This show was originally scheduled to take place at Dingwalls and sold out in under an hour! But a couple of days before the gig, Dingwalls got cold feet and started insisting on crash barriers and when Frank objected they refused to let the show happen, so Frank spoke to the owner of the Underworld and he agreed to put on the show instead. The upshot of this meant the capacity went up by 50 people and those tickets went very quickly too. This meant that my first Frank Carter show was at the same venue where I first saw his former band Gallows opening for the MC5/DTK.
So yes there was a buzz about this gig, this was the first time I've Seen Frank Carter play since his acrimonious split from Gallows, who are now a shadow of the legendary band they were when Frank and his brother Stephen were involved.
We got in early enough to see all of Brawlers set. They are yet another band from the UK's most vibrant musical scene - yes they come from Leeds, where else? Also, as befits a band named Brawlers they play Aggro punk but with an almost power pop edge to it. The opening number had the singer mock fighting and grunting "Wow Oh!" a lot as the visceral attack of the bass and guitar drilled into our heads.
The next song about being Out Of Luck was a good love gone wrong punky punch up which was followed by a great song about how he needed 2 Minutes to Make You Leave. Yeah go on scarper! The only problem is all we wanted to do was get closer to the band as they had put smiles on our faces and while we didn't want to Drink and Dial it did sound like fun.
Having A Nervous Breakdown is a perfect subject for this sort of band to sing about and as the musicians attacked their instruments the singer looked like he was in the middle of a wrecking pit rather than onstage trying to be the new Capdown or Dillinger Escape Plan.
I'll Be Wrong, You Be Right 9or whatever that fight of a song was called) was just a great urgent slice of angst-y punk that sounded like it was written after walking down the wrong ginnel late at night. I'm Broke was a siren song to the disenfranchised and sounded pretty great. They closed by diving into the audience for most of Pulling Punches as the singer pushed past us all in the crowd and generally got the place going. A great fun band who are well worth seeing live.
Next on were God Damn and well, God Damn if they aren't another guitar and drums duo; this time with a drummer with a bubble perm and dungarees with a French sailor shirt on who sort of looked like an carrot crunching yokel Joey Tempest. His guitar assaulting mate, meanwhile, growled and yelped as most of us went God Damn do they have to be so cliched?
Not sure what any of the songs were called and the vocals were growled enough to make the words hard to figure. They sort of sounded like a bargain basement Melvins as they attempted to tear up the place but they came off as, well, a little boring after Brawlers.
It was soon time for Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes to come and live up to the hype and expectation as an explosive punk band. They opened strongly with the devastating Primary Explosive with Frank pretty much screaming the words at us as all the people who had already heard the album were singing along. As Frank asked "When You Stand up, do you wanna explode?" well, the Underworld had already exploded into frenzied mosh pit mania and it wasn't going to let up any time soon.
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Trouble was next and it was a claustrophobic angst-ridden ride to hell and back played at full pace and as if he wanted to steamroller the entire audience. Rotten Blossom was next and is also the title track of the debut album. It managed to get just about everyone shouting along to the line "When We Die Is It Really The End?" and it was emotive and energizing and as ever between songs Frank was humble and grateful for our support.
Loss is pretty bleak and really has a go at figuring out how you get through the loss of someone close. It really is an emotional rollercoaster of a hardcore punk song yet, amazingly, people were moshing and stage diving to it. Devil Inside If Me, meanwhile, is almost a mission statement. It was drilled into our brains.
Frank then introduced a new song that fit right into the mind set of righteous pain caused by suffering the slings and arrows of life with rampaging guitars and flailed stalking of the stage by Frank. Fangs seems to be the band's first hit as the place went double mental as they launched into what is almost a straight love song, yet of course it's not quite either.
They then reprised Loss and when people started moshing to it Frank stopped the song and explained it's about him losing everything he held dear in the world and having to start again. How can you mosh to that? So instead he got everyone to sit down for it and, yes, pretty much the entire venue sat on the floor as he made clear just how much the song was about his life being ripped apart.
Beautiful Death is another heavy, angst-y song that actually pulls at the heartstrings as it's about the far too early death of a loved one. It was dedicated to his Wife who has recently lost one of her parents. Paradise is a brilliant song about the stupidity of blowing yourself up to get into heaven. It's brutal and political and also just a little bit magical.
The show was going so well and they were running out of songs so they did Fangs again (and it went down as much of a storm second time round) before they closed with the brilliant bile monster of I Hate You: a coruscating diatribe that sounds like it's aimed at his former band mates in Gallows. It was played half onstage and half in the audience and as nasty as it is lyrically it provided the perfect end to a damn great set.
I am relieved that Frank Carter's new band sound miles better than Gallows did when I was sent to review them earlier this year. These boys are every bit as exciting to see live as Gallows when Frank was still the band's incomparable front man.
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