Negative Approach
The Underworld, London
June 29th 2013
John Brannon has the most devastatingly powerful voice in hardcore, period. Hunched over, dripping with sweat, bulldog face distorted and screwed up, his vocal bellows crackle with distortion and harsh noise. It’s a voice that never fails to impress and punch you in the guts and is a large part of what makes Negative Approach still so compelling in 2013. There’s not many classic early eighties hardcore bands that can still deliver this much hate, bile and punch in 2013. Hardcore bands don’t tend to age well, it’s a youth explosion, a teenager’s rage – but Negative Approach have something else entirely and their basic brute force thug punk rock has aged none.
Sadly, attendance isn’t that great tonight. The band were last here only six months ago and that combined with a pretty dire supporting bill (actually quite hilarious sports hardcore wife-beater vest wearing beatdown boys!) has made for a pretty sparse attendance. None of this, however, weakens Negative Approach’s delivery in any way. Right off the bat, they peel of song after song of classic, stripped down hardcore rage. To younger ears, many of their tunes might sound simplistic and basic in a modern world of cross-genre pollination but the beauty of Negative Approach’s music is its simplicity and utterly brutal delivery and speed. Songs like ‘Nothing’ and ‘Dead Stop’, with their creep-crawly bass intros and guttural vocal belches and grinding guitar, just feel so damn good and make you wanna break stuff. In truth, Negative Approach are probably the beginning of what became god awful ‘tough guy’ hardcore, but the difference here is NA came from a world before the influence of metal and their sound is purely rooted in punk and their brother’s in Detroit rock n’roll – they are an amped-up, fast and brutal Stooges or MC5. And their roots in punk are clear by their choice of cover versions tonight – we get classics by 4-Skins, Blitz and Sham 69 – which explains exactly how NA got their sound. They are that perfect mix of UK bootboy OI! punk and US hardcore speed.
For once, a legendary band who are not pissing on their legacy and still deliver the goods. Long may they continue.
James Sherry