By Jase Walker
Arriving on time and getting in nice and quickly was actually a surprising treat as it means I don’t have to miss today’s opening act – Year Of The Knife. The weekend’s main event has now started in earnest and people aren’t waiting around to start stage diving. The main stage here is massive and the crowd area stretches back immensely far, Outbreak hasn’t settled for half measures here clearly.
Year Of The Knife sound massive right from the outset, the singer plunging her mic into the crowd for people to scream the words into throughout the set. The camera for the side screens pans across the front pit showing two-steppers, spinkickers and the whole shebang. A class act to kick off the main event.
A bit later I went back to the Main Stage to catch a bit of Xibalba. Fronted by someone kicking out some real grim uncleans, backed by relentless pounding riffs. “This should be played at high volume”, just before they kick into another song receives a chorus of screams as they lead into crushing riffage and I can see the centre of the crowd going wild! We’re barely past the start of the weekend and everyone’s going at it full speed!
After a bit of a break and some food, I’m back at the main stage for a repeat performance from Static Dress because what’s better than seeing a band you love? Seeing them twice. Playing to a much larger audience than yesterday and on a stage that’s about four times the size, the difference in sound is spectacular. Seeing them put on performances like this clearly shows that Static Dress are going to become a massive act in future, they sound it, they act it, and I really believe they’ll go the distance.
Later on, I make it into the second stage for Puppy to catch them again after seeing them in the Deaf Institute earlier this year. Something about their dreamy sound is something I really didn’t want to miss and I’ve dragged a few friends along to see what they think! The sound in comparison with Deaf Institute is much grander and more atmospheric as it gives their stuff a bit more room to breathe rather than being kept in a smaller room. They’ve got a pretty solid crowd out to see them too which is great to see. Hopefully this will carry through to their later performances at 2K Trees and ATG.
A quick jump back over to the main stage because I’ve been hearing on the grapevine that our special guests today are Malevolence, and it seems like this could be the case. The stage goes dark, it is indeed Malevolence, I didn’t anticipate seeing them three times this year but here we are! They’re clearly loving playing a show without barriers, probably for the first time in a while at least!
Everyone who gets up on stage gets a brief back pat off their singer before launching themselves back into the pit. I seem to remember thinking Counterparts got a lot of the crowd up on stage but that is absolutely nothing in comparison to this. There’s at least five people on stage at any given time before backflipping back into the crowd and Malevolence are in their element! For an absolute first for me in any gig I’ve ever been to in my life, there is quite literally a full-scale crowd invasion of the stage. Legitimately there’s about 100 odd people on stage bouncing along, absolute madness.
Finally for today I’m catching a bit of the Friday headliners, Knocked Loose. Generally, these aren’t really my thing, but I figured I may as well check them out to see how they do stuff live. I do have to hand it to them, they sound fantastic, even though I’m quite far back for a small bit of self-preservation, the sound is incredibly clear, and every nuance of their playing is crisp. This sort of show with people jumping on stage and diving right back is clearly home turf for them here.
Every part of the band is turned right up to 11: the chugs, the vocal screams, the thunderous drums, there isn’t a single part of Knocked Loose that isn’t firing on all cylinders. It’s not hard to understand why so many people are enamoured with them. If you want music that is designed from the ground up to be frantic, aggressive, and overwhelming then Knocked Loose are at the top of the game for this. I don’t have to particularly like a band much to respect their act, I’m probably never really going to be into them but seeing them in action really showcases why they’re as popular as they are. Definitely a worthwhile selection to wrap up Outbreak’s Friday, I don’t doubt for a second there’s going to be some sore people tomorrow morning and they’ll be back to do it all over again.