Slaves - Relentless Garage, London - 11th January 2013 (Live Review)
Monday, 14 January 2013
Written by Ryan Crittenden
Chants of “Girl Fight! Girl Fight! Girl Fight!” reverberates around the area, and no this was not a scene from outside of an Oceana nightclub, it was the top floor of the Relentless Garage in Islington as punk duo Slaves come to the end of their blistering good set.
Slaves are Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent and they like to make a lot of noise. The fact the singer is the drummer, who is also standing up whilst playing grabs your attention from the off. His coarse, colloquial vocals are powerful and passionate and although his drumming may anger the purists, you cannot deny that it doesn’t work. These two white boys from Kent have been making lo-fi garage punk for the best part of a year now and with a growing fan base and an impressive debut EP to show, things are certainly heading in the right direction.
The venue for tonight’s shenanigans is perfect, the upstairs room at The Garage is the perfect size for those keen fan boys to strut their stuff and show their worth and songs like ‘Suicide’ and ‘Cease Fire’ from their debut EP ‘Sugar Coated Bitter Truth’ are fast paced, aggressive and raw enough get the room movin’ and shakin’. The catchy and punchy guitar riffs from Vincent are accompanied by his frantic stage antics and even with copious amounts of alcohol thrown/poured over him he soldiers on to gee the crowd up even more.
By the time the duo showcase some newer material the pair are topless and there is someone hanging from the lighting rig, the Slaves party is in full swing. Their growing live reputation has come from shows like this where the ever enthusiastic crowd are baying for the best the Slaves boys can offer and tonight they just deliver.
Newer tracks ‘Bad Machine’ and ‘Sugar Coated Bitter Truth’ steal the show. The songs build up brilliantly and show some real depth within their writing as Holman almost dictates his thoughts over some guitar riffs before the songs explode into life. However, it is the almost old-fashioned punk songs that these Slaves boys have built themselves on. When they launch into ‘White Knuckle Ride’ the whole room is engulfed by a track of real quality. It has the best elements of every song they have and then some, as the track comes to an end Holman, Vincent and the crowd are repeatedly bellowing “What the f**k happened?!” and if you don’t get it at this moment, you will never get it.
In a first for the boys, an encore is demanded with those “Girl Fight!” chants proving enough to coax the ever-willing duo back on stage. As two girls are hoisted upon some shoulders Holman begins telling a tale of a scene he encountered which involved girls having a fight and before you know it, a 20 second explosion ensues with everyone frantically giving everything they have left in the tank.
When all is said and done, it feels like something special has happened. The duo have certainly grown over the last twelve months and if this performance is anything to go by, the next twelve could be even better.
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