By Jonny Bakes
It’s been a sunny Friday evening, and what better way to end the day than to set sail on some rum-soaked voyages with Australian pirate metallers Lagerstein?! This stop of their Endless Rum UK tour finds them at Rebellion in Manchester supported by an array of local rapscallions – Footprints in the Custard, Impavidus and Thrashatouille. The bar is set, it looks like seriousness is but a small speck on the horizon tonight!
And Thrashatouille do not disappoint on that front, as their name suggests they are certainly thrashy, and their lyrical content is entirely about… cooking. Opening with a track about ordering as much food as possible at McDonalds before launching into the popular song, ‘Chili Con Carnage – A song about a chili so hot that you end up with chronic ring of fire! Clad entirely in chef’s whites (apart from the drummer) the band continue to churn out food related thrashy numbers, much to the delight of the small group of well-prepared fans brandishing an array of inflatable foods. The whole set culminates in a rather… erotic… cake experience that would give any sane man a thousand-yard stare
Next up we have Impavidus, another Manchester local band, bringing a little bit of sensibleness to the party with some impressive Groove/Death Metal. I’m sure they must feel out of place on this bill of balls-out-silliness, but they certainly get more of the crowd going! Gone (temporarily) are the inflatable foodstuffs, instead there are replaced by many heads banging in unison whilst mesmerised by the seamless harsh to melodic transitions of vocalist Michelle Adamson. It’s pretty impressive that the melodic guitars and groovy basslines manage to rouse this rabble of pirate-loving metallers, but this is but a warmup for the silliness that is about to unfold…
Footprints In The Custard could quite easily be considered a house band for Rebellion, and that’s pretty clear from the sheer enthusiasm that crowd shows as Russ and the guys make their way onto Rebellion’s little stage. The mix is a little off during the first couple of tracks (‘Party Metal’, ‘Ride My Little Pony’) but the crowd at this point are either too familiar with songs or just don’t care. Some might remember that today is “Area 51 today” and the lads have most certainly not forgotten; there’s a barrage of inflatable aliens bouncing around during their take on Trump’s desire to have a ‘Space Force’
A quick vote is held to decide which song about erotic death is played and the crowd scream out for ‘Bouncy Bouncy’. Wow, does this crowd bounce! Everyone in the lower area bounces in sync throughout the song, really appreciating that special metal silliness that Footprints have fostered out of their home turf. Sadly the set is not only cut short, but it no longer includes the cover of ‘It’s Raining Men’, instead the set ends with ‘Willi’s are for Weeing’ and includes the, possibly trademarked, Footprints in the Custard Wall of Hump. This brings a real close end (closer for some) to another impressive set on the back of their Sophie Stage performance at Bloodstock in August.
Finally, we move onto the main event, and it seems that everyone in the crowd has suddenly sprouted various pirate costumes as we wait for Lagerstein to take to the stage. Interestingly, it seems that the crowd has thinned a little from the end of the previous set, I can only assume that some of the faithful Footprints in the Custard fans had built up a thirst and headed to the bar. But once Lagerstein squeeze all seven of their members onto the little Rebellion stage, the crowd quickly fills out with plenty of Pirate Metal fans!
Hot off of the back of their European tour in support of their new album ’25/7′, the guys are ready to kick off the second date of their UK tour in Manchester. Manchester has always proven to be a wild party for Lagerstein, so they had chosen this date to get some footage for an upcoming tour video to hopefully capture some more wild Manchester antics. It’s antics all round, both on stage and off stage, with Lagerstein bringing an absolutely getting set full of the energy we’ve come to expect from the Australian pirates.
Many songs from the latest album are rolled out during the set, much to the delight of this crowd. ‘Shoey Song’ really gets the crowd going with an audience participation section that involves many crowd members taking off their right shoe, filling it with their drink and sculling it down. ‘Dig Bury Rum’ and ‘Wench my Thirst’ are both meet with equal enthusiasm from the crowd, with plenty of jigging going on down at the front of the crowd. Surprisingly popular is ‘Pina Colada Paradise’ which I was initially unsure about when listening to the album, but having experienced it live I’ve certainly been converted! Speaking with some of the band afterwards, it turns out that this song was born out of their desire to write a reggae song which turned into this ode to the creamy cocktail.
Some old favourites also make their way into the set, with ‘Drink the Rum’ inspiring the crowd to form a rowing pit and ‘Land of Bundy’ sets off a circle bit that takes up most of the floor at Rebellion. It wouldn’t be a Lagerstein show without a good amount of onstage drinking, and this is absolutely achieved in the finale ‘Beer Bong Song’ which sees every band member sculling a beer or of the beer bong dutifully provided by one of the crew. Captain Gregarrgh takes this one step further by first downing the contents of the pewter boot that has been his drinking vessel of choice this evening, gone is the famous duck decanter, before partaking in his own beer bong. After this, there is the briefest of interludes before the band come back on stage to close out the set with the title track from the latest album – ’25/7′.
All in all, a fantastic night was had by all at Rebellion, with plenty of silliness all round. If you find that you’re in need of a good dose of fun this week, Lagerstein and Footprints in the Custard will continue working their way round the Über Kingdom this week, culminating in a final date in Birmingham on Sunday (29 September).
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