BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME
w/ Periphery, The Safety Fire
Sub89, Reading
01.10.12
First on tonight’s bill is the home-grown talent The Safety Fire. The London lads play to a fairly full room considering they go on straight after doors. It seems the ever increasing crowd appreciates The Safety Fire’s techy-brand of metal and although not too familiar with the material played before them, the audiences’ reaction to songs taken from ‘Grind The Ocean‘ is positive, a promising sign for a band who are clearly targeting this market. On a completely irrelevant and non musical note, it has to be mentioned that The Safety Fire display facial hair at its finest. Their set was topped off with a glorious array well kept moustaches.
So away from male-grooming and back to music for a second or two, and its now Periphery‘s turn to take to the stage. With much loved drummer Matt Halpern being forced to withdraw from the performance due to a shoulder injury, a massive burden is placed upon the shoulders of Mike Malyan (Monuments) who has to learn the challenging set in 24 hours and perform to a hungry crowd. Well, the boy did good, there were no notable errors and he played with style, stamina and impressive levels of skill. And as for the rest of Periphery, well they owned the stage, it goes without saying Misha Mansoor was effortlessly exceptional and Spencer Sotelo domineered as a front man.
Between The Buried And Me really deserve to be playing to a sold out show but unfortunately the room is now only around three quarters full. Words cannot describe Between The Buried And Me’s levels of creativity, their captivating set travels through an odyssey of technical music; a progressive journey that climaxes with blistering riffs and intense vocals. Combing old favourites such as ‘Disease, Injury, Madness‘ (taken from ‘The Great Misdirect’) along with newer numbers like ‘Telos‘, BTBAM hold the audience in the palms of their hands. The band perform a masterclass, with a level of musicianship second to none.
AUGUST BURNS RED
w/Devil Wears Prada
18 – NOTTINGHAM Rock City, 19 – GLASGOW Garage, 20 – WOLVERHAMPTON Wulfrun Hall, 21 – MANCHESTER Ritz, 22 – BRISTOL Academy, 23 – LONDON Electric Ballroom
For metalcore fans, this is quite clearly a phenomenal tour, not just for October, but for the whole year. Expect plenty of breakdowns, brutal mosh pits and many a sub-drop. Listen to ‘Meddler’ by August Burns Red and you’ll know exactly what we mean.
EVERY TIME I DIE
w/Stray From The Path, Last Witness
24 – SOUTHAMPTON Brook, 25 – BRISTOL Fleece, 26 – PLYMOUTH White Rabbit, 27 – BRIGHTON Haunt, 28 – CARDIFF Solus, 29 – LONDON Electric Ballroom, 30 – WOLVERHAMPTON Slade Rooms, 31 – MANCHESTER Academy II
Band after band said that Every Time I Die nailed it nightly on the US Warped Tour, and now over on our shores we are expecting exactly the same amount of carnage. With ETID being joined by Stray From The Path (who you might have caught with Architects earlier this year) and homegrown talent Last Witness this is a very healthy looking line up.
GALLOWS
w/Feed The Rhino
03 – BRIGHTON Haunt, 04 – EXETER Cavern, 05 – BRISTOL The Fleece, 06 – MANCHESTER Club Academy, 08 – NEWCASTLE Academy 2, 09 – GLASGOW King Tut’s, 11 – NOTTINGHAM – Rock City Basement, 12 – SHEFFIELD Corporation, 13 – STOKE Sugarmill, 14 – WREXHAM Central Station, 15 – LEEDS Cockpit, 16 – PETERBOROUGH Club Revolution, 17 – BIRMINGHAM Academy 2, 19 – LONDON Underworld
Their latest release received critical acclaim across the board, and now with intense front man Wade Macneil at the helm and Feed The Rhino as support, this isn’t just a must see show but a ‘you’d-be-really-fucking-stupid-not-to-go’ kind of show.
HILDAMAY
w/Landscapes
17 – DERBY Victoria Inn, 18 – GLASGOW Ivory Blacks, 19 – MANCHESTER Star & Garter, 20 – LIVERPOOL Format, 22 – LONDON Upstairs at the Garage, 23 – SOUTHAMPTON Cellar,24 – PLYMOUTH White Rabbit, 26 – PETERBOROUGH Met Lounge
We’ve noted Hildamay as ones to watch for some time now, and with a full UK tour to support their forthcoming album, hopefully this will be their time to shine. With Landscapes also on the bill this will be an awesome showcasing event for British talent as hardcore doesn’t get much more emotional and bleak than the way Landscapes go about it.
NEVER SAY DIE 2012 TOUR!
w/ We Came As Romans, BlessTheFall, Stick To Your Guns, For The Fallen Dreams, Obey The Brave, At The Skylines, The Browning, At Dawn We Rage
15 – UK Birmingham, O2 Academy 2, 17 – UK Manchester, Club Academy, 18 – UK London, The Electric Ballroom
Never Say Die Tours are always great but this year it features two of our favorite artists, Stick To Your Guns and Obey The Brave. Stick To Your Guns put on a hard hitting yet optimistic live show and Obey The Brave are sure to slay with their brutally heavy riffs.
PROXIES
11 – BUCKS Uni SU
If you are a regular reader of Crossfire you’ll know that we rate Proxies very highly indeed. Catch them at their live show to find out what all the fuss is about.
OF MICE & MEN
w/ Memphis May Fire, Secrets
08 – NORWICH Waterfront, 10 – LONDON Electric Ballroom, 11 – GLASGOW Garage, 12 – MANCHESTER Moho Live, 13 – BIRMINGHAM Asylum, 14 – LEEDS Cockpit
Of Mice & Men are the buzz band of metalcore right now. Not only due to their ridiculously strong re-release of ‘The Flood’ which featured 4 astounding bonus tracks, but due to the fact that Austin Carlile and his band mates seem to fully engage with their fans.
After releasing their second (and awesome) album, ‘Freaks Like Us’ earlier this year, check out Straight Lines as they embark on an expansive UK tour.
THE DANGEROUS SUMMER
01 – EXETER Pheonix, 02 – SOUTHAMPTON Mo’Club, 03 – BRISTOL Trinity, 04 – NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms, 05 – GLASGOW Garage, 07 – MANCHESTER Club Academy, 08 – NORWICH Arts Centre, 09 – BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy 2, 10 – LEEDS Cockpit, 11 – LONDON Electric Ballroom, 12 – KINGSTON Fighting Cocks
After releasing one of the albums of 2011 in ‘War Paint’, The Dangerous Summer have become firm favorites at Crossfire HQ. This October they are hitting the road with another of our loves, Don Broco.
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM
15 – LONDON O2 Brixton Academy, 17 – LONDON O2 Brixton Academy, 18 – MANCHESTER O2 Apollo, 19 – GLASGOW O2 Academy, 20 – BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy
It appears everyone has a place for The Gaslight Anthem in their hearts, and rightly so. After a releasing another timeless album ‘Handwritten’ and performing a euphoric set at Reading & Leeds, The Gaslight Anthem are ready to take full control of the UK.
TRIVIUM
w/ As I Lay Dying
15 – MANCHESTER Ritz, 16 – GLASGOW O2 ABC, 17 – BIRMINGHAM HMV Institute, 19 – BRISTOL O2 Academy, 20 – NORWICH UEA, 21 – LONDON Shepherds Bush Empire
A titan of modern metal, Trivium, joined by one of the godfathers of metalcore, As I Lay Dying, in arguably intimately sized venues… this is going to be amazing.
With a mental live show, stated as a ‘must see band’ by yours truly at Crossfire and tipped to be the next big thing by Metal Hammer, UK band The Safety Fire are hot property right now. After putting out an insanely strong debut in ‘Grind The Ocean‘ earlier this year we needed to grab a chat with the eccentric band. Backstage at Hevy festival journalist Emma Wallace caught up with hilarious front man Sean McWeeney, and banterous guitarist Derya Nagle who were suitably dressed in Hawaiian shirts! Here’s what went down…
How have your festival performances gone down this summer?
Sean: Well today we played Hevy, and considering we were on at 12:30 I was pretty pleased with the turn out. I thought people would still be dying in their tents, but it was quite busy.
Deyra: Yeah I mean its always hard when you are a smaller band or on early in the day but that performance went well. I heard it was a lot busier than for the bands at the same time yesterday. Pretty pleased!
Sean: But the problem with playing so early is that you finish early and get drunk early and you still have the whole day and night ahead of you to drink!
Deyra: Just to point out, we aren’t alcoholics. We don’t drink before we go on stage. We’re good boys like that. At Download we played at like half eight in the evening, but we didn’t drink before that, and there was plenty of hanging around before hand that could have been taken up by drinking! Download was cool actually, we played before Gallows and Cancer Bats. It was rammed. It was ace.
Sweet! Guys, I can’t really ignore it anymore, what’s with your attire today?! Hawaiian shirts aren’t that metal!
Deyra: Well we are at a festival so why not eh?! Hawaiian shirts are where it’s at. The sun’s out today, and I think you can thank us for that.
Sean: The shirts have a nice little story behind them. We originally bought them all in Florida when we were touring there.
Deyra: And someone told us they have a magical power. And earlier on today none other than Andrew W.K. gave us the nod of approval. You know one of those looks that are like ‘Yes Sir, you look mighty fine.’
Sean: Indeed, it was actually a point and a nod. You can’t get better than that. These shirts were actually bought at a Salvation Army charity store on a highway. Someone might have died wearing this shirt. They cost the equivalent of about £1. And they are beautiful shirts so you can’t miss a bargain like that. So essentially, what we are doing to metal is bringing the Floridian sun over to England. I think it might catch on you know, they are gorgeous and I’d love it if people turned up to shows in floral shirts, i’ts injecting a whole lot of colour into a goth club. All the hardcore kids are in tie dye, but I’m not sure, you need something more formal, I mean these shirts have buttons. They might make an appearance on the BTBAM tour!
They are beautiful indeed…Well you’ve bought us on quite nicely to the tour. How are you feeling about that? Excited?!
Deyra: Its going to be a lot of fun! We know the Periphery guys really well who are on the tour. Playing at Shepherds Bush Empire will be special. We’ve played all sorts of venues in London, right from the bottom to some of the best.
Sean: It’s great to play to a passionate crowd after years of playing to one man and his dog.
Deyra: And to be on tour with Between The Buried And Me will be something else. We feel that musically we are closely matched. They’re one of those bands where we think our style is very similar and I imagine their fans will be open minded and listen to what we do and enjoy it.
Are there any bands out there at the moment you think deserve a plug?
Deyra: Let’s go with all our old tour buddies Rise To Remain and Bleed From Within.
Sean: No not Bleed From Within! I’m starting a tongue-in-cheek hate campaign against them so plugging them doesn’t really work! They are from this area in the north of England called Scotland. You can barely understand them when they talk. They say ‘Hello we are Bleed From Within’, but it sounds more like ‘Bleed From Wuthwon’ or something bizarre like that.
Deyra: Sean isn’t actually a dick. We take the piss out of them and they do it to us. We tend to do it in interviews the most. I think this is about round three of TSF v BFW. Scott, the pretty front man, stole a pair of Sean’s sunglasses, he didn’t like that very much. So now, we have a bit of banter with the guys, a bit of friendly beef. Make sure they find out about this though, make sure you get me in there quoted as saying ‘Bleed From Within are from Northern England’.
Sean: But yes, they are a great band. We’re just better haha!
Catch The Safety Fire on tour with Periphery and Between The Buried And Me at the following shows:
OCTOBER
1st, Reading – Sub 89
2nd, Wolverhampton – Slade Rooms
3rd, Glasgow – The Garage
4th, Newcastle – O2 Academy 2
5th, Manchester – O2 Club Academy
6th, Leeds – Cockpit
7th, Bristol – O2 Academy
8th, Southampton – The Brook
Crossfire favorites The Safety Fire have injected some fresh adrenalin into our veins with their high speed video for latest single DMB (FDP) that dropped this evening. The video, directed and edited by Jamie Carter, showcases the bands energetic live performances from their recent tour with metal titans Gojira and their critically acclaimed performance at this years Download festival.
TSF guitarist Derya Nagle explains a bit more about how the video was made and why they picked this track in particular:
‘DMB (FDP) is one of our favourite songs to play live and was an obvious choice for this video. We love touring, and wanted to give a wider audience a glimpse into what our live show is all about. We filmed over several UK dates, including our performance at Download and our recent run with Gojira. We were lucky enough to have our good friend Jamie Carter produce the video, whose eclectic credits include Rise To Remain, Conor Maynard, Funeral For A Friend and Professor Green to name a few. Other filming duties were handled by our friends and crew including our brü Adam Nolly Getgood, who recently joined Periphery. More importantly this video will help spread the message of #FDP. Jokes.’
Not ones to sit still for too long, The Safety Fire will be heading back out on the road this autumn as support for the legendary Between The Buried And Me and US djent/tech-metal heroes, Periphery. The dates are as follows:
OCTOBER
1st, Reading – Sub 89
2nd, Wolverhampton – Slade Rooms
3rd, Glasgow – The Garage
4th, Newcastle – O2 Academy 2
5th, Manchester – O2 Club Academy
6th, Leeds – Cockpit
7th, Bristol – O2 Academy
8th, Southampton – The Brook
NOVEMBER
2nd, London – Shepherds Bush Empire
Stay tuned for an interview with the guys from this year’s Hevy Festival!
The Safety Fire’s debut album ‘Grind The Ocean‘ is out now.
Converse Represent got off to a flying start yesterday with singer Plan B opening up proceedings. The event which runs nightly between 30th July and 10th August at London’s iconic 100 Club gives a nod to past legends by including nights headlined by UK Subs, Toots & the Maytals and Paul Weller. The best of the new breed are also showcased with Pulled Apart By Horses, The Safety Fire, Santigold, Best Coast, Japandroids and The Bots also featuring.
The highlight of the event has to be Blur’s ridiculously intimate gig on August 2nd. For a chance to be at this incredible show, fans will need to visit www.converse.co.uk/blur between 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM on Wednesday 1st August.
For those unable to get their hands on sought after tickets, Converse are kindly streaming the shows online here, you also stream the shows by scrolling to the bottom of the page.. The full line up for Converse Represent is as follows:
July 30 – Plan B, L Marshall, Jacob Banks, Yuna
July 31 – UK Subs, Discharge, Anti-Nowhere League, Goldblade, Ed Tudor Pole, Dumbjaw
August 1 – Paul Weller, Spiritualized, Japandroids, 2:54, Towns
August 2 – Blur, The Bots, Savages, Swiss Lips
August 6 – SBTRKT, Rudimental, John Talabot, Man Without Country
August 7 – Santigold, Django Django, Best Coast, Citizens!, Friends
August 8 – Toots & the Maytals, Natty, The Heatwave, Janice Graham Band
August 9 – Overkill, Pulled Apart By Horses, The Safety Fire, Wet Nuns
August 10 – Nas, Kano, Speech Debelle, Spoek Mathambo, Children Of The Night
So Hevy is only a few weeks away and after several festivals (including Download & Isle of Wight Festival) being complete wash-outs this year, Hevy have decided to defy the elements and gain a roof!
A statement on the official Hevy website reads, “Using production wizardry and festival witchcraft, we’ve put a roof over every stage for this year’s Hevy Festival! We’ve merged our 4 existing stages into 3, with 2 alternating Main Stages under one roof (which means there are now no clashes for all major bands) and our Red Bull Bedroom Jam Stage boasting it’s own tent. All this without compromising set times!”.
So now we know that we aren’t going to get too soaked at the festival, which bands are on the must see list? Obviously main stage headliners Andrew WK and Descendents should be seen- this goes without saying but there are plenty of other acts across the board that should make it onto your timetable. Crossfire reveals all.
Glassjaw
After tearing up Hevy in 2010, the mighty Glassjaw return to destroy the Rock Sound stage on Saturday. Although combining multiple genres including screamo, punk and psychedelic rock, Glassjaw are most often celebrated for their hardcore roots. The band are nothing short of iconic in the hardcore world, with many present day artists taking inspiration from these legends. Known for their emotive yet ferocious records and aggressive -and at times insane live shows- Glassjaw are definitely on our must watch list.
The Safety Fire
After touring relentlessly with the likes of The Arusha Accord, Periphery, The HAARP Machine and Xerath, The Safety Fire have slowly but surely started to make an impressive name for themselves amongst technical and progressive metal fans. Their debut album ‘Grind The Ocean’ has been complimented by many critics for its punishing riffs and soaring vocal melodies and will most certainly impress this year’s festival crowd too.
Trapped Under Ice
If there is one band on the line up that will demand you take notice it’s Trapped Under Ice. Last seen over in the UK as support to Your Demise where they dominated an obviously strong line up that also included Man Overboard & Basement, Trapped Under Ice define pure and gutsy hardcore. Hevy is the only summer festival in 2012 where you can catch this great band, don’t miss out.
Sharks
Raw and emotive, Sharks are a true DIY British punk band. Their critically acclaimed album ‘No Gods’ (which was released earlier this year via Rise Records) has finally got heads turning in the right direction. Although tamer than many other bands on the Hevy bill, Sharks do still have a strong bite to their The Clash/The Gaslight Anthem; Brit-pop infused rock and roll.
The Smoking Hearts
Despite a continuous touring schedule, every The Smoking Hearts show is just as crazy as the next. Famous for their rather destructive performance, expect to see instruments thrown around, the band in the pit and the crowd on the stage. Despite only forming in 2009 they have already shared the stage with huge names such as Gallows, Bring Me The Horizon & The Misfits. If you want some insane rock n roll to party to check these guys out on the Red Bull Bedroom Jam Stage.
Bleed From Within
If you are after a bit of straight forward metal with no strings attached, Bleed From Within are for you. This hardworking Scottish band have shared the stage with bands such as The Black Dahlia Murder, Suicide Silence, After The Burial, I Killed The Prom Queen and All That Remains and have 2 EPs and 2 Studio albums under their belts. Bleed From Within are currently working on their third album and will hopefully preview new material to the festival crowd.
Gnarwolves
Gnarwolves are awesome. Not only for having a brilliant band name and for their love of skateboarding but for their ridiculously energetic pop punk. Having already shared the stage with the likes of Touché Amore, Basement & The Wonder Years, hype has started to develop around these Brighton boys. Check them out as they open up the Punktastic stage on Friday and see why their latest EP ‘CRU’ recently entered out Buzz Chart.
Seahaven
Seahaven are a buzz band at the moment, one of those underground groups who will soon burst into the limelight for all to see. Forming in 2009 as the brainchild of singer/songwriter Kyle Soto, Seahaven caught the attention of Run for Cover Records (Tigers Jaw, Title Fight, Man Overboard) after self-releasing the EP ‘Ghost’ and went on to release their debut LP ‘Winter Forever’ via RFC records. Hevy have treated fans to a bit of exclusivity as Seahaven’s performance will be their first on UK shores!
AUGUST BURNS RED
With a mental live show, stated as a ‘must see band’ by yours truly at Crossfire and tipped to be the next big thing by Metal Hammer, UK band The Safety Fire are hot property right now. After putting out an insanely strong debut in ‘Grind The Ocean‘ earlier this year we needed to grab a chat with the eccentric band. Backstage at Hevy festival journalist Emma Wallace caught up with hilarious front man Sean McWeeney, and banterous guitarist Derya Nagle who were suitably dressed in Hawaiian shirts! Here’s what went down…
