Takedown Festival had to be cancelled last year and so I was very pleased to get the green light to attend this year’s festivities instead. Having been brought up in Fareham (a kind of no-mans-land between Pompey and Southampton), I went to some of my earliest gigs at Portsmouth Guildhall, Hawkwind being the very first. The last time I was down this neck of the woods though, was to see the mighty Airbourne and Black Spiders but that was 15 years ago and the venue has been completely overhauled since then. The Guildhall is a perfect venue for this kind of festival event, with its main hall being supplemented by two smaller performance areas, one of which is the café with access to an outside smoking zone. The press and VIPs were nicely looked after, with an excellent viewing area for the main stage and quiet breakout zones for interviews or to write up notes, etc. It looked like the bands were well accommodated too, with practice/rehearsal spaces being made available to them. The newly ‘done out’ basement (including spanking new toilet facilities) allowed each of the acts plenty of table space for their merch; some of them made much better use of this than others, it has to be said. I would have thought that the main aim of playing this kind of festival would be to grab the interest (and merch money) of as many casual observers / new die-hard fans as possible. So to not even pop your head in to the merch area or hang around for a little while after your set seems a wasted opportunity to me. Anyway…
Kicking things off on the main stage were slick pop-rockers SOS, who were new to me (in fact, that can be said for most of the bands on the Takedown bill, which is why these festivals are so important!) There were guitar moments and there were drum moments but most of the set comprised chart-friendly rock, which was perfectly serviceable and well-produced but a bit too polished for these old ears. I didn’t want to like them, what with their pretty boy looks, well-rehearsed stagecraft and spoovy dance moves, but they were actually pretty good. Goddammit! Over to the We Are Trxsh Stage next, to experience the serious amount of VOLUME emanating from Bournemouth’s rejuvenated groove metallers Thuum. Seriously though, it’s been a long time since I could actually feel my ear drum membrane being this tested. This was more like it, a nice Slayer intro was followed by proper heads-down-and-see-you-at-the-end fayre, with squealing solos riding over a chugging bassline and battering drums. Their set was readily consumed by the decent sized crowd, just don’t ask me what any of the songs were called. Pardon?
The Raven Age put on a highly professional show of route one metal on the Laney Stage, clashing with the more melodic hard rock goodness of Empyre on the Metal For Good Stage. I had seen The Raven Age before and, whilst they are good performers, I was more interested in the powerfully throaty vocals of Empyre. Their songs were just a bit more interesting. Sunk hit a bit harder for me on this, the second time of seeing them play, maybe I am growing more accustomed to their sludgy doom sound. Their heavy guitar tone is backed up by titanic bass riffs and plodding drums and their frontman likes to stomp around the crowd, roaring into our faces for maximum affect. Their material is definitely growing on me and they seem like a nice bunch too (off stage of course).
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Skarlett Riot were one of my ‘must-sees’ at Takedown, so it was slightly frustrating that the second half of their set clashed horribly with one of my other must-sees. Anyway, their anthemic modern metal went down well with the Takedown crowd with masterful guitar work, pounding drum fills and frontwoman Chloe’s imioned singing. It’s a shame about the lack of vocals at the beginning of the set (presumably a mic problem), but that occurred at the start of a few bands on the smaller stages over the festival, which was a bit strange. I have been following Skarlett Riot since their “Rock ’N’ Roll Queen” days and I swear that their live sound is getting heavier over time, the set tonight being dominated by newer material, particularly from new album Caelestia. I left it as late as I dared and then shot round to the main stage for the politically charged folk-infused punk rock of Ferocious Dog. There’s something comforting about the sight of Ken Bonsall, in his iconic flat cap and chunky guitar, leading the group through a set of up-tempo rabble rousing folk-punk. Tonight’s (tragically short) set was loaded with sing-alongable songs from their armoury, including “Iron Mike Malloy”, “Crime and Punishment”, “The Punk Police” and “Sus Laws”, with its nicely reversed call for ‘more blacks, more dogs, more Irish…’ Clever. The moshpit was kept nice and active, really kicking off about halfway in. Even I got involved and that doesn’t happen very often anymore, not with my creaky old bones! They played a high energy “Hell Hounds” (dedicated to their fans) and rounded off the set with the, quite beautiful, “Slow Motion Suicide”. Ferocious Dog were absolute class – and my band of the day.
Speaking of class, Bad Touch brought their uplifting brand of ‘Norfolk Rock ‘N’ Roll’ to the Metal For Good Stage and stunned us with some cracking old school tunes. Stevie Westwood’s classic rock vocals hit just the right spot, with Daniel Seekings’ epic guitar solos adding an extra level when required. It was good to see some serious hair flying around the place too. Bad Touch ended the set with a rather enjoyable cover of Alanis Morissette’s “Hand In My Pocket”. Takedown certainly managed to schedule a nice and varied selection of bands and styles across its two days. URNE closed out the We Are Trxsh Stage with a cracking set of genre-spanning thinking-person’s metal. Mixing elements of hardcore in with doom, stoner, death and classic metal styles makes for an intoxicating blend that holds the attention, as well as causing excessive bouts of neck-wrecking headbanging. Featuring a number of tracks from their excellent A Feast On Sorrow album, in particular, Urne have riffs coming out of their ears (and into yours) with Joe Nally’s intellectual musings engaging the brain as well, if you care to listen. Drummer, Richard Wiltshire, brought a strict technical underpinning to the performance and the fact that he is a perfectionist gave Joe a lot of pleasure in pointing out the slight mistakes he’d made (maybe a bit too much pleasure?) Obviously, the audience weren’t aware of any slips in the otherwise technically brilliant set and it may have been better to keep schtum but, you know, sometimes it’s the little things.
Kris Barras Band headlined the Laney Stage, although the concept of ‘headliner’ and ‘’ bands didn’t really occur to me at Takedown, with most bands having about the same amount of stage time to play with. Personally, I think this is the way forward for festivals (maybe the days of the massive Stadium Rock Band headliner are over) but that is a hot topic of much debate at the moment. Clashing with Urne meant that I could only pop my head in briefly but they seemed to be entertaining the assembled crowd with their brand of well-played classic hard rock. Despite only being there for a short spell, I did pick up the vibe that Kris wasn’t too happy with the relatively sparse turnout but that’s the nature of the beast I’m afraid. In a similar vein, I just managed to catch the end of Scarlet Rebels’ set on the Metal For Good Stage and their riff-driven melodic rock was very pleasing to the ear, with Wayne Doyle in fine voice.
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Photos by Shells to follow
