Gigs

Gig Review: Poison The Well + The Plight + The Uncovering

Venue: Barfly, Cambridge
Date: 9 April 2008

Tonight’s show was quite confusing. When I first heard about Poison The Well playing, I imagined that it would be a very “scenetastic” affair; half-way between a Fall Out Boy and Converge show, populated perhaps by masses of fat 15-year-old teenie-goths and skinny 16-year-old floppy-haired ear-plugged brosephs. I could just picture the excessive pouting and posturing. So I instantly seized the opportunity to review this show if only to observe scene kids in their natural environment, and hoped, by acting like some sort of old school hardcore who knows “just what the fuck is up” dude to impress the cute girls with low self-esteem. To my disappointment the crowd demographic was radically different, so my moshing gloves and pretentiousness didn’t come out of the bag and I cozied up to the bar. This time, more importantly, I made sure not to fall victim of Gin poisoning.

The first band to come on stage were The Uncovering, a relatively new Cambridge band. I’ve seen them a couple times before and their brand of noisy screamo still leaves me mostly uninterested and apathetic. I am not sure whether it’s down to their respective scene’s attitude to appear to ignore anything good or the band’s inability to grasp anyone’s attention, but the rest of the audience seemed to be as bored as my friends and I were, but polite enough to clap in between songs. After the first few songs their music quickly disappeared in the background, truth be told however, I caught myself picking out and nodding along to the odd drum beat or guitar riff. Unfortunately though, they lacked any real stage presence or charisma to grab your attention long enough to appreciate whatever it is they were trying hard to do. Maybe if they experienced some Gin poisoning themselves and loosened up a bit and faced the crowd, they’d generate more interest and people wouldn’t sigh in relief when their set ends.

Next up were The Plight from Leeds, and arguably tonight’s revelation. Whereas The Uncovering failed to bring anyone closer than 10 feet from the stage, The Plight had kids moshing and yelling along halfway through their set, all by simply saying asking kids to come up front and fill the empty space. The band sounds like the bastard kids of early Rollins-era Black Flag (by the way, we can all agree that Chavo Pederast was the ‘Flag vocalist, right?) with Led Zeppelin. The songs would progress from angry three-chord protest shout-fests to fretboard aerobic harmonies in a blur. How can you not dance along to this? It’s bands like The Plight who will convince you that mixing up metal and punk is not only a good idea, in fact it’s a no-brainer. Their infectious groove uplifted the crowd’s spirits, encouraged drunken dancing and they genuinely seemed to be having fun. This is the sort of stuff that inspires maladjusted teenagers to pick up an electric guitar in a “summer of discontent” and lock themselves in their room, so I’m going to be waiting in line next time The Plight plays in town.

After the extended break, we came back inside after a breather, just in time to get my last alcoholic beverage of the night before tonight’s headliners Poison The Well got on stage. The PA began playing a new wave/synth-pop-sounding intro song, before they kicked into life through a barrage of carefully orchestrated musical violence. I was in doubt whether they could out-do The Plight in enthusiasm, but they managed to gloriously prove me wrong. They blasted through a set of varied material, from the raw early metalcore, to their more country western stylings of late, without alienating the crowd at any point. The crowd spontaneously pushed up to the front, filling any gaps The Plight had left. The pit was about 4-5 rows deep in front, while the rest of the audience acted efficiently and enthusiastically as back-up vocalists the rest of the night. I found myself yelling along to ‘Letter Thing’ and ‘Lazzaro’, despite not quite knowing the words, nor being that drunk or caring if anyone looked at me in a funny way, partly because I was enjoying myself too much, partly because I felt I could kick anyone’s ass in there. The band’s live performance is, quite simply, as epic and as inspiring as your local five-piece of enthusiastic 15-year-olds and that is no small feat. In a scene where emotions (and stylings) are heavily scripted for ‘maximum emotional impact’ (bringing to mind Theodor Adorno’s Culture Industry critique of popular music to mind), Poison The Well come off about as sincere as a shy 15-year-old who’s just discovered the awesomeness of “meat and potatoes” hardcore coupled with the technical virtuosity of his 35-year-old shred-master counterpart, managing to balance out aggression with emotion in their performance. Being in Cambridge tonight totally ruled.

Photos on the night were taken by Timothy Reynolds ©.

For fans of: The Bled, Hopesfall, Glassjaw
Band links = Poison The Well | The Plight | The Uncovering

Tags: live, gig, poison the well, the plight, review, the uncovering, barfly, cambridge, glassjaw

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