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Hardcore nights upstairs at the Pilgrim are well and truly back. Curated by scene stalwarts Chief, the monthly event gives a much needed platform to Liverpool’s talented underground punk rock clique. It’s high time we had a regular night like this.
The rapid-fire thrash of Ruin It For Everybody kicks things off at breakneck speed. They play blisteringly fast whirlwinds of noise, but with little scope for technical deviation, and the lack of a focal point on stage (i.e. singer) lets them down a touch.
If you’re already nice and pissed off and stalking round a mosh pit, RIFE would certainly help you unleash your inner beast, but as an opening act, they have a tough job warming up a statuesque audience.
They’re followed by Fair Do’s, who also clock that everyone is only here for Chief and respond by coaxing the horseshoe forward. They fall into the same trap of not having a dedicated singer, but allow it to affect them less than the previous band.
A second guitarist gives them more freedom for experimentation. ‘It Doesn’t Matter What Your Name Is’ is driven forward by a thunderous double-bass drum attack, punctuated with metallic bursts from the drummer’s impressive cymbal collection and overlaid with guitars in spellbinding polyrhythm.
They flit gracefully between heavy chugga-chugga riffs, pounding hardcore and tapping solos, the screamo vocals calling to mind early Thrice. Fair do’s indeed.
With brain still buzzing from ridiculous time-signatures, it’s time for something a little less challenging.
Where the previous bands represent progressionist punk rock, cocky young upstarts The Wasters play Sex Pistols styled two-chord sludge-rock and stand for everything that is embarrassing, clichéd and dated about punk.
Self-deprecating (Drink, drink, drink) and self-congratulatory (We Will Never Die), they teeter drunkenly somewhere between working class empathy and nihilism.
Tonight’s headliners Chief show their own punk ethos to be more about personal empowerment as a response to social ills.
Songs like Shoot To Kill, a knives-out criticism of the Jean Charles de Menezes killing, remind us that punk should be essentially political, devoid of cliché and, above all, inspirational. Educate to Succeed affirms their posi stance: that you can achieve a common goal without a molotov cocktail:
“We’ll fight this fight, but no weapons will be utilized.”
The songs are intense, high-tempo bursts of energy, but the three-part harmonies give it a gloriously melodic sheen.
Singer Nick is an imperious performer, introducing songs with mini-speeches about tolerance, unity and respect; a hard thing to do without patronizing your audience, but sweaty moshers agree after the show that Chief have got the balance right and they hope punk will continue to evolve in this way.
Before long, the crowd is out of control. One kid gets carried away and mounts a speaker stack:
“Check out the balls on Brad!” shouts Nick as Brad flings himself into the sea of bodies.
A brief bit of handbags in the mosh pit is expertly defused by the band, who refuse to play until the culprits have kissed and made up.
To that end, a wall of love (like a wall of death, but with hugs instead of kung-fu kicks) is constructed down the centre line. Despite the band’s best efforts, wanton violence ensues again, but it’s all good-natured to the last. Chief will be back in November with more of the same. You couldn’t drag us away.