Halloween: the most evil, morbid and ghoulish
of all nights. A night where dressing as slutty
roadkill or Leatherface’s latest abattoir
addition is not only acceptable but encouraged.
The revellers and entertainers didn’t disappoint
as zombie dreamboys, ghosts and, erm, minstrel
birds came, rocked and conquered the sweaty pit
of Underworld with their genre splicing genius.
Party starting wild boys, Don Broco took us to
the Top Of The World and back again kicking out
circle pit chaos within half a song. Not bad for
relatively new kids on the block. The torso-exposing
foursome were the delight of every girl and sexually
confused alt-rock lad in the increasingly humid
venue; even the fake torsos didn’t deter
the girls from dealing out free knee rubs to an
unsuspecting Rob (vocals) and Luke (bass). The
dance-rock shenanigans continued for the full
half hour of power set and the zombie-dreamboys
wowed with Do What We Do as frontman Rob got down
and dirty in the circle pit before having stage
diving fans storm the stage.
Dead By April flexed their metal core muscles
and encouraged every guy, girl and ghoul to do
the same. The inked up Swedes took it up a notch
in warming each reveller up for the headliners;
think on-stage t shirt changes, vanity box antics
and piercing rock to test even the toughest iron
man. Treating us to brand new songs, like Stronger,
from forthcoming album sent even the scattered
Dad’s amongst the crowd into a head nodding
frenzy. DBA’s metal-electronica overlaid
with Backstreet Boy vocals, pit-of-hell screams
and razor sharp metal edges against angsty lyrics
are exactly what our Halloween called for.
Hitchin heart-rockers, My Passion, kept it sweet
for the rest of the night; the delight on every
Pete Wentz-fringe covered face was unparalleled
as the band, along with new drummer Jamie Nicholls,
unveiled their festive attire – head to
toe black dipped bodies, white bands painted across
their eyes and frontman Laurence Rene sporting
some very fetching feathers. Belting out fan favourites
Crazy And Me, Day Of The Bees and some song about
birds who eat dead flesh. The Corporate Flesh
Party starters dragged up two ghosts from the
crowd to show off their crazy dance shapes to
the sold out crowd before crowd surfing them home
and bringing friends from Dead By April on stage
to join the festivities once more. Asleep In The
Asylum closed the fright night celebrations leaving
body paint dribbling off their bodies and onto
mic, guitar and ghosts as touched.
Every time I see My Passion I am pleasantly surprised.
Look passed the emo-Jedward barnets and super-styled
image to see what is really there; perfectly orchestrated
electronic dance punk that does its worst to break
your body, one synthed up riff at a time.
My Passion - 5/5
Dead By April - 5/5
Don Broco - 5/5
Review By Jessica Acreman |
