Thu 27 Mar Lev 2 - Bedford Metal Night - Showing Tonight with Me Vs The Atlantic, Elements Of Refusal and Headshot Heros.

Review by Randall Davis

In front of a decent sized crowd coming to Bedford tonight from some considerable distances, Headshot Heros kick off what's certain to be a great show, with two very promising bands topping the bill. The openers, however, are an emo-by-numbers affair which offers little to get excited about, although the band are at times entertaining and occasionally try to interact with the crowd to keep them interested. A dual--vocalist cover of the Enter Shikari single 'Sorry, You're Not A Winner' gets the best reaction of the set, although it's always debatable whether this kind of cover is a welcome addition to a set. Stronger vocals and more variety in their song writing could do a great deal for this band, but of course, when your between-song banter includes the confession that "we're ashamed to call ourselves a band", it's pretty clear that more confidence onstage and the ability to work a crowd a bit more effectively wouldn't go amiss either.

Surprise package of the night are Luton band Elements of Refusal, a band who most people present hadn't heard much of, but by the end of the night they were the name on everybody's lips. With enough stage presence and musical ability to easily rival their more established headliners, Elements set about destroying the stage with a systematic combination of hardcore and prog-metal which is played tightly and with great intensity throughout a set made up of well crafted, intricately designed epics. A particularly good performance from the bassist, who dominated the stage with his rather mental performance, culminating in leaping over the barrier and hurling himself around the floor in front of a bewildered but undoubtedly entertained audience, attracting a vast crowd of teenage girls gathered by his side of the stage as the band left the stage. The singer was also especially impressive, switching between an intimidating growl and a rapturous singing voice which personifies the quality and variety of this band's excellent music.

The band that most people are here to see tonight is Me vs the Atlantic, Milton Keynes' premier metalcore act who seem to divide the crowd in two between the enthusiastic, unstoppable moshers in the centre of the floor, and everybody else who just appears a bit bored and not sure of what to make of it. MVTA take the stage with a great deal of bravado, well-placed in their respectable musical ability and the confidence of their live performance. Their songs are well composed combinations of mind-melting technicalities in the guitar work, atop the pounding thumps of the rhythm section. Although not everybody in the crowd is as interested as they were for the previous band, prompting the singer to berate one girl who's looking a bit bored, the performers do a good job of trying to keep them entertained, interacting well with their audience and distributing free t-shirts to the people who look like they're having a good time. The set might start sounding a bit samey towards the end, but you certainly can't fault them for effort.

Having not heard anything from tonight's headline band Showing Tonight before now, you'd have to excuse my feeling of dread as a keyboard and synth pad is placed in the centre of the stage before their set begins, filling me with the worry that I may need to prepare myself for exposure to yet another Enter Shikari-esque electronica-core act. Fortunately, my fears were proven to be misplaced, as I was instead treated to a tight, impressive performance by a band capable of writing brutal yet catchy songs which stick in your head and inspire the best crowd reaction of the night. Far from being overused, the electronic portion of the band is used mostly to provide an atmospheric ambiance throughout songs, with the occasional inclusion of a Faithless style trance keyboard noise. Their singer is a fantastic frontman, again displaying his ability to impress with both a clean singing voice and a much more aggressive scream, along with getting right up in front of the audience and working the pit into a near frenzy. It's easy to criticize a band like this for not stepping more outside of the comfort zone and being a bit more experimental, but when a band is this good at what they do; I honestly don't know why anyone would feel the need to criticize at all.

Review by Randall Davis