Peace Burial at Sea

What to do on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon in Kingston, Surrey… I had a few choices, either stay in the garden and crack open a can of beer, or on a more civilized front, go to the Kingston Peel for an eye full of pole dancing, or last but not least, clear out the cobwebs with a fair ol’ dose of raw guitar noise at the cockfest all-dayer.

Or, why not all of the above? I made it to the Fighting Cock to be confronted by Peace Burial At Sea and not much else… Sadly, as is too often the case with small to medium alternative gigs, after you take away the band members, the bar staff, the guy on the door and a couple of metal kids that just seem to always hang around, you aren’t left with very many bodies… But, Peace Burial At Sea took this with a pinch of salt, and played a very fine set of unadulterated noisecore… and they looked like such a nice bunch of lads, you never can tell these days.

Next up were local band The Wilderness Years who I don’t think I’ll have the pleasure of seeing again and who I think should strongly consider changing their name to ‘We are a boring bunch of toss’ or ‘We will give you your admission money back as you leave, for being so awful’… you get the idea.

But just before I went to claim my admission money back, on came 65daysofstatic, a suitably scruffy concoction of Sheffield lads, with low-slung guitars, big hair and one hell of a sound. 65dos just don’t like standing still on stage. The place was a blur of red and green lights, flying guitar necks and more big hair on thrashing heads. Think of the noise, aggression and samples of Steel Pole Bathtub having a mud wrestling fight with the more subtle sophisticated moments of Mogwai… all on a zebra skin carpet… beautiful! But all good things come to an end. 65dos peeled themselves off stage after no time at all to make way for North London’s Djevara. Who, I grant you may be a tight outfit, but should probably change their name to ‘We like Rage Against the Machine’ or ‘We really, really like Rage Against the Machine’. Need I say more?

It’s at this point I have to decide whether to also review Seventimesnothing and Steranko, who were on later, but given the fact I didn’t see either band, I’d best not. Truth be told, I didn’t see any pole dancing either, and I don’t have a garden… But one thing is for sure; Peace Burial At Sea and 65daysofstatic are well worth a look and a listen.