Surgyn took the stage to warm the crowd
up for the following acts and I cannot fully understand
what I’ve actually just seen. Music aside
what we have is 2 guys on stage in what I can
only describe as butcher attire which I assume
was meant to portray surgeons (judging by their
band and individual given names) one with a big
metal contraption spouting off his eye and the
other with a face full off tape looking like a
run down version of Marilyn Manson. So before
I’ve even heard anything I’m not feeling
too optimistic for their set and then they played;
now don’t get me wrong the actual music
was not that bad, however their singing was so
out of tune tonight I just want to leave, on CD
I think I might enjoy them but this was just completely
abysmal performing, their crowd interaction was
sloppy at best and they didn’t appear to
make a connection with their audience, sloppy
performing.
Jayce Lewis are much better performers as they
actually bother to put the effort into building
a bridge between them and the audience; putting
on an energetic show, ominous lighting and encouraging
participation. Musically though right from the
start I was stood thinking “this is a little
too much like Korn” and I got back and checked
the bands material out, I’m not wrong in
saying that. That is a minor point though as I’m
finally beginning to enjoy myself tonight as Jayce
Lewis (the lead singer who’s solo project
this is) Is bouncing all over the place giving
it everything he has, voicing his personal opinions
and riling up the crowd. The only critique is
of the music itself which is why I didn’t
enjoy it as much as I could have because the comparison
was just a bit too much, but as the performance
went that was a pretty damn good blast!
Combichrist blew everything away entirely; the
reaction to them has been unmatched in this particular
venue over all the shows I’ve attended here.
Initially appearing on his own but then with each
song introduces another member of the band until
eventually the whole crew is up there in full
swing. It just burst, never before have I seen
so many Goth kids actually dance in my life, in
fact I don’t know if I’ve ever seen
a Goth kid rave but here there was bloody loads
of them! Aggressive as well they’re all
up there tearing it up viciously it’s really
intimidating which was simply fantastic. Decent
length set of 14 songs but then on top of that
received an encore of “In the Pit”
and “Sent to Destroy” which blew the
heads off many people in the room. Nope still
not done they came back onstage AGAIN to do a
second encore of “Never Surrender”
and “What the Fuck is Wrong With You?”,
you really get your money’s worth out of
tonight’s set as Combichrist seem to have
gone all out to really give it everything they
could and I speak for myself when I say I left
that venue buzzing off my tits and had to go out
drinking to even remotely calm down!
Surgyn – 2.5/5
Jayce Lewis – 4/5
Combichrist – 4.5/5
Review By James Webb
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