Words by Jonathan Miller & Photography by Tanguy Maes
Amidst the smoke screen and blood red lighting , New York hardcore tough guys , Madball , arrive on stage and are prepared for action . Like Discipline , Madball manage to treat their fans to a mixture of oldies like the stomping Smell The Bacon and the thrashy Get Out , newer tracks like the empowering DNA and the sing-along punk anthem Doc Marten Stomp and classics such as the aggressive Set It Off and the ever-memorable Pride ( Times Are Changing ). With vocalist Freddy , bassist Jorge and guitarist “ Mitts ” absolutely owning the stage and drummer Justin holding his own in the background , the band ’ s musical prowess and overall presence are a joy to behold and gets everybody jumping .
Despite being the most long-lived band on the bill , fathers of the “ D-Beat ” genre and an influence on many a punk , metal and hardcore band , Discharge do not quite get the turn out one expects . Maybe die-hard Discharge fans weren ’ t impressed with the rest of the line-up that it didn ’ t seem worth coming . Whatever the reason , there are at least a lot of bystanders but only a small area of people near the front running amok to the no-nonsense thrashings of classics like Hear Nothing , See Nothing , Say Nothing and Never Again . Due to having to play quite fast ( and maybe also because of their age ), the band are pretty static while performing . Luckily , singer J . J . Has enough energy to roam about the stage and get spectators riled up . Although each song is pretty repetitive and similar in sound and structure , Discharge get respect for being innovators of their time and still doing what they do over 35 years on .
With “ A War Against You ” being one of the most exciting releases of the year , Ignite are welcomed with great cheer . The band arrive on stage to a playback of British comedian Jonathan Pie ’ s rant on the US Presidential win , setting the political tone for the set . Whether politically minded or not , the heaving crowd go crazy as the Orange County band supply them with their iconic melodic hardcore punk . The set mainly consists of songs from the latest album and its predecessor , with only Veteran and Embrace for the “ old school ” fans . When frontman , Zoli , isn ’ t roaming the stage and using his fantastic , almost operatic vocal range , he interacts a lot with the crowd . As well as showing his admiration for Life Of Agony singer , Mina Caputo , and her amazing voice , he gets close to veering off on political and sociological rants . Luckily , he doesn ’ t overdo it and him and the rest of the band put on a great show . Know Your History , My Judgement Day and The Bleeding are the most well received . Even with a sloppy performance of their Sunday Bloody Sunday ( U2 ) cover and the absence of tracks like Fill In The Blanks , Who Sold Out Now and the new album ’ s standout track , Alive , the sea of heads in the crowd never stops moving .
For many , this is the first time seeing New York ’ s Life Of Agony with Mina , who gets the majority of the cheers and applause as the band arrive on stage . During their set , they satisfy every LOA fan in the house by practically playing all the hits ; a lot from the legendary River Runs Red debut . Mina ’ s presence and voice are both haunting and enchanting as she glides about the stage and down to the crowd belting out such personal songs as This Time , Other Side Of The River and Lost At 22 . Guitarist Joey and bassist Alan are not only energetic and enthusiastic in their performance but they also do a lot of the main crowd interaction , getting the crowd fired up and praising Mina on being a “ beautiful free spirit ”. Along with drummer Sal , the grooves are solid throughout , with Methods of Groove and My Eyes especially making feet move and bodies jump . Mixing different elements of metal , hardcore and even Type O Negative style gothic themes , Life Of Agony are innovators who are still relevant and the crowd reaction today proves that .
TRUE SPIRIT STAGE :
Compared to the Revolution Stage , the True Spirit stage is much smaller and in a much smaller hall . Opening on the stage , 18 Miles from Amsterdam play their angry metallic hardcore a la Stick To Your Guns and Soulground to a sparse crowd . Being immediately after Paddy and The Rats , people are still coming in at this point . Their performance today doesn ’ t have the same bite as on record . The odd beatdown and guitar melody creeps in now and again but it ’ s mostly a wall of fuzz . This could be technical issues or just the way they decided to play but it makes it hard to absorb anything .
Coldburn from Leipzig , Germany , are next on stage , delivering some groovy hardcore ( e . g . Expire , Turnstile etc .) with added slow , low-tuned parts . There ’ s quite a lot of movement and energy on stage which rubs off on the crowd . The frontman has a similar presence to Eddie Sutton ( Leeway ); just the way he ’ s dressed and how he controls the stage . Their grooves , their 2-step parts and their beatdowns all work seamlessly together , making these guys an interesting band to check out .
From hereon in , the hall fills up quite quickly . With the addition of pillars and the stage being more central than spanning the width of the hall , most sets are hard to fully witness .
World Eater from Saarbrucken , Germany , may have had some sound issues to start as the guitars sounded a bit
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