martyrials

It’s taken us over year but the band has finally made its debut in our neighbouring city of Bath at the popular Pig and Fiddle Pub. The gig was hosted by Cat Backlash of Bath DIY Punk Collective and we shared the bill with two storming punk rock juggernauts.

First on the bill were Bath-based Meekers who warmed up the crowd with an enjoyable slab of melodic punk rock. Accomplished bass and powerful drumming were backed by tuneful leads and washes of guitar. It’s just the kind of act you need to get a venue pumped for a night of live music.

The Pig and Fiddle’s main entrance becomes the ‘stage area’ on gig nights, which gives the bands plenty of space to move around and throw some serious shapes. The venue, lined with wooden panels, ephemera and interesting decor has a sort of small town Americana vibe and the images of the gig, from famed local gig photographers Cheri Clouds and Meg Manley Photography, looked great in this setting.

The next band to take to the Pig and Fiddle’s massive la porte rug-come-stage was Wiltshire’s mighty Martyrials. This group has been causing a real stir on the UK DIY punk circuit with their searing keyboard-driven sounds. Lead singer and keys player Sam comes across like a The Nice-era Keith Emerson spliced with the Cardiacs’s William D. Drake fronting some mutant synthpop band, using and abusing his Roland machine with manic abandon. Dirty baselines were forged by Matt while drums were both caressed and pelted in equal measure by the enigmatic, emerald-haired Oana. It added up to a powerful package that got the punters rocking.

Kiss Me, Killer were the headline act. Following the Martyrials would be tough, especially as poor Holly had been feeling under the weather but, a trooper as always, she made it to the gig anyway. A revamped set saw us open with EP banger From the Inside with its animalalistic, metalesque riffage and the crowd lapped it up before we powered into Rat Race‘s sludgy riff, poppier hooks and Arabic-scale psychedelia.

Nat KMK had come armed with his brutally-effective Barefaced bass cab, a bit of gear that really brings his clever playing alive, basslines weaving in and out of my Gordon Smith GS1, Cat’s Telecaster and AJ’s forceful drumming. We’d thrown ‘first ever song’ Narcissistic Tendencies into the set and, oops, it rather fell apart through lack of rehearsal but thankfully we’d got the crowd on our side by then…

Newish song Tear Your Heart Out (Rip it to Pieces) with its meaty, chugging breakdown went down well and when the Pig and Fiddle audience demanded an encore we took a chance on Sliding Into My DMs, a new tune with Holly lyrics that take aim at creepin’ dudebros. It was rough and ready (‘I had no idea what was going on,’ claimed AJ) but the audience seemed to like it regardless. Job done.

Cat Backlash has rebranded Bath DIY Punk Collective into a new events management/music promotion outfit called VIBE REVOLUTIONS. If her new venture creates more gigs like this one local music fans will have a lot to look forward to.