye on my watch that I experience Suicidal`s set which somewhat spoiled my enjoyment. Regardless, the performance itself can not be faulted with ST as solid as ever. The current line-up has been together for some time now, even though we`re told Steve Brunner on the bass has recently just turned 18, making him 2 years younger than ST`s self-titled debut, from which a good number of songs are played. He certainly has no problems filling the rather large shoes of Robert Trujillo and actually adds additional improvised solos on Possessed To Skate.

It`s not all showboating though as he also links up tightly with brother Ron on drums. There was another gaping hole in the ST line-up left with the departure of Rocky George, but Dean Pleasants covers the fluid soloing well and his laid back persona is not dissimilar to the stage presence of George.

Of course the two Mike`s, Clarke and Muir, are the long term members of ST and both are wearing the blue and white bandanas tonight. Clarke`s playing is as tight as ever crunching through You Can`t Bring Me Down and speeding through the frantic I Won`t Fall In Love Today. Muir is the centre of attention and age doesn`t seem to slow the guy down either physically or orally as he continues to ramble between songs, a lot of which is inaudible but it just wouldn`t be the same without it.

I suspect we missed two or three songs by having to leave early and I hear they finished with a mass stage invasion which would have been nice to see. Not my best experience with Suicidal Tendencies due to the circumstances but a reliably solid performance.

Suicidal Tendencies Set List:
You Can`t Bring Me Down / War Inside My Head / Subliminally / Ain`t Gonna Take It Anymore / Cyco Vision / I Won`t Fall In Love Today / Possessed To Skate / Suicidal Failure / Lovely / Fascist Pig / I Saw Your Mommy / We Are Family / Pledge Your Allegiance / I Want More