Hornets + No Spill Blood + PigsAsPeople – Oh Yeah Centre, Belfast – 23 August 2013

Hornets by Marc Leach Photography
Hornets by Marc Leach Photography

Tonight’s gig in this former whiskey bonding house come music resource centre is somewhat appropriately branded as ‘Distillation 03’, being as it is the third in the series of special showcase events supported by sponsorship from Bushmills Irish Whiskey… well, such an synergistic association doesn’t really need to provide much more incentive to check out what the hell the world’s oldest registered distillery is offering up in terms of new tastes (if you see what we mean… hic!).

Talking of ‘new tastes’, this evening’s showcase certainly turned out to be something of a new experience for your hardy PM reviewing team, with this eclectic (to say the least) menu serving up three very distinctly different courses.

Pigs As People by Marc Leach Photography
Pigs As People by Marc Leach Photography

First up, PigsAsPeople make as big a noise as you are likely to hear from a trio.  Their heavy psychedelia is laced with anarchic, bluesy punk and elements of grindcore, delivered via driving bass riffs and distorted, downtuned and fedback guitars, and characterized by long instrumental passages punctuated by violent vocal interjections.  However, despite its intensity, their sets belies its brevity by dragging, suffering as it does by all the songs sounding the same in terms of both pace and delivery, merging into one monotone whole.

www.facebook.com/PigsAsPeople

No Spill Blood by Marc Leach Photography
No Spill Blood by Marc Leach Photography

Dubliners No Spill Blood kick off their mid-bill set with a wall of wailing electro noise which evolves (if you can call it that, into a bombardment of industrial brutality centred on a wash of techno keyboards and discordant guitar interjections, supported by a sparse, snare-led drum sound. The result is repulsively hypnotic techno punk, more spaced out than Nik Turner’s worst hallucinogen-infused nightmare, played out in the most hellish of surrealist Berlin basements.

www.facebook.com/nospillblood/

Hornets by Marc Leach Photography
Hornets by Marc Leach Photography

The last time PM crossed paths with Hornets, frontman Sib ended up in hospital, as a result of a trip into the pit:  on this occasion, the closest the tall singer/bassist came to repeating that incident was when he placed his mic stand in the middle of the floor – only to have it promptly returned to the stage by venue security!

Despite the sparsity of the crowd, the trio – completed by guitarist Andy Shields and drummer Ricky McAuley – perform another powerful, passionate set of intense, punky hardcore at its most animalistic and raw.  However, Sib’s overlong monologues in the latter part of the set, including a lengthy verbal sparring with a heckler, spoil the overall momentum built up during their nevertheless impressive performance, which is brought to a tumultuous conclusion by a rampant ‘Jehovah’.

www.facebook.com/Hornetsband

Photographs by Marc Leach – www.facebook.com/officialmarcleachphotography

Check out more photos from this gig in our gallery – http://planetmosh.com/hornets-support-photo-gallery-belfast-23rd-august-2013/

 

About Mark Ashby

no longer planetmosh staff