Hell is for Heroes
Live (An Emergency / The Once Over Twice)
An Emergency were the openers for a packed Joiners Arms and started with an impressive couple of tracks. Clearly, one of their strong points is the creation of guitar breaks that play off of each other and these moments were among the high points of their set.
Unfortunately, the songs got artier as the set went on and less attention was evident in the song structure; all the effort having been redirected to the task of creating something with a forced difference to the norm. This might not have been such a bad thing, except that these tracks all sounded rather similar to each other and didn’t have the drive of the early part of the set.
Great vocals and interesting ideas on the guitar, but a bit of variety (different sounding songs by the way; we aren’t suggesting that they do stand up comedy, ventriloquism, or musical numbers) would be a bonus.
The Once Over Twice were a very slick outfit with a sound akin to a heavy Feeder, with a token At The Drive In song thrown in for good measure. The songs were all well produced but they were delivered with a detached efficiency and professionalism that lacked the raw emotional energy that is needed on the toilet circuit.
If I had to change one thing about the band, I would leave the songs and musicians well alone, as they have that completely sorted, but I would constantly prod them in the ribs with a sharpened stick until they got incredibly angry and then stick them out on stage.
By the time Hell is for Heroes took to the stage the heat inside the venue could have powered a small Eastern European country. Despite this, they managed to give it everything for the duration of their set in some insane attempt to make things even hotter. I suspect they were trying to kill us all.
Almost every intro sparked a wave of noise from the crowd and there were some really great anthems that won over those few that had never heard this band before. With songs ranging from post hardcore to bouncy alternative rock, there was plenty of variety with an underlying theme of quality throughout.
Hell is for Heroes proved to be rightful headliners and turned the night from okay to great, leaving punters to make their way back home covered in each others sweat, but happy none the less.
Written by Fenton on
