Brilliantly Punishing
By the time Palm Reader hit the stage tonight, the place had packed out. Quite rightfully, a lot of people made sure they were going to catch one of the most exciting Heavy British bands around at the moment. They came on to the stage with little fanfare, no intro tape or light effects here, simply taking to the stage and launching themselves in to a live set so severe and cutting for a few moments it left a lot of people wide-eyed and rooted to the spot. We’ve covered a fair few Palm Reader shows on Room Thirteen in recent times, but undoubtedly this was one of their finest moments. In their 40 odd minutes on stage they emphasised without even a breath that more people should be taking notice of this angry five piece from Woking.
They’re often touted as a UK Hardcore band, but musically they stretch out of this genre, displaying a far more eclectic level of maturity with each track. They’re not all beat downs and muscles, this is a band who are looking at the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan and really drawing an important level of influence. It’s jarring and chaotic and all just really impressive. The biggest reaction from a crowd perspective came when the band ran through some tracks from their popular Beside The Ones We Love released last year. They were also clearly delighted to receive such a strong reaction to a completely new track which was hopefully a precursor to some more new music soon.
By the end they had got some pits going, but as we’ve already noted, if you were to look across the floor their live show had grabbed the attention of pretty much everyone in the venue. They crash through sets with this odd level of organised chaos, irking from one awkward riff to the next. Really and truly a great band, offered an awesome chance in supporting Cancer Bats, a chance they’ve grabbed by the throat and run with.