A few months ago, Gojira played the o2 Academy, and it was an absolutely insane night - and there's one specific picture I use to explain just how nuts the night was. It's a picture from the floor, and it looks like the whole room is one giant circle pit. But this picture isn't from Gojira's set, or even Alien Weaponary's - it's from Employed To Serve's. So when ETS announced a show at The Cathouse, I knew it'd be nothing short of unbelievable.
Manchester hardcore quintet Going Off was up first. If I counted right, they fit 17 songs into a 25-30-ish minute-long set, so good going by any means. It was fast, loud, and aggressive, and a great warmup for the night to come. At one point in the set, their photographer took over vocals, and at another, the singer and bassist switched roles for a song. Overall, they were crazy good, and despite the pretty sparse crowd for them, put on just as intense of a show as I am sure they would have done for a packed-out crowd. Definitely not one to miss, either on the rest of this run or the next time they're in town.
Next was the mighty Pupil Slicer. In the same amount of time that Going Off crammed 17 songs into, they managed an equally impressive 4. Obviously, there's incredible skill involved in creating their head-spinning, mind-melting mathcore, but there's just as much ability required to translate such dizzying tracks to a live show - especially as a support act. The three-piece did so admirably well, with a sense of fun and humor that for most bands would have seemed antithetical to the music, but made perfect sense with them. Awesome band, incredible show, don't miss them.
And then it was time for Employed To Serve. Walking onstage to a Judas Priest mashup, and opening with Void Ambition, no time was wasted in kicking things off. I don't think a minute had passed before I got shoved into the barrier, and that's always a good sign of a good night to come. At least Catty's barriers are a reasonable height, I saw Nova Twins at a venue with chest-height barriers, and had bruises for a week after that one. Despite not wanting to take my eyes off the stage for too long, I had to check out whatever carnage was going on behind us, and it looked mental.
"Conquering" cut "Exist" and "Eternal Forward Motion" track "Force Fed" were early highlights of their 15-song set. Justine Jones is a legend in the making and did not remotely need the crowd shouting along with her to get her through the 75 minute set, but the extra volume coming from a devoted headline crowd put this show a league above when I've seen them as a support act.
"Conquering" and "Eternal Forward Motion" were the most represented albums on the setlist, but the two tracks played from "Warmth Of A Dying Sun" ("I Spend My Days" and "Void Ambition") elicited just as strong of a reaction from the massively hyped up crowd. Despite numerous pits opening up, and a brutal wall of death, we hadn't had any crowd surfers yet - but that changed as soon as this was brought to the crowd's attention. My shoulder almost wishes this hadn't been brought up, but there really is no sight quite like someone hoisted over a crowd - and major props to the security guards for catching as many people as they did.
Forgoing an encore, "Mark Of The Grave" was the final song of the night, and it's one of those songs that will always sound incredible live. It's loud, cathartic, and a hell of a lot of fun, there's just something epic about screaming "You're all dead TO ME!" in a sweaty club.
Afterwards, members from all three bands were at their merch tables and were all incredibly nice people. All the merch looked to be very fairly priced, but are selling super fast - so if there's anything you're desperate for get down early for it.
Setlist:
- Void Ambition
- Owed Zero
- The Mistake
- Exist
- Force Fed
- Sun Up to Sun Down
- We Don't Need You
- Dull Ache Behind My Eyes
- Harsh Truth
- Eternal Forward Motion
- Twist the Blade
- Conquering
- World Ender
- I Spend My Days
- Mark of the Grave
💯🙌
ReplyDeleteAmazing sets from all the bands. Can't wait for FOB on Saturday
ReplyDeleteBig slay as always 😌
ReplyDeletegojira rules but ets devoured in ggow
ReplyDelete