This year City Invasion moved it’s non-London show to The Soundhouse in Bolton, where the cold weather did it’s best to try and distract from some of the performances. However below are some of the highlights from the show: 

The first band this reviewer caught were Random Hand who exploded into action to the sirens of ‘Anthropology’ and didn't stop from there on in. With the likes of ‘Play Some Ska’ and ‘Scum Triumphant’ included in the set, vocalist Robin Leitch was the on-stage provider of humour and energy jumping around the stage as if possessed, microphone in one hand and trombone in the other. Occasionally sounding like Skindred and other times a bit too Madness, the overall approach saw the band tie everything in well; great entertainment and not matched by many other acts on the day. 

Radio Dead Ones were on second stage and, with beers in hand, they rocked through their allotted time. Vocalist Beverly Crime happened to be suffering from a sore throat and sadly the band, as a whole, suffered from a bad sound mix -not the last to do so by any means.  The Creepshow also suffered the same affliction with Sarah Sin’s vocals sounding way too quiet next to the keyboards and backing vocals, it seemed the band knew it was bad and they kept trying to get things adjusted through their set, to no avail.  Sadly this awful mix took some of the shine away from their performance and, despite Sin trying to get the crowd moving and singing with some success, songs such as ‘Grave Diggers’, Candy Kiss’, ‘Zombies Ate Her Brain’ and ‘Doghouse’ were just not as good as they could, and should have been. 

The Bones’ dirty rock/punk hybrid finally got many in the crowd moving and singing without the band really having work to hard for the reaction; the material did it all for them thanks to the catchiness and distinguishable melodies of their songs, tracks like ‘Mighty Touchdown’, ‘Flatline Fever’ and ‘Not A Love Song’ all coming across well on the day.  With three of the band picking up vocal duties there was plenty of time for each to strike the right rock poses as they played,  even serving up what was, probably, the only guitar solos of the day.  Their more rock orientated songs added a slightly different dimension compared to most of other the acts and if the Swedes are trying to make a push into the UK then, on this evidence, that can only be good. Catch them if you get the chance. 

The name Bitchfits gave away that the next band were an all female Misfits tribute band.  They covered all of the expected songs, albeit at around half the speed of the current Misfits line-up but meanwhile, on the main stage, the U.S. Bombs were playing.  Unfortunately singer Duane Peters had had to return home prior to the gig which meant that Tommy X stepped into the breach and certainly did a good job in fronting the band.  One thing they definitely managed was to  get all those not already in the party mood ready for the headliners Agnostic Front. 

With their hardcore anthems Agnostic Front delivered all the energy you would expect, getting the crowd going from the start with new song ‘Addiction’. Moving freely between the new and the old in terms of material, the band went as far back as the early 80’s playing a magnitude of songs including such as ‘For My Family’, ‘Friend Or Foe’ and ‘Gotta Go’. The front of the crowd simply went wild as successive songs were introduced climbing the barriers and raising the noise levels higher that at any time during the day.   Of course with such a reception an encore should have been obligatory, sadly it wasn't to be and as the drum kit started to be dismantled people slowly exited the Soundhouse disappointed that there was not to be more from the New York mob. All in all though, as Agnostic Front and co showed, a bare bones kind of festival can be done, and done well with the minimum of fuss.  Roll on next year.

Darren Brushneen