Will Be Betrayed 3rd Birthday Bash review

Hello there. I've just got back from Sheffield and one of the best gigs I've been to. Here's a review.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get to the venue until four, so I missed Cycle Riot, and the beginning of Tosserlad's set, but what I did see of the latter was good, solid punk. Nothing special, but a fine way to start things off. Chewed Up's frontman seemed a little reserved to begin with, but he got into the swing of things pretty quickly and the band gave a quality set. Their ska-influenced sound was an interesting approach and marked them out from the rest of the bands. Ephemeral Foetus, in addition to having perhaps the best band name I've ever heard, played a fantastic set of metallic hardcore, with the singer giving it everything he had, and the crowd loved them. Total Bloody Chaos, who followed, were slightly less exciting but still enjoyable, proving that there's nothing wrong with good old fashioned, by-the-book punk. Gets Worse, of course, were fantastic - they really are one of the best bands of their generation, and if you haven't heard them, you definitely should. They gave probably the heaviest performance of the night, and even among so many other great bands, they stood out. Noone sounds quite like them. Holiday were an interesting change of pace. I'm not usually a fan of pop-punk, or any punk with clean vocals, but they made it work (maybe it had something to do with the vocals being low enough in the mix that I couldn't actually hear the lyrics). Their songs did kind of blend into one another though - the lack of variety put a bit of a damper on the whole thing. Hey, I recognise those three chords - it's all of Dogsflesh's songs! They may be a hugely influential band, but tonight they sounded boring. Their sound may have been original and exciting back in the '80s, but last night they gave very lifeless performance. The same can't be said, though, of Barb Wire Dolls. I'd never heard of them before, but after seeing them life, I'll definitely be checking them out. Their frontwoman was a natural performer - she knew exactly how to get the crowd going. I never thought I'd see crowd-surfing in a moshpit of ten people, but I have now. Which brings us to the big guns, the band I came to see, the unfuckwithable Discharge. They really blew the roof off the place with a blistering set, which included my personal favourite A Hell On Earth. The crowd loved them, I loved them, they were awesome. I would have enjoyed them even more if I hadn't been so drunk/exhausted.

A special shout-out is due also to Vegan Approach, who provided excellent vegan food.