Another visit to the ever-brilliant venue, Base Camp, and its new gig room. The place had changed since my last visit with a properly raised stage and a tweak to the lighting. They have created a nice intimate noise pit. Set for a busy night with four bands on the list two of which were unusually bass led.
First up is the local racket makers Werms. First of the bass led acts and a perfect starter for the night. Apologising for sounding rough and with a few hiccups, the duo give a cracking chaotic performance interlaced with comedic outbursts from the drummer half.
The second duo was the Sunderland based Sly Hand who got better with each song they battered the audience with their grunge-filled doo wop. In particular the front man grew with confidence laying down some cracking guitar theatrics coupled with angular Ian Curtis moves. Glasses firmly welded to his face and steaming up due to the temperature in the room the band deserved a bigger stage than tonight
Quick lens change led me to miss the first few seconds of Shakin‘ Nightmares who took me by surprise with their garage rock injected with some death metal vocals from their bass player. The lead singer was the focal point and strutted his stuff encouraging the rest of the band to give more with each track.
Final band Skinny Milk had me intrigued from the very moment they stepped on stage to set up. Misdirected by the long hair and floral shorts what came out of the speakers was some fantastic doom laden bass led rock that you felt more than heard. Even with plugs in my ears rang. Another classic rock front man dominated the stage once again pulling all the right moves and faces and sounding every inch the Doom Rock God in floral shorts.
Check out Skinny Milk’s track Under Your Skin, below:
