PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
On Friday 29th April, stoner and doom fans from all stretches of the country descended on Camden, London, for the 5th installment of touring festival Desertfest. Several venues will be used over this 3-day event: The Black Heart, Underworld, Electric Ballroom and The Devonshire Arms, with Koko being used on the Sunday – a useful ploy to help stagger fans throughout the venues.
Being the first band on at any festival is never an easy job, however London locals Gurt [9] made light work of it. Storming on to an almost full Underworld with a high tempo beginning to the set, they seized an eager crowd by the shoulders and blasted straight into a great set. They played songs from their new split “Guppy”, again bringing back glorious puns such as “Owlmageddon”. They were then joined onstage by members of Trippy Wicked for the last song of the set “Revolting child” kicking into another level of sludgy overdrive. Overall a fantastic opening to the festival, and a triumphant return to the Underworld for London’s very own Gurt.
Next up were The Grudge [7], who sit somewhere betweenriffy British classic rock and Southern Sludge. Filling in for Greek Stoners Planet of Zeus, these local boys from London seemed to struggle at first – their set took a few songs to really get going, with nothing seeming to get much of a reaction out of the audience till the third song “Souldragger” At this point they seemed to hit a better groove and things picked up a bit. Some great lead playing throughout, with some good guitar driven melodies. And some great classic harmonies in “speedfreak”. They definitely show some element of Southern Groove that the audience related to, although it took quite a bit of the set to figure that out.
Hailing from Portland Oregon, Black Pussy [8] were one of the first American bands to be seen on Friday, and they did a mighty fine job of representing. These Psychedelic groove merchants had a great clean crisp sound, with fantastic driving basslines and Ray Manzarek-esque keyboards. The audience was grooving along in no time and they continued to deliver on the groove throughout the set. With some impressive lead lines being played underneath the vocals. Anyone appearing in the underworld with no prior knowledge of what was going on could have thought the stage had fallen through some kind of time warp, with flares, wildly colourful shirts and all manner of things 60’s, which made a welcome deviation from the black on black uniform sported by most over the weekend. All in all great psyche drenched 60’s rock from the boys from Oregon with the hilariously controversial name.
The term “Power Trio” is tossed around at almost any band with 3 members these days, with the emphasis being on the “Trio” part. With Egypt [9], this is not the case “Power” is the important part here. Doom owes its roots chiefly to blues, and Egypt are a fantastic example of this. Delivering monstrous grooves from the get go, howling lead guitar playing and a stomping rhythm section. their blend of cosmic blues and Doom coupled with progressive song writing held everyone’s attention firmly. They put on a stoic yet enthralling performance, highly enjoyable.
NOLA heavyweights Crowbar [8] are a staple in the diet of any sludge fan, with their unique mixture of old school hardcore, sludge, and Thin Lizzy inspired, yet brutal harmonies. They started their set with more of their faster material, and then moved on to their slower more harmony based material later in the set. As always they were lively onstage and looked very engaged with the set, the same can be said of the audience who responded very well to the well mixed set they had chosen. Newer material such as “Walk with Knowledge Wisely” was also very well received. The really excellent surprise came at the end when they played a cover of Led Zeppelins “No Quarter”. Now, it goes without saying that Led Zep covers are not something to be taken lightly, and are done by few bands for that very reason. However Crowbar managed to put a great transformational spin on the track, and really made it their own, and in a very tasteful fashion. They finished up with “Planets Collide” which evoked a frenzy of nodding heads. Good form as always.
To say that Corrosion of Conformity [10] returning to London with Pepper Keenan back at the helm had a buzz going is a severe understatement. Having played a secret gig at Manchester’s Star and Garter the night before, there was already a hum of excitement following them before they had even taken to the stage. The Electric Ballroom was absolutely rammed to the gunnels with people at the point where C.O.C were waiting to hit the stage on Friday night. They came on to a roaring crowd, and laid out everything from sludgy to sublime riffs like it was no effort. The fact that C.O.C have been around in various iterations since 1982 shows through in the best possible way in that the band are fantastically tight together, grooving on a knife point, and playing as a very complete unit. Their southern origins show themselves through the songwriting, which pays homage to Lynyrd Skynyrd in the best fashion possible. Despite the fact that the band have been around in excess of 30 years, they do not seem to have lost any enthusiasm at all, and stride around the stage with an air of well settled confidence,
but with none of the arrogance that befalls some. Having such an experienced band giving such a raw performance meant that the electric ballroom transformed itself into feeling like the band were mere feet away, even to those at the back of the room and on the balconies. It should also be noted that C.O.C are an interesting band in that all 4 members do vocals for the band, and seem as though they could all front the band if they wanted to, which again only adds to the gravitas that this band have. After having wandered off stage towards the end of the set, they were forced back on with relentless cheering, and returned to play “Vote With a Bullet”, which they kindly dedicated to Donald Trump. They finished up by doing an ingeniously extended version of “Clean My Wounds” which they stripped down to the bone, verging on a reggae/dub version towards the end – again showing the band’s fantastic musicality and versatility. A fantastically put together and brilliantly executed set, coupled with fantastic playing and performance by the band. Everything you could want in a performance.
Overall, an excellent start to the weekend, with Corrosion of Conformity setting the bar high for other bands due to play the festival over the next couple of days.
Words by: Innes Rankin
Photos by: Miley Stevens
[flickrapi user=”planet mosh” get=”photoset” id=”72157667932527221″ size=”z” count=”100″]
