Let's Talk Daggers
After a 6 date tour around the UK, The Tangled Tour finishes here at Sheffield. With the tour being brilliantly received everywhere it went this final date had a lot to live up too! This tour has acted as a showcase for the best bands that Tangled Talk have on their label, and bring support and celebrate the independent scene all the bands and the record label are working hard to support and help the scene flourish with new bands and fans.
Opening tonight’s leg were Veils, female fronted Hardcore from down Cornwall way. Even they were opening they still managed to get the room packed out to the front, with no call to close in the horse shoe needed either made it all the more impressive! With the whole band stamping about for pretty much the entire set and Jamie from Bastions doing some guest vocals it made for one of the bests opening sets you could possibly have.
Following up were Let’s Talk Daggers, a band hard to describe in style; Screamo, Spazz, Grindcore? Take your own guess, They were fast, technical and constantly moving! With finger tapping riffs, blast beats, lots of loudness and generally being ruckus made for a fun set. The only problem with it was a guitar breaking at the end of the song and needing to switch guitars, but it’s a DIY gig, does anyone really care about such things? No.
From spazzy and fast to a more techy and post rock vibed style with Battle For Paris. Mixing into Hardcore some proggy elements like syncopated riffs, strange time signatures and a mix of clean and distorted guitar work made for a lot of interested listening. The band as a whole not only played well but interacted with the crowd brilliantly, including crowd surfing during the set and getting everyone to join in with some gang vocals upped the level of the gig hugely without looking like they were trying any harder than usual, excellent stuff!
Carrying on in the proggy vein of Hardcore with The Long Haul, with some member changes fairly recently meant a bit of a restart for them. However this had absolutely no impact on tonight’s performance. With the band going in/through the crowd it made a lot of people break out into mosh which carried on throughout the set. With a great presence and a good sound this set went down a treat with the crowd.
Battle For Paris
Kerouac are a bit of a hard band to describe, with Baritone Guitars creating an unparalleled heavy sound, fast playing and off kilter rhythms and super sharp personal lyrics their music really shines through with a deep passion. Together with their presence live made for an intense performance, with lots of mosh, mic grabs and a few members of the band crowd surfing. Overall it made this set one of the best sets of tonight.
Tonight’s headliner Bastions, the ‘non-metalcore’/Heavy hitting Hardcore band from Wales. With Jamie almost instantly crowd surfing getting the mosh started straight away and the mic getting shared round the crowd in the standard fashion of Hardcore. With Chlo from Veils returning the favour with some vocals made sure for a rad set.
The gig tonight was a brilliant success for all the bands playing and was clearly enjoyed by the crowd attending. As a way to end the tour, there couldn’t have been much done to top it, with a great crowd reaction, brilliant playing from all the bands and everything during the gig pretty much running smoothly for the whole of made sure for the best terms for this tour to end on. With how well the tour was received it will be no surprise if it’s all repeated again next year.
Bastions
Words/Photos: Jonathan Andrews
View full set of gig images here
