Review & Photos by Tony Gaskin
Friday night then saw the Fest open up with a punk night. In conjunction with Fear Me Music, Punks Alive had put together an evening of old school punk with the odd bit of grime thrown in for good measure, and opening up were local lads, Fear Insight with their straight up, no messing punk. It was a great way to kick off the weekend and even at this early stage the upstairs room here at The Asylum was already filling up nicely creating a party atmosphere that would last for most of the weekend.
After the lively opening we had another local band up in the form of Wrongdoing. A more aggressive sound from this crust punk outfit that upped the pace and noise level another notch or two, which suited Leamington Spa’s finest grindcore crossover band, Internal Rot. Though more metal than punk, they straddle the two genre’s comfortably and the packed room is treated to a bludgeoning set.
Continuing the theme of mixing up the styles, Piss on Authority were up next. Twenty year veterans of the Brum Punk scene, they blend traditional punk values and sounds with the harder edge of US Hardcore. It’s great to see these guys back performing again and with a new album in the pipeline, hopefully they’ll be regulars on the circuit again.
When you talk about veterans on the Brum Punk scene, you will invariably include Police Bastard in the list. If you added up the years of experience of the current line-up it would probably be in triple figures, a sort of Brum Punx Supergroup.
Hard hitting lyrics, brutal drum & bass, visceral guitars and the twin vocal attack of Pid and Johnny Doom all combine to blow the room apart. Whether it’s classic PB oldies or the latest offerings, the crowd go mental for it. For me I’d have had PB as headliners, but tonight that honour was given to The Restarts.
Back to a more traditional punk, The Restarts blast through a blistering set of punk rock with the occasional skank thrown in for good measure. The crowd and atmosphere was still there and there was plenty of action on the dance floor, but the truth is, PB stole the show tonight. Punk is very much alive and well and the rumours of it’s demise were exaggerated.
See Tony’s review of Saturday here
And Paul Castle’s thoughts of Sunday here
See more of Tony’s photos here:
