Fallen On Deaf Ears It All Relates
Posts : 135 Join date : 2011-03-03 Age : 30 Location : Sweden
| Subject: glamourous pop-punk pin-up boys at Slam Dunk Festival 2012 Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:16 am | |
| Ah, Slam Dunk - were the caps are at their peakiest and the shorts at their most butt flashing. Where girls and boys of very specific ages gather together to stare each other down across one of several crowded, sweaty rooms and searing outdoor areas that make up the Sunday leg of the festival at Herts University. Perhaps they'll throw some shapes. Or sing, clutching at their breasts, about days of the week, burning bridges and poetry. However they choose to celebrate this coming together of punk rock, emo and diet hardcore, one thing's for sure - they'll love every, heart string tugging moment of it. And so - in all its reminiscent glory - do we. Plunging us back in time with their early 00s-influenced sound are pop punk pin-up boys of the moment, Sharks [pictured]. The lads from Lemington Spa have garnered a wealth of media attention over the last year, and, as the young crowd pogo along with every slick, melodic chord progression, it's not hard to work out why they're becoming so gosh darn popular. Next up, Don Broco - who many of you will remember from the brief moment in time Kelly Osbourne dated their frontman, Rob Damiani - thrust their eyelinered punk 'n' roll lovingly into the faces of a receptively sweaty crowd. Over on the outdoor stage, it's time for the Welsh invasion. Funeral For A Friend set light, as is only traditional, to a few bridges as they croon their way through hits like End Of Nothing and Roses For The Dead with the precision and tightness befitting a band of their experience, before they finish off with a sing-a-long rendition of the song that launched a thousand haircuts - Juneau. They are followed by rappy poppy punksters from the valleys, The Blackout, who play a teen pleasing set that includes Ambition Is Critical, The Devil Inside and the grammatically incorrectly named Save Our Selves (The Warning). Back inside the glimmering walls of the Herts Uni refectory, Cancer Bats add a much-needed dose of angry to an otherwise light-hearted line-up. The Canadian hardcore heavy-weights impress with their sheer energy as they chug and shout their way through Hail Destroyer, Lucifer's Rocking Chair and Pneumonia Hawk, inducing a wave of crowd surfers, tumbling onto necks and railings as they punch their way to the front of the stage. It doesn't matter how many final shows they've had: ska legends Capdown just can't keep away. The audience might have aged considerably in a very short space of time as the Milton Keanes punks take to the stage, but the atmosphere remains just as upbeat and euphorically nostalgic as they bounce through Cousin Cleotis, Bitches And Nike Shoes and Ska Wars. As always, a pleasure. Now if only they'd stop pulling that disappearing act… While the Gallows tear up the refectory, things take a lighter turn over on the main stage, as NY headliners Taking Back Sunday unfurl song after song of mellow rock, enveloping the sun-soaked crowd in a blanket of backlit comfort tunes. They cruise through A Decade Under The Influence, El Paso, Spin and This Is All Now, among others, before finishing on Cute Without The 'E' (Cut From The Team) and MakeDamnSure. Whatever your style, your taste in music, your inclinations or your age, one thing is for sure about Slam Dunk - it's the guiltiest of pleasures, but a pleasure we'll happily indulge in again. See you next year, kids. | |
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