Friday night in Sheffield saw one of the most explosive, and certainly most popular, gigs The Harley has ever seen.
First up were Pins, a female four-piece to be reckoned with. Faith Holgate’s haunting, eerie voice is akin to Siouxsie Sioux, and the Manchester group stirred up the crowd for the two homegrown groups to come.
Best Friends, Sheffield favourites, roll on, and immediately had the packed room jumping, with their sunny, sick-stained punkrock. The band clearly love playing, and love playing Sheffield, which was totally infectious, with familiar faves like Wasting Time and Wasting Time provoking people to surf on one another, slamming hands on The Harley’s ceiling in joy.
Nai Harvest then proceeded to blow everyone’s heads clean off as they smashed into Sick on My Heart, the unrelenting guitar from Ben Thompson, and thunderous Lew Currie drums.
Sticks were broken, crowds surfed.
It got to a point in the set where half of the band’s entourage also began jumping into the game of human kerplunk that became the crowd, as people were hurling themselves around in delight. The level of noise the two-piece produce is astounding.
The thrashing and diving almost threatened to throw the evening into chaos, as people couldn’t contain themselves amongst Nai Harvest’s anthemic,scuzzy punk-rock, with hazy guitars and cacophonous drums. The Sheffielders closed with the brilliant Hairball, shifting between a laid-back summer-ride riff and a panicky crescendo.
Everyone staggered out, dazed by the energy and reckless abandon.
You can look forward to both Best Friends and Nai Harvest at Tramlines.
Hairball is coughed up on the 28th April, and reviewed here – http://www.backseatmafia.com/2015/04/08/album-review-nai-harvest-hairball/
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