Dead Til friday, Mental Deficiency, Red Enemy - The Limelight
Molten Magazine Launch gig with Red Enemy, Mental Deficiency and Dead Til Friday
The Limelight, Belfast
Thursday the 11th of August 2011
A rather sweaty Limelight is home to the launch of new metal magazine Molten tonight. It’s like a metal fashion show, with an array of band t-shirts making up the uniform for the crowd, many of them sporting Red Enemy tees in honour of tonight’s headliners.
First on are ATL favourites Dead ‘Til Friday. Their bouncy tunes seem infused with a little more growl than usual, rising to the event and the metal loving crowd. Their EP track ‘Water’ goes down best this evening, a tune that is just impossible not to sing along to. Frontman Adam McKee rather dramatically leaps from the stage during a rocking cover of ‘California Love’, which we have to admit we like much more than the original. Unfortunately he loses points on the landing, with a little more of him hitting the floor than we’re guessing he intended. Epic fall aside, he doesn’t miss a note and bounces back up to finish the tune. For such a young band these guys have the stage presence of seasoned pros.
Between sets the entire crowd head for the bar, a sure sign that you’re at a metal gig, but they wander back to gawp at the spectacle that is Mental Deficiency. They announce loudly that they’re not a comedy band, people just laugh at them. It’s really hard not to though, as Mr Majestic, proudly wields his patriot shield and then flails about doing his zombie dance for the bemused crowd. He very nearly succumbs to the same stage diving fate as Adam, but saves himself just in time. ‘We are nothing without our costume changes,’ he cries as he dons his Robocop costume which reminds us of something our mum made us for a halloween party in primary school. This just makes us love them even more though, and by the end of their set more of the band are in the crowd than on the stage, whilst Alex Kazam ends up doing shoulder spins - lying on the ground running in circles while playing guitar. The antics these guys can manage while still hitting the right notes never fail to amaze us.
Red Enemy are the big draw tonight with a growing following all over Ireland. They’re everything we love about a great hardcore band, all full of spit and venom onstage, but off it they’re the nicest bunch of guys you could ever meet. They’re genuinely pleased to be here and it’s infectious, with the crowd finally gathering round the stage. They’re a band who really believe in supporting local music, with abundant shout outs for their hardcore brethren Death of a Salesman, Gacy’s Threads and Fragments. It’s a pleasure to see a band so keen to push other music they love, and it’s no small praise from a group this powerful. The crowd is a sea of nodding heads during tracks like ‘Betrayal’ and ‘High Hopes’ and the set is a practically flawless slab of pure unadulterated metal, which leaves our ears with that satisfactory ringing which lets you know they’ve taken a pounding.
Words: Carrie Davenport
Photos: Carrie Davenport
To view the full set of photos from this gig visit ATL's flickr.
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