ACODA Live Review

I’m gonna get the negatives out of the way first here. The promoters off the actual night were very disorganised and didn’t know I was coming to interview and review one of the bands until an argument between the two promoters cleared things up. Then I had to wait for 2 hours to actually get my interview done, and then the show started half an hour late. So by the time the music actually started playing I was in quite a bad mood and could only hope that the music would cheer me up.

Cheer me up the music did, with Our People vs Yours kicking off the night with some pretty solid metalcore. This was my first time hearing this band and I was pretty impressed, despite the small stage that an amazing stage presence that captivated the crowd. Also the singer was extremely ill but he persevered and sounded better than some “professional” singers do when there 100% so fair props to him.

Following on from them were the extremely disappointing The Catharsis, which just sounded like noise. This could be due to the poor sound engineering that was going on throughout the night, but I just couldn’t hear any choruses or anything that made any sort of melodic point. It also seemed like the crowd believed so as well as the only members of the crowd that I could see were actually members of other bands being respectful, there were very few actual “fans” there, everyone else was outside having a cigarette. The only good part about them was that their bassist had a good stage presence. The singer and guitarist were just constantly on the floor in front of the stage, and I don’t know if that’s a staple off the music but it just didn’t impress me.

Floods followed and again rejuvenated my faith in music. They managed to pull in a fairly impressive crowd for the size of the venue (which in reality was a glorified pub gig). They had some pretty impressive fan interaction and stage presence which made it an absolute joy to watch and their musicianship was absolutely top notch. The only down side was that the screamed vocals seemed slightly off from the rest of the music.

Finally ACODA were up, and you could tell this is who the crowd were waiting for. More people came in specifically to watch this band, so I knew I was in for a treat, and I was not disappointed. They played an amazing set with some truly memorable crowd interaction moments, where things on the brink of disaster were neatly turned round to become moments of comedy gold. Also, and by far the most important thing, the songs were catchy and people were singing along. I thoroughly enjoyed every song. The only downside for me was that I had to leave slightly early to catch the last train home because the gig had started so late, but if I could have, I would have stayed for the entire thing.

Overall, every band bar The Catharsis put on an extremely enjoyable set and definitely made up for the bad start to the evening.

Our People Vs Yours- 4/5

The Catharsis- 1/5

Floods- 4/5

ACODA- 5/5

James Merrett