Spineshank

My God! Are Spineshank really this popular!? It’s a Friday night inside London’s Astoria and everyone’s stuffed together like the proverbial tinned sardines. What a long way the band have come from opening here for Fear Factory all those years ago.

Before Spineshank, however, there’s the seemingly small matter of Dry Kill Logic. Having professed in the past to not being the biggest fan the band’ll ever have, I promptly have the smile not so much taken off my face, more like ripped off my face and shoved directly up my ass. DKL are nothing short of amazing tonight. The band come across as both enthusiastic and talented in a simultaneous eruption in the good name of heavy music. Vocalist Cliff Rigano is the main focal point, leaping and writhing around the stage like a demented psychopath, inciting a near riot in the pit. Opening with ‘Pain’, the stand out track from their ‘Darker Side Of Nonsense’ record, the pace is relentless. And, while the debut was mediocre at best, you can feel that there is something massive to come from them in the future.

For those of you old enough to remember when Spineshank opened for Fear Factory a few years ago, you’ll already have a clear view of what they’re are like as a live act. If not, think of the look on a pink fluffy bunny’s face as he’s about to be run over by a fork-lift truck. That was how scared they looked and played. Tonight, you find yourself rubbing your eyes time and time again, swearing this wasn’t the same band. Jonny Santos has turned into the consumate entertainer and doesn’t stop whipping the crowd up into a frenzy all night. Spineshank even make some of their lesser tracks stand out in a mass noise of a band on the top of their form and an audience that know every single word. ‘Transparent’ forces a surge of energy to everyone within the vacinity, and I swear the roof was in danger of toppling down during a monumental ‘Synthetic’. As always though, forthcoming single ‘New Disease’ is the real star of the show with Santos leading the crowd through a deafening first verse. Wipe the slate clean for Spineshank, we know they had a dodgy first album and tour, but if this is the reward for forgiveness believe me when I say it’s worth it.