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Once again Camden Rocks Festival brought with it an excellent line-up filled with exciting young talent standing side by side with long-lasting veterans. As we've always said, there are few festivals who offer the kind of value that Camden Rocks does and we hope that you had as much fun as we did! Without any further ado then, here were our main sets covered on the day. Review written by Tom Donno (Editor) with help from Gerard Durkan.
Kicking off a sunny Saturday afternoon we marched down to The Fiddler's Elbow in what felt like record time after collecting the 'ole wristband to ensure the riffs and power of In Search Of Sun (10/13) were the thing to kick off our day. With every performance this band are just constantly growing in confidence and ability, building a true base of followers dedicated to spreading the word. As ever the intricate dual guitars weave in and out of the thunderous rhythm underneath whilst vocalist Adam Leader continues to impress with every gig - the new track they treated us to sounded particularly exciting today, especially Leader's immense prolonged scream towards it's climax. In the immediate aftermath of Camden Rocks the band announced that they had signed a record deal with Spinefarm Records and needless to say we cannot wait to hear the new album in full. Great band doing exciting things at the moment.
Following In Search Of Sun in the same venue, the London based Alternative Rock unit KidBrother (9/13) also delivered a very exciting set. Absolutely beaming with energy from the first note, KidBrother's very raw and emotionally driven style of music certainly drew in a fair few numbers and their confident demeanour at all times makes for an infectious live performance. As ever with Camden Rocks a lot of it becomes about stumbling upon genuinely exciting, young up and coming artists - these lot keep this up and it won't be long till their following grows.
The same unfortunately cannot be said for the lacklustre Reverted (6/13) down the road at Dingwalls. We've seen this band before and know they're capable of a lot better, but you couldn't help but feel that the general disinterest across the audience on top of lousy sound kind of got to them a bit. Considering their breed of heavy music is a bit 'Metal by numbers' it does need an engaged and enthusiastic crowd to help make any kind of impact. Their inability to cultivate that at any point throughout the set really made for a weak show.
One of the real draws at this year's Camden Rocks Festival came in the form of Pulled Apart By Horses (10/13) who managed to really pack out the Electric Ballroom for their late afternoon slot. You can tell that this is a band who absolutely relish being on stage with their tracks taking on a completely new lease of life gernering energy they simply fail to replicate on record. Tom Hudson is a natural front-man, maintaining his performance all whilst silently orchestrating the small pack of die-hards attempting to mosh at the front. As ever, good band on record, excellent band live.
Now then. Turbowolf (12/13). What did we say again in our preview coverage? That we're certain the live return of Turbowolf will have them absolutely chomping at the bit in what will probably lead to the set of the day? Yep, exactly how we said it'd go down then. If you've never seen Turbowolf live before it feels like the ignition of a stick of dynamite from a Loony Tunes cartoon as soon as that first note is struck and the venue just descends in to complete bedlam. The Underworld became the heaving sweatbox it always threatened to become as half the floor became an almost unidentifiable amalgamation of bodies crashing in to each other as the band rattled through banger after banger after banger. Solid Gold and Read + Write in particular triggered scenes of mayhem whilst the new tracks embedded in to the set without even a hint of losing momentum. Ridiculously good, wildly fun - standard fare then for a Turbowolf live show.
With barely even a minute to have a breather, another of the festival's main attractions were hitting the stage at The Electric Ballroom. As expected Orange Goblin (11/13) filled out the venue and played a greatest hit set spanning their twenty year career. It's difficult to fuck with the kind of set-list they're able to put together from The Devil's Whip to Cities Of Frost to the triumphant Red Tide Rising they were just absolutely dominant from the word go.
In a slight change of pace over at The Black Heart, that stage's headliners HCBP (8/13) kicked off a thunderous set which literally had the floor trembling. The crowd was incredibly sparse by the time HCBP did start but it didn't seem to have any kind of adverse effect on the duo's enthusiasm and will to pummel some eardrums.