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 W/ Smudge & Inglory
By Chris Skoyles
Back stage at Wigan’s Club Nirvana, Jack Turley, drummer with Dudley’s
finest punk exports The Fight is giving a quick post-gig interview with
The LINC, dropping his enigmatic rock star quote “It’s like the cereal
without the milk” at every opportunity. He obviously is not talking
about tonight, where an audience starving for good music lap up his
band’s sweet yet crunchy rock ‘n’ roll like a big ol’ bowl of Kellogg's
Crunchy Nut, milk and all.
Yet before the main course, naturally comes the starters, and first on
the menu tonight are two of Wigan’s most delicious musical delicacies.
On their website, local boys Smudge define themselves as
“Pop-punk/Experimental Emo”. Get rid of the ‘experimental’ part and
you’ll get a clearer picture of this melee of slicing riffage, chopping
rhythms and stirring, straightforward vocals. Smudge mix your usual emo
and pop-punk formulas with a defined stage presence and a bassist who
sports one of the finest ‘Misfits-like hairdos since Jerry Only himself.
Not that hair should have anything to do with the music, but this is emo
after all, where style rules over substance any day. Fortunately for
these lads, they’ve got both in equal measure, and it is good stuff.
Good soon turns to great as Screamo lords Inglory pounce on an
unsuspecting Club Nirvana and threaten to rock it to rubble with a
vicious, melodic, soothing and disturbing performance that is
tailor-made for a venue of this size. From the moment they take to the
stage with such overwhelming gusto to the moment they finish, having
ravished everyone in attendance, Inglory flood the spacious club with an
ocean of dramatic hardcore anthems. Their ferocious yet melodious sound
crashing over the no-mans land that is the dance floor like a tidal
wave, whilst on stage, the band are mesmerising. There are only five of
them, but to look out at the energy and passion, with which the boys
launch themselves into each number, it is as though a swarm of
super-charged rock beasts have swarmed the stage to destroy the club.
Fantastic.
And so on to The Fight. After being spotted by American pop-punks New
Found Glory, the Black Country foursome recently completed a stint on
the now legendary Vans Warped Tour, before bringing their infectious
brand of attitude infested punk home for a UK tour, and finding
themselves here, in Wigan. With the crowd still reeling from Inglory’s
attack, K8 leads her boys into an onslaught of ferocious punk riffs and
snarling vocals.
Taking a pop-punk formula perfected by the likes of Good Charlotte et al
and adding a definitive British working-class rebellion, these
Vans-wearing vagabonds work an already enlivened crowd into the
proverbial frenzy with their catchy-yet-grouchy songs and in-your-face
stage presence.
More of a poke in the belly rather than a punch in the face, The Fight
–not entirely unlike their two predecessors tonight- offer little that
they can claim uniquely as their own, yet this hardly matters. Every
spiky skewer of guitar, banging bassline and bouncing beat that dash
together under K8s cocky and confident voice acts as a call to the
dancefloor, an incitement to rise up in the name of punk rock and
declare a war against all that is bad about music. A war that, if
tonight’s standards are anything to go by, will soon be won.
Full interview with The Fight can be
read here.
Recommended Links:
www.myspace.com/thefight – The Fight’s Myspace page.
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