Five Knuckle
& support

Yorkshire House, Lancaster
21 September 2004

Reviewed by Reza Mills

I get there at 7 and have a chat with Chris & Eddie - the organizers of the event. I find out that one of the bands, Kill The Lights has pulled out. Ah well it's Five Knuckle I'm really here to see having heard about them in a lot of punk magazines such as Big Cheese. So I mill around for about an hour and stick on 2 tunes on the jukebox. Bad Brains (legendary American HC crew from the 80's) and Pink Floyd.

The doors open and I clamber on up the stairs and on entering the venue I am surprised how young the audience is. It basically looks like mainly college kids. All decked out in modern day punk-ware, Baggy jeans, tattoos and piercings. I felt comparatively ancient in this environment and I'm only 25!

The first band comes on, a young four-piece by the name of My Last Breath. Young is the word! Annoyingly their website is down, so I don't know anything about them. But one thing for sure is they kick up one hell of a racket. The style of music is metal-core (see last review on Ulcat Row for further details).

The musicians belt away with a combined version of sludgy metal and punk aggression. The guitarist, bassist, and drummer pound away like their lives depend on it, whilst the vocalist screams his heart out. But as they play their 30-minute set two things become apparent. The first is that the vocalist is not very good. Sure he can scream, but then so can I! The problem is either due down to either a lack of confidence or inexperience, because he just seems rooted to the spot, head down trying to avoid eye contact with the audience. If you were with some dullard indie band such as Coldplay, this wouldn't have been an issue, but in a hardcore band it is.

The other problem is that the band is not very original. Sure they can play, but it isn't anything I haven't already heard before from across the Atlantic. It seems that they are paying tribute to their heroes Everytime I Die and Poison the Well, rather than forging their own identity.

During the interval I turn round and start chatting to a chap next to me who turns out to be from headliners Five Knuckle! What a stroke of luck eh? Anyways we're chatting about music and whatnot, when all of a sudden there is an almighty roar and both Five Knuckle man and me turn around suddenly to see frontman Amit from Birmingham four-piece Name of Your Fate leaping forward into the crowd. Wow what an introduction! With an entrance like that, how can this band fail to be anything but good?

Sure enough, Amit starts leaping everywhere screaming his head off. Now this is what a hardcore frontman should be about! Amit is a superb, oozing energy from every pore. The band seem to be a little more varied as well, adding in quieter moments amongst the general hardcore noise. They only play for some 20 minutes which is a real shame as I was really enjoying their performance. The backing musicians seem rather subdued but in a sense this helped to give Amit a free reign of the stage. He certainly got the audience going! This band has a lot of potential.

Next band up is organizer Chris' band Lee Malvo. Again frustratingly there is little information about this band. These guys seem to differ from the previous two in the style of music they play, which is a bit like grindcore legends Napalm Death crossed over with Discharge and D.R.I. In other words thrash metal crossed over with punk but done at warp speed! Quite impressive to say the least.

I don't hear any lyrics amongst the grunts that frontman Chris is emitting. The songs are extremely short and uncompromising which is the way I like 'em!. The one downer to their performance is frontman Chris' insistence on having his back to the crowd. For some reason this really annoyed me. But despite this minor glitch, it was quite an interesting little set.

Having received rave reviews from the likes of Big Cheese, Kerrang and Metal Hammer, expectations were high to say the least for headliners Five Knuckle. This quintet hailing from Bristol has been around for some six years. They start off at around 10pm and immediately it becomes apparent that these guys are in a different league from the rest of the acts seen tonight. Their musicianship is extremely tight and frontman Dan is one hell of a charismatic frontman. Whipping up the crowd to frenzy, who up until now have been polite, if subdued, in their reaction to the support bands.

It is not actually that busy tonight but then again The Yorkshire isn't exactly that big a venue. Nonetheless there seems to be some hardcore Five Knuckle fans slamming into one another down at the front of the stage, which is exactly where Dan is. The great thing about this band aside from the fantastic music is how well they interact with their audience. At one stage Dan stops the band and asks the crowd what Lancaster is famous for and one of the audience members' reply ‘being s**t'. This kind of friendly (and funny) banter continues throughout the set.

For those of you familiar with your punk rock, Five Knuckle is a combination of hardcore punk a la Anti-Flag, Minor Threat with a touch of ska. In fact they cover Minor Threat's Small Man Big Mouth, which manages to sound angrier than the original! The ska elements are thankfully quite subtle as well and are played with just as much aggression unlike many of their weaker American contemporaries, (yes I'm referring to you Less Than Jake), and subsequently not nearly as annoying.

Another difference between this band and their counterparts from the US is that Five Knuckle are political and intelligent and not just singing about inane subjects such as girls and beer. This was an excellent performance and I would not hesitate to see them again. It would be a loss to the music world if these guys were not huge. Be sure to visit their website at www.fiveknuckle.net.

All in all this was an excellent night, well organized and good value-for-money. Four bands and 2 and a half hours of music for only four quid is not bad at all! So cheers Chris and Eddie for a thoroughly entertaining evening.