This specific sold out show has had some hype behind it for a while, much like their album; Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes’ live show is acclaimed by most in the genre as being quite the spectacle. So of course support band Basement have a lot to do to warm the crowd. With their own little following who’ve accumulated at the very front, they seem to do just fine.
The epitome of showmanship is encased in Frank Carter, The Rattlesnakes themselves followed suit but Carter is the head of this spear. Not only did Carter declare that they will be playing every song they’ve ever wrote but for some tracks, it’s the first time they’ve been played live. Which amasses a 24 track setlist and the crowd still had the cheek to boo when they announced there was one track left to play at the very end.
Powerhouse ‘Juggernaut’ concluded with Carter and guitarist Dean Richardson standing on top of the crowd, eventually falling in and being carried across like floating on some very choppy waters. ‘Wild Flowers’ introduced a female only crowd surfing opportunity which the ladies took very happily, causing a few mid surf collisions on their way to the barrier. ‘Acid Veins’ earns its live debut but it’s ‘Modern Ruin’ that steps the game up a level. Carter taking the balcony and worming his way through the crowd to complete the colossal track at the very back of the grand venue.
‘Fangs’ went down so well that Carter requested the track be played again, to which obviously nobody complained, before they hit the crowd with the anthemic ‘I Hate You’. In which Carter looked disbelievingly at the crowd’s sheer intensity. This show might go down as one of the best in their history, even Carter himself said he’d “never felt energy like this” in the decade he has been playing like music. The crowd never stopped wavering back and forth, crushing the people on the barrier every so often. To leave the venue and say the show was just ‘good’ would be offensive in itself, the spectacular nature to control a crowd without a massive production or stage show tells a tale of how good the band are, even then Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes were on another level.
All Photos by Forte Photography UK
