Helmet

I will admit to looking forward to this <strong>Helmet</strong> show for months. From the moment I first bought my ticket in December, I have been patiently waiting to see the crushing energy and noise that is Helmet as I had seen at the BDO in 94 when everyone I knew loved Helmet, this is a completely different line up after the original band broke up in 98, reformed in 03 with a new line up, since then it has been a revolving door of musicians with only Page Hamilton remaining.

We arrived at the Gaelic at around 8:45 to see a growing throng of Helmet fans standing around the local pubs whilst Regular John were putting their hearts into a great performance to a reasonable crowd inside, having last seen them at Soundwave I was pleasantly surprised to see them playing a tighter, more engaging set, looks like these guys are a band to watch in the alt-metal scene, not just for their hair tossing antics.

Next up were The Nation Blue who I can say little about as I walked out after 3 songs, poor vocals with out a trace of a tune, (I know that Page Hamilton of Helmet is no signer either) annoying guitar worship poses and the fact they I found them boring, I'm sure others found them entertaining but we weren't the only ones walking out, a quick stop to check that time for Helmet to start and we went off for a quiet ale and chat.

Got back to the Gaelic too late to get up the front so had to weave into a spot about half way in, the crowd was very alt-metal nearly all to cool to be seen wearing band shirts but still with a hard edge, plenty of tats and piercing on display all waiting for Helmet to take the stage. The lights changed and a hush fell of the room but we still had to wait a couple of minutes more then Helmet filed onto stage lead by Page and went straight into Unsung, the first few bars of which were messy and disjointed but soon enough they pulled it together and I remembered why I loved these, the distortion, the strong bass overlays, the duelling then complementary guitars, backed with tight punchy drums and vocals that whilst scratchy and kind of flat work perfectly. Took me back for a moment to when I first heard the Meantime and Strap It On albums. For an hour and a half including encore we had our ears assaulted with songs from entire Helmet catalog, songs like Crashing Foreign Cars, Bury Me, Milquetoast and Ironhead.

Page may have spent too much time talking, he seemed at time to ramble on for minutes at a time, don't get me wrong I like musicians who interact with the punters it’s just that I wanted my ears to suffer more, though when the show closed with In The Meantime we were sweaty, smiling, happy punters.

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