It's 8pm, a small crowd begins to gather outside Cardiff's premier independent music venue. Excitement building, the buzz "when are doors?", "I can't wait!" you know the drill. The doors swing open into the cute, intimate downstairs of
Clwb Ifor Bach. People filter in slowly at first and then half-filling the room before the support band hit the stage, the lights dim and the music stops....
A projector flickers on, the strum of a guitar and the carnage of
Swedish Death Candy begins. Half an hour of a musical hurricane only briefly stepping into the eye of the storm every now and then before being thrown straight back in to the thrashing guitars and blistering noise. Not only a feast for the ears however, a light show to accompany the madness, a genius idea: simple yet effective. Using an old projector and a bowl of water, food colouring and oil (at a guess) they managed to create atmospheric and original lighting adding a strange and dynamic feel to the performance. Paving the way nicely into
YAK.
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| Swedish Death Candy @ Clwb Ifor Back (featuring inventive lighting) |
YAK are a band tipped for big things in 2016 and from the first note you could see why. Aggressively they tore through song after song at blistering pace and the crowd responded brilliantly. never before have I seen crowd surfing in a room with only 50-60 people let alone the mosh pits: breaking onto the stage at points and band members joining in.
YAK played the crowd brilliantly extending the build ups and highlighting the breakdowns, creating a buzz around the room and genuine excitement for this band.
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| YAK @ Clwb Ifor Bach |
With everyone in the room a sweaty mess,
YAK continued the madness with lead singer Olly mounting an amp and throwing himself on to the crowd microphone in hand. The mass of sweat and bodies
YAK had created bounced back in glee as they proceeded through the set. As the show came to an end, the crowd whipped up into a frenzy moshed and jumped to every beat and
YAK ripped through angry guitar rif in a wall of noise coming to a crescendo at the end of the set. Olly kicked over one of the drums before the end of the song before kicking over the keyboard and throwing down his guitar, wrecking the stage and the band dissapeared off leaving the older members of the crowd smiling gleefully reminiscing of bands of days they thought were gone and the younger ones left with their eyes opened to a new way of rocking.
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| The aftermath |
Yes YAK are tipped for big things this year and oh my goodness can you see why.
-Luke
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