Festival: Trashstock
Bands:  The Authentics, Kitty Hudson, Silverjet, The Imperial Vipers & Winnebago Deal
Venue: Junction 7, Nottingham
Date: 17 August 2007   

Well when it comes to getting down and dirty at festivals some like slashing around in dirt infested fields, but if you really want to get really dirty, and I mean absolutely filthy dirty down to the bare bones, then you can't get any dirtier than Nottingham's infamous Thrashstock Festival.

This mini two day event is the illegitimate offspring of Riot Promotions, who are hell bent on bringing together the best of the underground talent currently hitting the scene and dragging them kicking and screaming all the way to Junction 7 to kick some serious on-stage ass for one entire weekend of deliciously debauched and loud and very proud, rock n' roll.

First up for this years event are Leicester’s own The Authentics, who get the weekend off to a great start with their sleaze driven guitar fuelled rock, starting off their set with ‘Face The Writing On The Wall’ they not only kick-started our hearts but also the weekend that lay ahead.

The band consisting of Jon, Gray, Mike and Dave kept their high octane rock n' roll  set going with ‘Burn What Remain’, ‘U Wanna Be Me’ and the excellent ‘Supercharged’.

Ripping through their set like some run-away express train the band barely stopped for breath throughout their short but full on set, which came to a close with ‘Beat Me (For an Apology)’ before rounding off a great set of fuel injected rock n' roll with the impressive ‘Ton Of Bricks’.  This was exactly what you wanted from an opening act to any festival large or small, a band that blew the cobwebs of the week away and brought out the banner to hail the weekend had well and truly begun.

With each band being limited to 25-30 minute sets they were out to impress from the off and the tempo was kept going by London’s Kitty Hudson, who like The Authentic’s I had never seen live before today.  Like The Authentics I was greatly impressed with their down to earth sleazed fuelled rock as they kicked things off with 'MIA', with frontman Richie looking every inch the rock star with his Phil Lewis looks and attitude.

Their sleaze punk vibe was carried into every song and with the advantage of having a bass player who can wail as well as he played, this give the band greater depth as this was shown when Al showed off his vocal prowess on the heavier ‘Homer J’.

Then it was back to Richie for one of the highlights of their set with ‘Relationshipwreck’, before the band really went to town with the superb ‘Rock Motherfucker’.

Not to be left out of the limelight it was back to the Jimmy Pursey style vocals of Al for short and sweet ‘Numb Dumn Scum’.  The band quickly followed this up by setting the place alight with ‘Hup 234’, a fast and furious assault that rocked big style and was without a doubt the bands finest song so far.

Even though they were limited to just 25 minutes they managed to squeeze in another three more guitar filled sleaze tunes, 'Deportation From A Backward Nation’, a song spawned from their antics in the US which saw them not only arrested, but also reported and banned from US soil for life!  Woo Hoo! Now THAT'S what I call Rock n' roll!  

They continued with ‘I Wanna Be Loved’ and topped off their set with ‘Everybody Loves U When U’R Dead’, another kick ass rock n' roll band that like The Authentics, I will most certainly be checking out again very soon.

Now for a band who I have seen perform many times before, Sheffield’s Silverjet  who led by Dave Kerr delivered another comprehensive set that consisted of things both old and new.  They got the ball running with something new ‘Crazy’ which marked the beginning of another strong set by the band. Then it was straight into ‘Face To Face’ which shows the band have thrown away their Dogs D’Amour/Quireboys sound that stood out so prominently in their earlier days and have now matured in sound and gone for something they can truly call their own.

It wasn’t until ‘Hell Yeah’ that their set really took off for me, this new track is one that will feature on the bands forthcoming album and is a real belter of a song with just a hint of Bluesy rock thrown in for good measure.

They continued with the newer material with ‘Cold Love’ before unleashing a couple of barnstormers to finish off with, firstly it was ‘Broken’, then one of my personal favourites from the band ‘Mardigras’, which rounded off another professional performance by the band.

With this evening being about the bands I haven’t seen before another band whom I was unfamiliar with before tonight are London's ‘The Imperial Vipers’, who although I have heard lots about in reviews etc, I'd never actually heard anything by them, and so with baited breath I was waiting to see just what all the fuss was about.  Well sadly the well known phrase don’t believe the hype soon came to mind with this band.

They opened up favourably enough with ‘Jewels’, a track which mixed traditional rock with a little reggae vibe, the band are a five piece and tonight they seemed a little restricted on the small stage of Junction 7, which I felt restricted the bands performance with guitarist Wevs and Corky seemingly wanting to be unleashed and dominate the stage, but sadly this wasn’t going to happen tonight.

They continued their set with ‘Searching For A Silence’ and ‘Loves Fortune’ with front man Ashley Simmons playing on his Michael Hutchinson style looks and getting the approval of several ladies down at the front of the stage.

Their set only picked up for me when they went into ‘Check This’, a real rocker which seemed to fuel Simmons as he climbed the barrier at the front of the stage to get close up and personal with the audience.

The band carried on this ferocity with another new song entitled ‘ Another Suicide’, which again showed the bands more rockier refrain before finishing off the set with ‘I’ll Guess’ and ‘My Number’, which included the highlight in the songs for me of a guitar solo by Wevs. The band did put on an impressive show but they weren’t my cup of tea apart from a couple of songs, but still they came, we saw, they rocked, what more do you want from a band? 

The headline band tonight Winnebago Deal were another new band on me, again lots of good reviews but an unknown quantity all the same.

It was plain by the set up on stage that this was going to be something different with only a drum kit and one floor mike being set up and believe me they were something different, firstly there are only two band members in Winnebago Deal, Ben Perrier on guitar and vocals and Ben Thomas on drums.

They opened up with ‘Bail Out’ which seem quite appropriate as several members of the crowd did just that as these two set about a set of unadulterated Punk/Thrash, which seemed out of place with the rest of tonight’s bands and I suspect probably led to the mutiny of most of the audience, who were most definitely more into a sleazier sound.

The two rampaged through their 45 minute set like a out of control bulldozer with the majority of tracks from their recent release 'Flight of the Raven' and 'Dead Gone' albums, with the likes of ‘Spiderbite’ ‘Did It, Done It, Doing It Again’ being the best of the bunch. 

The closer ‘Maximum Overdrive’ capped off their no holds barred set that didn’t suit all here tonight, but for a two piece they certainly made some noise and are well worth checking out if your into the likes of Mondo Generator, the harder side of QOTSA and Kyuss.

With the night still young we stuck around and enjoyed the late night hospitality of Junction 7 well into the early hours, as did most and looked forward to day 2.
 

 

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