Hardcore punk incites everything you might expect: jumping, kicking, spitting, moshing, thrashing and Cancer Bats gave Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms exactly that.
I may not have exactly been converted to a loyal follower by their music, but the rumble-tumble atmosphere was enough to give me and the rest of the crowd a night to remember.
You could call Cancer Bats hardcore punk all you like but when Canadian frontman Liam Cormier opens his mouth the band literally screams metal; and the crowd loved it. The feeling and the attitude of punk, however, really shone through the night, and doubly so when the band wasn’t even playing. Before they entered the stage we had a chorus of cries to “fucking start already!” but then during the interludes Cormier gave the crowd a few feel-good speeches, praising them for disregarding their looming 9am starts the next morning to come rock out that night. But hold onto your drink because with a single hit of that crash cymbal the room turns a swarm of booze and sweat pullulating nothing but anarchy.
As I mentioned before, I wouldn’t call myself a fan of the Cancer Bats on the basis of vocal style and a shortage of solos (just a personal preference) but by God are they a spectacle to watch. Look to the centre and you have Cormier who by this point is so sweaty that every turn of his head looks like a dog shaking themselves dry; look to the right and you have lead guitarist Scott Middleton pumping out only the heaviest of riff; to left is Andrew McCracken on bass sporting some heroic dungarees and finally their live drummer known as the ‘Belgian Beast’ who was practically Lemmy Kilmister on a drum kit; fabulous.
Better yet, you need not look at the band as the crowd themselves was just as much of a treat for the eyes. While the majority of choruses gave something for the crowd to chant together each verse would bring a mosh whether it be the regular, circle pit or even a wall of death; it was like watching an ant colony after their mount gets disturbed. Now I’m not sure how to stress this in the best way but the place was packed.
Cancer Bats have gained fair traction since their founding in 2004 with this Rescue Rooms performance to show for it, the bottom floor was one man away from bursting while the top deck was littered with those who dare not mosh. Weirdly enough I wasn’t even aware of the lack of room till I could feel the sweaty locks of the headbanging man behind me lashing against my neck; hardcore really is about the good bad and the ugly.
Impressed, I was, not particularly by the music, but by the raw stamina the quartet managed to hold. Ontario’s finest (excluding the Belgian Beast of course) steamrolled through a full 19-track-setlist (all of which the aforementioned Belgian Beast had to learn previous to the show by the way) that ranged from stuff from their debut LP like Butterscotch to their band new single Inside Out, with relative ease. Cormier even still had the energy to jump off the drum podium, spin around at high speeds and even heave a large amp around to face the crowd so they could get more vocals; what a hero.
In other words, if you like pushing, shoving and seeing a man lose his own body weight in perspiration but most importantly, heavy-hitting riffs and uplifting chants I implore you to see Cancer Bats. If I can have a good time without necessarily liking what I’m hearing, then surely anyone can right?
By Alex Mace