Goodtime Boys
– KRAAK, MANCHESTER –
I’m back for another gig at Kraak Gallery tonight. My new spiritual home of sorts. Although tonight is a four band bill, I regretfully make it to the venue half way through, but I must admit it is the final two bands that I’m most eager to see, in particular tonight’s headliners Goodtime Boys. I saw this Cardiff based outfit opening up for math-core wizards Rolo Tomassi at The Deaf Institute back in 2012 and was taken aback by their passionate performance and sky scrapping brand of melodic hardcore. Having just released an absolutely blistering debut album last week, I am more than looking forward to seeing the band take the stage as part of this album release tour.
Main support tonight comes from Grappler who like Goodtime Boys make hardcore punk music with a much more melodic and emotive feel. I’m really into the dynamism that Grappler have to their sound and you can tell there’s a post-rock influence to their songs in the guitar sounds they make. Front man John screams with pure conviction and after the song ‘Edward’, struggles to speak due to being moved by the songs subject matter. It’s an intense but moving and real performance and definitely worth investigating further if you like your hardcore with depth, their recent EP ‘Everything I’ve Ever Feared’ came out on excellent UK label ‘Dog Knights’ last year and is a really strong set.
Good time Boys are up next and as the band tune up frontman Alex asks the crowd to get as close as possible to the stage before launching into the powerful opening trio of songs from their album; ‘Washout’, ‘Wallflower’ and ‘Doubt’. Tonight the band play a good amount of material from the record, entitled ‘Rain’ which is greeted with a lot of head banging and some sing alongs from the crowd, it is one of the most thoughtful records I’ve heard from this genre in a while so I’m massively enjoying seeing the band tear it up and playing with as much power and conviction as it feels on record. Alex is a great frontman who screams like it’s his bands last gig and stomps and jumps about the stage fully submersed in epic guitar melodies and a super tight and powerful rhythm section. He introduces each song with its subject matter which I’ve always been a fan of, it’s nice to know sometimes what as song is about even if it’s a loose idea, you can get a feel of where the writer was and what they were feeling and this certainly makes me ponder on songs like ‘Moral Decay’ and ‘Life Moves’.
I’ve always enjoyed the camaraderie and community of hardcore shows but tonight’s performances felt real, the words sang and screamed have been painstakingly thought about and delivery with genuine passion and for that I come away feeling inspired by what I’ve seen.
Grappler Official | Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp
Goodtime Boys Bandcamp | Facebook | Twitter
Listen to Goodtime Boys album ‘Rain’ in full here
I joined the Silent Radio family near the very start of my move to Manchester in 2012 and I'm still having the best time! During my stay here I've been in two noisy bands, had a not so noisy solo project, made a zine, started a blog and started a radio show. It's been productive to say the least and it's all been intersperse with a shit load of gig going and beer drinking. I would love it if you followed me on twitter @dr_brainless for excitable tweets about playing, watching and living new music.
