PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
The night kicked off with Italian band Klogr. It’s heavy alt-rock/metal and sounds pretty damn good as they play a set that includes material from their first two albums as well as their latest one. “Pride before the fall” in particular sounded great. It’s just a shame that the early start (they’re on stage around five minutes after the doors open) means they play to a very small audience.
Next up were Eyes set to kill, a hard rock band from Arizona. With a mixture of clean female vocals and screaming male vocals they put in a great performance and happily get a larger crowd than klogr although it started small but grew steadily as the set progressed. They’re not a band I’ve seen before but I certainly enjoyed their set, although I’d have preferred a heavier band as a proper warm-up for Butcher Babies.
Finally it was time for Butcher babies. They’re an extremely high energy band, with singers Carla and Heidi constantly moving around the stage as they sing, and whenever one of them isn’t singing she’s headbanging furiously. Heidi also enjoys leaping high into the air – overll both of them put in an incredibly energetic performance. The lyrics of “Monsters ball” describe them perfectly really – “No you can’t stop moving, No you can’t stop moving, No you can’t stop”. They’re great at working the crowd too and getting them involved. Almost inevitably they can’t be confined to the stage, with Heidi in particular spending time at the barrier, and later on when a circle pit formed they were singing from the middle of the circle pit.
Behind them in the smoky dark part of the stage is the rest of the band (Chrissy Warner on drums, Henry Flury on guitar and Jason Klein on bass), who tend to be overlooked when people talk about Butcher Babies, but without their powerful metal sound, Carla and Heidi wouldn’t be able to carry on. They do come forward occasionally, but with the speed at which Carla and Heidi move around, it’s probably safer for them to stay back rather than be knocked over mid-song, or be pistol whipped by flying hair as they headbang. The guys are great musicians and really deserve more attention.
It’s a great set with songs from the latest album (Lilith), and in fact from all their releases – all three albums, their covers EP (Uncovered) and their original self titled EP. There aren’t many bands that could get away with covering the Napoleon XIV song “They’re coming to take me away” but Butcher Babies manage it and make it sound better than the original.
A great night.
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