Comeback Kid, The Ghost Inside, Kvelertak & Grave Maker - ULU, London - 20th April 2011

Trunks and I have been looking forward to seeing Grave Maker and The Ghost Inside for ages, particularly because we missed The Ghost Inside when they toured the UK last year. The whole vibe of the day was good. The sun was shining, we managed to get out of work on time, and to boot, fit in a couple of cheeky beers before the show started. Like I've said before it's always nice to have a change of scenery from time to time and ULU is normally a pretty agreeable venue. The sound is fine, the space is ample and it's generally a chilled place.

So we bumble in to the venue where the doorman promptly takes the piss out of the work clothes I have concealed in my bag. Fortunately I'm too old to care about any kind of reputation I may or may not have had when I was younger. The first thing I always do is dump my stuff off in the cloakroom, but to our dismay there are no cloakroom facilities at this show, so everyone is lumbered with bags strewn all over the place as if we were in a sodding airport. The mind boggles. It's not as if it's a small venue, they could have made a tidy profit if they had pulled their finger out. Perhaps they could have had one of the three ex private schoolgirls manning the "box office" to do it. Fat chance. Not cool ULU, we expected better of you.

First band we saw was Grave Maker. They did not disappoint. They ripped through their songs with precision. This band is a well oiled machine and I for one thoroughly enjoyed it. You had to feel sorry for Jon the vocalist though, he was looking for a place to crash because he'd lost his passport and needed to be at the Canadian Embassy at some stupid time the next morning. The only gripe I had with this set and the night in general was the hardcore, twirly armed, kick bullshit, twat dancing. I know this is no fault of the bands. People who fucking dance like that need their arms and legs removed. They may think they're cool but all they're doing is ruining it for everyone else. I'm not saying that everyone should stand serenly watching the bands clapping politely between songs. The bellends that do this are by far the minority and need to understand how antisocial they are being. For any of you that read this blog frequently will know that I love getting in the pit for a big old moshing session, but that is different. At least that is more controlled and people aren't blatantly going to be hurt by a flying punch or a kick in the bollocks. Fuck you stupid new hardcore numptys and try to give a shit about others around you.

Next up was Kvelertak. I hadn't seen them before but do like their music. It's off the wall stuff. They're a bit of an odd choice to add to this bill but who cares because it worked. They probably gave the most energetic performance of the evening. The atmosphere changed slightly during their set and it felt like a more old school metal environment. I certainly appreciated that. These guys commanded the hall remarkably well. I take my hat off to them for a fine performance and look forward to catching them next time.

Oooh The Ghost Inside... Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. My favourite band of the evening for sure. The crowd went wild, hell, we went wild! Such a tight group. We sang along to all the songs and moshed away to our hearts content. I'm so glad we have finally managed to see them. It's funny because you would never expect that guys that look the way they do can make such brutal stuff. Nice work.

Finally, Comeback Kid. They were much better than I expected to be honest. Out of all the bands of the evening, strangely enough Comeback Kid were the band I wanted to see the least. As often you find a live perfomance can really change the way you feel about a band and that's exactly what happened for me here. A satisfyingly solid show was produced by this more than competent band. A fine way to round off an excellent evening of hardcore and metal. Cheers.

Boojay