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.jpg "Image") Photo: Rick Clifford
If there’s a record label that still has a loyal following in this, an age where the record label is dying, it’s California’s alt-funk-punk-hop haven Suburban Noize Records. Tonight the label loyalists have turned up, their shirts emblazoned with Noize’s logo, in support of label newcomers Nothing and stalwarts, (Hed) P.E. Adelaide horrorcore emcee KidCrusher is first up to plate tonight. You either like horrorcore or you don’t. I don’t.
Next, New South Wales metal outfit Recoil V.O.R. play their set. As quick and thrashy as their tunes are, and they have quite a few quick, thrashy tunes in their set, Recoil’s aggressive attack and hook-laden riffs speak to the audience’s punk and alt-rock fans, as well as the metalheads.
Then Mushroomhead vocalist Jeffrey Nothing’s eponymous band Nothing come onstage and play a set that sounds as though those last two Matrix movies never existed. It’s over-driven spooky nu metal that veers towards alterna-metal, especially when Nothing’s bark transforms into his Layne Staley-styled whine. The vocalist also wears pantyhose over his face and a bulletproof vest. No one in the crowd seems the least bit shocked by such ‘fucked up’ garb.
When the (Hed) P.E. crew come on the stage, the crowd rushes to the front. By the time frontman Jared Gomes is busting over the chill reggae beats of Sophia the pit is mobile. Drinks are spilt as dreadlocks fly and dudes run into other dudes. Gomes is the perfect ringleader for this spectacle; he leads his people through the punk/metal/rap jams and his efforts are rewarded with unanimous cheers. (Hed) P.E. are a band that has survived through almost 20 years of line-up changes, negative critical reactions and getting dropped from labels, seeing them interact with their core fan base tonight, one comes to understand what has kept them going.
TOM HERSEY
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