Suicidal Tendencies, Evile, Virus at the Electric Ballroom, 7 July 2013

I have a kind of love hate relationship with the Electric Ballroom and gigs, mainly because they choose to only open the doors about 10 minutes before the first band comes on stage.  This has always confused me as it helps to ensure that most of the crowd don’t make it into the venue in time.  It makes it hard for those working as well to review or photograph the first band if you also can’t get in on time.  Luckily this evening Virus came on stage 5 minutes late, which meant that we got in just a couple of minutes before the set started.

Unfortunately there wasn’t a great crowd at the start of Virus’ set, but that didn’t stop them from blasting their way through it from the start.  It was a thrashy start to the evening and I was loving the drumming.  The crowd got bigger throughout the set and their second song ‘Parasitic Invasion’ got them head banging.  If you wanted it even faster, then ‘Human Disposal Unit’ off their new album is the song for you.

Having seen both Evile and bvery recently at Les Fest in Scotland, this night was turning into a bit of a musical reunion.   I was blown away by their set at Les Fest so made sure I was at the barriers for this one.  After such a good set the last time, did they disappoint me this time?  Did they hell! The only bad part of the set was that it was just 30 minutes long, which is just not enough. ‘We who are about to die’ got the masses head banging and ‘Thrasher’, well that did what it does best and brought not one, but two mosh pits.  The set literally went by in what felt like a couple of minutes and me and those around me couldn’t believe it was over so quickly.  I met several people at the front who came to the gig that night just for this set and they went away very happy indeed.  This is a big headlining band of the future and all I want to know is when they are coming back to London.

Now after that set there had to be something pretty damn special and though I had never seen Suicidal Tendencies play before it only took me to look around to see that this was going to be just a little bit special.  The venue was absolutely packed and people were pushing to reach the front – with the odd spat breaking out next to me.  The atmosphere was absolutely thick with anticipation and you could see people were just waiting for the first strains of the opening track to break into a big pit.  Which is exactly what happened.  Though not before deafening cheers, whistling and chanting before they came on stage.  When they did it literally all kicked off; there were pits, jumping, pushing, singing and several people going over the barriers all in the first song.   It didn’t let up either, but kept going throughout the entire set – I lost count of the amount of pits that happened.

At just under 1 ½ hours this was a massive set and the crowd loved every single minute of it and didn’t let up on their enthusiasm oncee.  Moving later towards the back you could see it packed right up to the back bar with people jumping about and singing along.  If they ever play again in London I will definitely be there, it was a great mix of music and energetic performance.  Saving the best to last they literally brought the crowd to the stage allowing a crowd invasion during the last song which just looked cool.

Overall, a bloody brilliant night of metal….when are we doing it again?

Set List

1. You Can’t Bring Me Down
2. Smash It!
3. Freedumb
4. War Inside My Head
5. Subliminal
6. I Saw Your Mommy
7. Who’s Afraid
8. Send Me Your Money
9. We Are Family
10. Possessed to Skate
11. Cyco Vision
12. How Will I Laugh Tomorrow
13. Pledge Your Allegiance