Initial thoughts on this evening were of surprise that it wasn’t busier with more advance tickets sales, mainly due to Mongol Horde featuring the vocals of Frank Turner – who has somewhat of a cult status and recently sold out the cities larger venue at the Guildhall, but then again this was angry Frank, loud and shouty rather that of his equally good but more accessible acoustic folk.
First up though it was Oxygen Thief, also known as Barry Dolan, who often playing solo was tonight backed with his band making for a more appropriate support act as they ripped through their set including “Self-righting Mechanism” dedicated to anyone who remembered the original Robot Wars TV programme. It was a good opening act with Dolan seeming to enjoy the moment whilst making sure to big up the acts to follow.
The next of those acts though were Palehorse and their minimal noise driven hard-core, although initially intrigued by them having no guitarist, instead consisting of two bass players and the drums of Ben Dawson (also from Mongol Horde) being fronted by two vocalists it soon became apparent it wasn’t going to be as exciting as I first hoped.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love bands such as Earth with their long drawn out distorted bass lines mixed with heavy drum fills and I’m also a sucker for something of a more experimental nature but when it came to Palehorse the reaction from the crowd said it all.
It was all very much of a muchness, with many of the audience talking amongst themselves or looking on in despair as Palehorse carried on with their self-indulgent noise and only the dedicated few appreciating the unnecessary screams and awkward onstage banter whilst musically it seemed to take an age to finish.
Luckily however the night was not over and it was soon apparent that the majority of the crowd were really only here for one thing, the moment Mongol Horde came on stage the mosh pit got going with “Winky Face: The Mark of the Moron” as Frank Turners current side project play homage to his musical beginnings, having previously released two albums with post-hardcore act Million Dead and his love of punk and metal.
Then another stand out track from Mongol Horde self-titled release in “Blistering Blue Barnacles” showing early on that Frank Turner can not only scream his heart out but mix it up with his more familiar style at the same time, whilst ranting about his youth.
After another couple tracks guitarist Matt Nasir, who also plays in Turners regular backing band, blasted out the opening riff from Rage Against the Machines “Bulls on Parade” and soon enough Ben Dawson had redeemed himself as he pounded the drum kit.
This was the first of a few covers aired this evening, the sing along “Epic” from Faith No More going down well along with Sepultura’s classic “Refuse/Resist” where Frank Turner pulled some rather impressive vocals out the bag, not a song regular Frank Turner fans would associate with their punk-folk singer that’s for sure.
Mongol Horde provided an energetic performance with Frank Turner crowd surfing mid set and also slating Jessie J during his introduction to “Staff to the Refund Counter” and the anti-corporate “How the Communists Ruined Christmas”.
Then true to their word there was to be no encore as the band rounded off the evening with another from their debut album in “Hey Judas” making for a set that was all rather enjoyable and possibly even better than expected, showing not only is Frank Turner great when it comes to his familiar surroundings but can also hold his own when it comes to fronting a band of a much heavier nature.
