Belligerence at Hammerfest II
Belligerence was another unlucky band at Hammerfest II, opening the last day of the festival. The crowd was noticeably hungover and tired from 2 (or 3 for VIPs!) nights of partying behind them. Add to this the pressure of delivering an equally good, if not better, performance than the hugely impressive bands that had already graced this stage (Sondura and Cars On Fire to name just a couple), the odds seemed to be against the Portsmouth band.
Belligerence themselves seemed to be suffering and did not move around the stage as we had seen with previous bands. The crowd made no effort to surround the stage, even when vocalist Tim Brock asked them to move closer... desperate? I couldn't hide a wry smile as I noticed a Belligerence poster on the wall saying “come blow the hangovers away”... irony indeed!
The band themselves were entertaining with some great heavy instrumental solos and powerful lyrics. However, the crowd, still suffering from the night before, did not warm to these guys at all.
A better time slot could've made all the difference to these guys... shame!