Hit
The Deck Festival is quickly becoming a great
yearly festival which always has a wide variety
of bands playing various different venues across
Bristol and Nottingham, the festival started off
in 2011 in just Nottingham and then last year
the festival became a duel city festival with
things kicking off in Bristol on the Saturday
and then moving on to Nottingham on the Sunday
and this year things were exactly the same except
the festival fell on Easter Weekend due to the
constant moving of Easter.
The
first band announced for Hit The Deck 2014 was
the main stage headliner Brand New and as soon
as they were announced I just knew that I had
to attend Hit The Deck Festival in Bristol for
a second year running and as the time got closer
to the festival the line up started getting better
and better with the likes of Saves The Day, The
Blackout, Kids In Glass Houses, The Front Bottoms,
Patent Pending and many other awesome bands being
added to the line up.
As
soon as we got to Bristol we headed down to the
Thekla to get our wrist bands which was quick
and easy and then we stood outside the Thekla
by the Jagermeister acoustic stage and caught
a bit of Chris Webb (3/5) who
was playing to pretty much no one bit did not
let this bother him as he put on a performance
like he was playing to hundreds of people, Chris
Webb is a Bristol based singer/songwriter who
plays acoustic folk/rock which is quite pleasing
on the ears.
After listening to a bit of Chris Webb we headed
down to the Academy to catch The Xcerts
(3.5/5) a three piece band from Aberdeen
in Scotland who have been on the music scene since
2001 and have released 2 albums, various ep’s
and gone on to play shows with the likes of Fightstar,
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Twin Atlantic, Brand New
and many festivals across the UK yet they are
still struggling to make a solid name for themselves
and their early slot at today’s festival
proves that, The Xcerts however put on a powerful
set full of noise with a mixture of tracks from
their two studio albums being played with the
likes of ‘Cool Ethan’, ‘Do You
Feel Safe?’, ‘Shaking In The Water’,
‘Scatterbrain’ and ‘Slackerpop’
being played out to a really empty Academy.
We
then caught the Australian six piece Hands
Like Houses (4/5) now over the last couple
of years I have heard nothing but good things
about these guys so decided that it would be a
good idea to check them out on the live circuit
and that idea turned into a great idea as Hands
Like Houses truly blew me away, their sheer energy
and passion on stage was phenomenal as the band
gave it their all running all over the stage in
a mad mixture of smoke and strobe lighting. In
places the band reminded me of Fall Out Boy and
Panic At The Disco! But with a lot more going
on and a damn sight more heavier,
during their 30minute set they managed to play
6 songs which consisted of ‘Shapeshifters’,
‘Wisteria’, ‘Antarctica’,
‘Lion Skin’, ‘No Parallels’
and ‘Introduced Species’ which all
bright the pit alive today.
After Hands Like Houses we headed back to the
Thekla for Rat Attack (3/5) who
were already on stage by the time we did the 15minute
walk from the Academy to the Thekla. I have been
a big fan of Rat Attack for a couple of years
now and have seen them on the live circuit many
times and each and every time they have truly
smashed it but today something didn’t seem
right and after listening to one song I started
to question if they
had a different front man which was then revealed
moments later as he explained that he is a temporary
fill in for the band and that the band are holding
auditions to find a new front man, instrumentally
the band were solid today but vocally things weren’t
that great as the stand it kept running out of
breath and spent the majority of the set looking
at a sheet of lyrics but with a bit of crowd participation
especially during the fast paced ‘Heartbeat’
things started to look up for the band, with their
vocalist leaving two weeks prior to the festival
Rat Attack could have easily of pulled out but
they came together and made the best out of a
bad situation.
After
Rat Attack we headed outside the Thekla to catch
Bristol rockers Syren City (4/5) play
an acoustic set and they had a nice little following
watching them and treated us to 30minutes of acoustic
music which featured some of the bands original
songs in acoustic format as well as a few cover
songs thrown in for good measures with the bands
cover of Avenged Sevenfold’s ‘Bat
Country’ going down an absolute storm.
We then headed back into the Thekla to catch Jaret
Reddick and Ryan Hamilton’s new project
People On Vacation (4/5), like
true Jaret Reddick style there was a lot of banter
between the band and the crowd in-between songs
but when the band got on with their music the
likes of ‘Lonely Fish’, ‘You
May Not Believe In God’, ‘The Bitch
Song’ (Bowling For Soup cover) and ‘Cum
On Feel The Noize’ (Slade cover) sounded
really good in the intimate setting of the Thekla.
After People On Vacation we headed back to the
Academy just in time for The Front Bottoms
(5/5), now The Front Bottoms
are a band that I have been wanting to see on
the live circuit for as couple of years now and
I am really glad that I got the chance today as
they are as good live as they are on record, on
record the band are a two piece consisting of
Brian Sella (vocals,guitar) and Matt Uychich (drums)
yet on the live circuit the band add Tom Warren
(bass) and Ciaran O’Donnell (Keys, trumpet,
guitar) for a more in your face fuller sound,
the whole band put on a great performance tonight
but it was drummer Matt Uychich who stood out
the most due to the brutal and energetic way that
he was hitting his drums, forever jumping out
of his stool to ensure his hits were as hard as
possible,
vocally Brian Sella sounded exactly like he does
on record as he told various different stories
throughout the likes of ‘Skeleton’,
‘Au Revoir (Adios), ‘The Beers’,
‘Fuck, Jobs’, ‘Funny You Should
Ask’, ‘Maps’ and ‘Twin
Size Mattress, and after their performance tonight
I can’t wait to see them at their own headline
show.
We returned to the Thekla for the final time of
the night and caught Versechorusverse
(3/5) play short acoustic set and this
Mick Hucknall look-a-like rocker played to a near
empty car park with a few people sat around the
sides but no one stood directly
in front of the stage however he gave it his all
and eve had time to speak to whoever would listen
in the extremely small crowd.
After Versechorusverse we were going to head into
the Thekla to see Kids In Glass Houses play one
of their final shows but the queue to get into
the venue was massive and was operating on a one
in one out policy so instead of hanging around
with a small possibility of seeing Kids In Glass
Houses we headed back to the Academy ready for
Saves The Day and Brand New.
Saves
The Day (4/5) have been around as a band
for 20 years now and have just released their
self titled eighth studio album which happens
to be their happiest and most accessible album
in years but instead of dominating their set in
all new material the band played three songs from
their latest album and then 10 other songs which
spanned throughout their whole career.
The band unleashed the pop-punk for a solid 30minutes
and had the crowd bouncing around from start to
finish as the likes of ‘Freakish’,
‘Z’, ‘The Tide Of Our Times’,
‘Holly Hox, Forget Me Nots’, ‘Undress
Me’ and many other songs were blasted out
with maximum energy across the venue.
Up next were Brand New (5/5)
the band that everyone had been waiting for and
the Academy was packed to the rafters and operating
on a one in one of policy from just after Saves
The Day took to the stage which meant that the
massive queue outside the venue which spanned
right around the corner had a very long wait to
try and catch a moment of Brand New.
Back in the venue Brand New took to the stage
dead on 8.30pm and kicked things off in heavy
fashion with a cover of Nine Inch Nails ‘Wish’
before laying down some more heavy sounds with
the likes of ‘Vices’, ‘Gasoline’
and ‘At The Bottom’.
Now the last time I saw Brand New live was when
they played Wembley Arena back in 2010 and I walked
away majorly disappointed but tonight things were
different as Brand New were fantastic and left
me wanting more after they played their massive
1hour and 30 minutes set which consisted of 18
tracks which spanned across the course of their
4 studio albums.
Fan
favourite ‘Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades’
was played early on in the set and the reaction
from the fans was phenomenal as it was initially
met with loads of screams and then followed up
with the best part of 2,000 people singing word
for word to the song.
The likes of ‘Mix Tape’ and ‘Seventy
Times 7’ sounded a lot more beefed up than
what they sound on the bands 2001 ‘Your
Favourite Weapon’ album as Brand New have
a knack of making each and every one of their
songs sound heavier on the live circuit than they
do on record.
For
me the highlight of the set was ‘Jesus’,
‘Degausser’ and set closer ‘You
Won’t Know’ three songs which really
show of Jesse Lacey’s vocal range whilst
the rest of the band show just how much noise
they can instrumentally make.
Brand New were the perfect headliner for Hit The
Deck Festival and it is safe to say that everyone
who managed to catch them walked away extremely
happy knowing that Brand New are back on form
whilst the many fans who spent hours queuing outside
to not even see a glimpse of their heroes must
of been truly gutted but like any festival you
are going to get clashes and there are going to
be restrictions on getting into venues
at time but with a choice of 4 venues and 6 stages
there was always something on to keep people entertained.
Last year my main criticism of Hit The Deck festival
was their lack of food places and this year they
brought the Pieminister truck back with them but
also teamed up with various different shops and
eateries across Bristol to offer money off discounts
for showing your Hit The Deck Festival wrist band
which easily solved the food problem.
Overall Hit The Deck 2014 was a fantastic day
out where we did a lot of walking and managed
to see a lot of bands and I personally can’t
wait to see what the organisers have in store
for the 2015 festival because as the years have
gone on the line ups have got better and the headliners
have got bigger.
(Please note there are no photos of Brand
New due to not being allowed to take photos of
them on the night)
Review By Trigger
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