Mishkin at Hevy 2011
The Redbull Bedroom Jam Stage is a very little space but when Mishkin are in attendance, it can deliver a hell of a lot of noise. Their Saturday afternoon set was one of the trickier time slots, with a crowd that hadn't quite shaken that reanimated corpsey look, particularly as the solemn skies proceeded to chuck it down. Even so, this Leeds lot would have no doubt poured their souls into their performance had it been a crowd of five hundred or just me, my unappetising bowl of noodles and my leaky brolly.
As it was, turn out was fair and the open positioning of the stage meant that Mishkin enticed some curious bystanders to come a little closer during their high velocity dance through filthy melody and saucy riffs. Their sound is pretty beefy, combining classic touches of rock and metal with a flirtatious nod to hardcore. The rich depth of their heavyweight instrumentals are lifted by a sweeter vocal performance that them X Factor lot would probably have loved had they not whimpered off in fear of the contextual brutality. Their sound blends 36 Crazyfists-isms with flavours of old school thrash. Brock Lindlow in a shaggy wig singing 'Symphony of Destruction', that kind of thing.
Mishkin's sophisticated brand of hard rock will tick a lot of boxes for fans of that rugged sound that makes you want to growl aloud. I can imagine that they truly come to life in dingy rock joints, the scummier the better- because this band is all about the dirty.