Sumo Cyco, fronted by a very Harley Quinn looking Skye Sweetnam, completely unravel the crowd from their self-conscious mind-set by hanging out at the back of the Rebellion Bar, being such a small show with such a small crowd Sumo Cyco present an oddly infused physical look; multi coloured hair, blue bears and marching band waistcoats, with ridiculously catchy metal tracks and a captivating stage presence to boot. Their non-stop energy however is the most illuminating part of the set. A surprising cover of Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s Give It Away had the crowd jumping along but it was their own track Fuel My Fire which had the biggest crowd reaction and left the majority of people chanting for one more song.
Butcher Babies take to the stage at a late time of 10pm and the whole bar bounds forward. Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey are complete whirlwinds, whipping their hair around quick enough to break a neck. Oldies like Jesus Needs More Babies For His War Machine and Mr Slowdeath are rampant exchanges of fan interactions and vicious yelling.
Slowing it down for a few minutes, Thrown Away is a track that has been played few and far between after the release of their sophomore album ‘Take It Like A Man’ last year. Not a track that the entire crowd were familiar with but a nice change to the Butcher Babies sound of the past. With it being Shepherd’s birthday the next day, the entire crowd hailed into song and demanded the band down their shots in between a speech she was making about how the tour had been so far, which was humbly accepted by Shepherd, meanwhile Harvey didn’t give in to the peer pressure.
Towards the end of the set Shepherd enters the crowd demanding a circle pit going around herself, which imaginably works well in venues of this size but at larger venues and festivals would prove more difficult. Earlier in the set they invited anyone who was willing to get up onto the stage and then dive off. However when people got up their reluctance to get down was causing the small stage to become even smaller.
Forced to bash a few ‘Goliath’ album tracks together in a special medley due to set restrictions including tracks like The Deathsurround and I Smell A Massacre created a surging attack from the crowd, all ramming into every corner of the venue to get as close as they could. Set ender Axewound is heavy and melodic metal all crammed into one, with the band parading around the stage like they own it and they’ve definitely left their own mark on this venue.
