Touring in preparation for their third
appearance at the Download Festival 36
Crazyfists
were
joined by Reading's Exit Ten and they
certainly seemed to
have a fair few fans in the Barfly as they
delivered the likes of ‘Technically Alive’,
‘Godspeed’, and ‘Resume Ignore’. Vocalist
Ryan Redman certainly put enough passion
into his singing to enliven the performance
and overall the band proved to be a popular
choice as a warm up act with the majority of
the crowd.
36 Crazyfists kicked their set off with
‘I’ll Go Until My Heart Stops’ and the early
part of the show saw vocalist Brock Lindow
throwing himself into the front of the very
vocal crowd as the band ratcheted up the
heat. With the majority of the set made up
of older material only two songs from the
recently released superb The Tide & it's
Takers album made an appearance,
namely ‘The All Night Lights’ and first
single ‘We Gave It Hell’. Both songs went
down well enough but with the album being so
new into the shops the decision to keep new
material to a minimum tonight was probably
wise and with the likes of ‘The End Of
August’, ‘Skin And Atmosphere’ ‘Elysium’ and
‘Destroy The Map’ to call upon who can blame
them. The latter song even saw an audience
member join the band on stage to help out
with the vocals and, whilst the lucky guy’s
microphone may not have exactly been turned
up to eleven, it was obvious how much it
meant.
As
you would expect
the obligatory pits opened up for several of
the songs and Lindow spent much of his time
at the front right in the faces of the fans
at the barrier extolling them to greater
bouts of frenzy, even getting a round of
applause from those with the energy for
guitarist Steve Holt's impressive beard
whilst bassist Mick Whitney got even louder
acclaim for the more serious achievement of
becoming a father again and then it was time
for main set closer ‘Midnight Swim’ after
which the band took a short break before
returning to end the evening with
‘Bloodwork’ and ‘Slit Wrist Theory’ thus
ensuring that the show ended on a high
amidst more singing and pitting courtesy
of the ever zealous crowd.
Darren Brushneen
