Live Review: Slam Dunk Festival 2019, Hatfield

Slam Dunk has been the first date of my festival season for the last three years now, and it's always a brilliant day out for those who love live music. Despite the recent unceremonious axing of the best date on the festival's schedule (that being the Midlands, which I usually attend), I made it a fourth year in a row on Sunday 26th. Over the course of the day I managed to catch 18 different bands, which might be a new record for me, so without further ado, here's how it went down.

Being put on as the first band on the bill at 11:45am is a pretty rough card to be dealt, but Cruel Hand (6/10) do their best to make the most of it. I only manage to catch the first fifteen minutes of their set, but in that time the band seem intent on forcing the crowd to wake up through the use of their own thrash-tinged hardcore alarm clock. Though they suffer from an expectedly muted reception from the early audience, the band themselves aren’t lacking any drive or energy as they blast through a few fairly simplistic tracks. As the first sound the festival site hears all day, Cruel Hand do an admirable job.

Photo by Angela Owens

Angel Du$t (6.5/10) are the first full set of the day, and it’s a solid showing overall from the Maryland punks-turned-power-poppers. The first few songs do fall slightly flat, with very little response from the crowd, but once they hit their stride with tracks off their recent album it all comes together. ‘Bang My Drum’, ‘On My Way’, and ‘Big Ass Love’ are all irresistibly positive singalongs which work surprisingly well sandwiched between the slices of breakneck-speed hardcore punk which bookend the performance. A modest pit finally breaks out for ‘Stepping Stone’ and ‘Toxic Boombox’ before the band leave the stage, and it’s obvious that Angel Du$t are clearly more accustomed to having some energy from the crowd to feed off of as they spring to life in response. It’s a decent set to kick off the day, and an early reminder that unadulterated fun will always be important in a festival setting.

Following on from Angel Du$t, I manage to catch the last few songs from perhaps the greebiest band of all time in Kublai Khan (7/10). There are two-steps and spin-kicks aplenty in the crowd, egged on enthusiastically by frontman Matt Honeycutt, and everything about the music which soundtracks the violence is gloriously ignorant. The final song in the setlist, ‘The Hammer’, overshadows all that came before it to a certain extent because it simply is perfect mosh material. I’d challenge anyone not to grin from the sidelines when that chopping riff first kicks in and the crowd shouts “BITCH!” in unison. The performance is a fitting celebration of the beatdown to warm the attendees up for what’s to come.

Kicking the chaos up into a different stratosphere, Knocked Loose (9/10) are one of my most anticipated bands of the day. It’s the fourth time I’ve seen the Oldham County upstarts, and it’s easily the best set from them I’ve witnessed so far. From the fantastic vocal interplay between Bryan Garris’ signature yelp and Isaac Hale’s growls, to the sheer amount of stage presence radiating from every member, to the ideal setlist choices they pull out the bag, everything amounts to a perfect storm for Knocked Loose. The band play two new songs off their upcoming album, A Different Shade Of Blue, and both stand out as set highlights – particularly ‘Mistakes Like Fractures’, which gets a worthy response from the fans in attendance. In fact, the band seem to pull the biggest Impericon stage crowd of the day; a testament to their dizzying rise to the top of hardcore, and a strong hint toward the potential they have to break through into the mainstream. Ending the set with the infamous “ARF ARF!” breakdown of ‘Counting Worms’ seems like the perfect choice for a festival slot, and it leaves me doubly excited for what's to come for this band.

To follow up such an incredible set, I elected to see Wage War (6/10) instead of the “surprise” Busted set on the other side of the arena, because I’m not some sort of weird masochist. One of the better bands to come out of the early-2010s wave of “polished” metalcore, Wage War put on a decent enough showing even if it isn’t necessarily anything to write home about. There's a big market for this stuff at Slam Dunk, but as Wage War blast through breakdown after breakdown it all seems to blur into one slightly, with nothing much to differentiate between tracks other than a different chorus each time. Still, closing track 'Stitch' (their best song by a mile) brings it all together in the end, and it provides a solid enough warm-up for what's to come at the other end of the tent.

Turnstile (9.5/10) hit the ground running in a big way as they take to the Impericon stage, opening up with ‘Generator’ and not letting up for a single second for the rest of their set. It’s a half-hour full of infectiously catchy, hard-hitting riffs from the world’s most exciting live band right now, and it just edges the best performance of the day for me. With Daniel Fang holding it all up on drums in a way only he can, the other members fly around the stage like ball lightning. Frontman Brendan Yates and bassist Franz Lyons in particular are hard to take your eyes off of, both as bouncy and energetic as songs like ‘Real Thing’ and ‘Drop’. It all inspires a frenzy in the crowd which you’d have to be mad not to get swept up in. Melodic songs like ‘Blue By You’ and ‘Moon’ get an equally raucous reception, presumably because they manage to stand up alongside more typically hardcore tracks with just as much undeniable power. By the time ‘Gravity’ brings the set to a close, I’m bruised, I’m out of breath, and I’m convinced that Turnstile are the future.

Next up is a band I’ve heard a whole load of good things about: The Interrupters (6.5/10). The ska-punk phenomenon takes to the Punk In Drublic stage like a duck to water, and it’s clear that they’ve already amassed a pretty strong following despite being the youngest band on the stage all day. There are sticky, repetitive hooks, classic syncopated guitars, and funk-inspired rhythms all pulled off with a smile and a wave of the LGBT+ flag, which in turn puts a smile on the faces of everyone in attendance. As someone who isn’t particularly a fan of the genre, though, their relentlessly positive show just seems like standard fare. It’s not unenjoyable by any stretch of the imagination – the charisma from the band’s members is enough to ensure that much – but honestly, with all the hype surrounding The Interrupters, I’m left feeling like I’ve missed something. Maybe I just hate fun.

Photo by Ricky Frankel

Continuing the theme of killer bands on the Impericon stage, Cancer Bats (8/10) do exactly what you’d expect them to do, and blow the roof off the place. Armed to the teeth with ragers old and new, the Toronto legends waste no time in tearing shit up with an opening run of ‘Brightest Day’, ‘Road Sick’, ‘Pneumonia Hawk’, and ‘Bricks & Mortar’.  The newer material sits perfectly between more tried-and-tested tracks, with 'Fear Will Kill Us All' in particular becoming an unexpected set highlight. The band are their usual lairy selves; Liam especially seems to be more rock n' roll than ever, hyping the crowd up in between songs in a manner which would make Brian Johnson blush. It's always great to see the people on stage have as much fun as those in the audience, and with Cancer Bats, that's undeniably the case. The set nears its close, and as the iconic, rumbling bassline for 'Sabotage' kicks in, it's clear that there's only one way this show can end: in utter chaos soundtracked by one of the best covers of all time. What a band.

Pagan (5/10), though, are another act who unfortunately don’t seem to live up to their hype in a live environment - but it’s not really their fault. For whatever reason, the sound on the Key Club stage is a little dodgy throughout the day, and Pagan’s set suffers the most for it; Nikki Bruman’s lead vocals are (whilst impressive) far too loud and subsequently drown out a lot of the instrumentation, at least from where I’m standing. It’s a shame, because I like the band’s stuff a lot on record, and their stage show is intriguingly occult-themed (which you’d be hard-pressed to miss considering the big fuck-off neon inverted cross they use as a backdrop). The members are all charismatic in their own way, and to their credit they tear through the set with mountains of energy, so I’ll be looking to catch Pagan again at some point on a better day. Their set on Sunday just wasn’t a great first impression for me.

Without a doubt, the most irritating part of the Slam Dunk Hatfield site is the ungodly queues at the bars, which I found, on average, were about half an hour long. To make things worse, this meant I was held captive to witness about half of a main stage slot from Simple Plan (3.5/10). The pop-punk stalwarts rely heavily on nostalgia to pull a crowd these days, and songs like ‘Shut Up’ are still serviceable when played to people who were born in the 90s, but on the whole the set is pretty dull and tiresome. It only starts to get actively bad when vocalist Pierre Bouvier lets the crowd know that the band is “still making music” (if you need to do that, maybe you shouldn’t be on the main stage at a festival), and they launch into some of the most out-of-touch pop-rock of the past few years. Mercifully, I manage to escape with some alcohol just as ‘Summer Paradise’ kicks off. Phew.

From the dregs of a dying era to the spark igniting a new one, Employed To Serve (8.5/10) rip through their Key Club stage set on the best form I’ve ever seen them. Uniformed in their own Eternal Forward Motion windbreakers, the Woking hardcore giants waste no time in laying waste to the place with their new material. What follows is a half-hour masterclass in how to play a festival set. Perhaps egged on a little by the fact that the previous band, SHVPES, decided to play an extra song and thus force ETS to come on later than planned, the pure aggression from every single person on stage is palpable, with Sammy Urwin and Justine Jones constantly commanding the crowd to move to the sound of their brutal, groove-coated anthems. Songs like 'Owed Zero' (that guitarwork!) and 'Force Fed' (for a portion of which I am stood atop the crowd) sound even more powerful live than on record, and setlist staples 'Good For Nothing' and 'I Spend My Days' don't lose an ounce of weight even in comparison. Employed To Serve are this nation's best band right now, and they won't let anyone forget it.

Gallows (8.5/10) have been absent from playing shows and putting out records for the last four or five years, and as a result I have yet to see the legends of UK hardcore live, even with Wade MacNeil on vocals. Their return to Slam Dunk is probably the most eagerly-awaited set of the day for me, and as it turns out, my excitement is not misguided. Save for a slightly sloppy (if amusing) start, with MacNeil calling for his vocals to be turned up before being clocked in the head by a stray guitar, Gallows live up to the wait in a big way. Kicking off proceedings with Grey Britain classics 'Misery' and 'London Is The Reason', the old material is very much the focus of the setlist here. 'Abandon Ship', 'Come Friendly Bombs', 'In The Belly of a Shark', and 'Orchestra of Wolves' all get a play in between newer tracks, much to my absolute delight, but the band still aren't living in the past. MacNeil vocalises his support for "throwing milkshakes at fascists" halfway through the set, which gets a big cheer from fans (myself included) before Gallows launch back into their brand of furious hardcore punk. With the musicianship perfectly anarchic throughout, it's a glorious return from a true staple of the British heavy music scene. Hopefully they're back for good.

Photo by Jim Wright

I’m not an OG Bad Religion (8/10) fan, but after seeing them at Download last year and being instantly hooked, I had to catch the first twenty minutes of their triumphant set on the Punk In Drublic stage here. Though the L.A. icons are coming up on 40 years as a band, they fire off classic after classic with the energy and enthusiasm of musicians half their age. Vocalist Greg Graffin is simply on fire, playing off the crowd and introducing songs with a wry, knowing smile befitting of a man who has spent most of his life fronting one of punk's most significant and consistent bands. With tracks like 'Fuck You', 'Stranger Than Fiction', and 'I Want To Conquer The World' spanning decades, no member of the audience is left disappointed, and I'm left with an incentive to dig into the Bad Religion back catalogue.

Now, hands up here; I’ll always be biased when I review Glassjaw (9/10). Not only do I consider them to be one of the best and most important bands of all time, but their music has meant more to me over time than 90% of other artists I love. Saying all that, though, Glassjaw are on genuinely brilliant form at Slam Dunk. Daryl Palumbo moves around the stage like he’s made of water, bellowing out the choruses of ‘Ape Dos Mil’ and ‘Pink Roses’ (along with the diehard fans down the front) as if he’s just discovered new meaning in them, and he really seems to be enjoying himself throughout the set. Justin Beck’s guitarwork is, as always, absolutely staggering, and the rhythm section is spot on to tie it all together. Though the setlist doesn't contain any surprises, it doesn't particularly need to (as much as I'd like to see 'Stuck Pig'); the way the songs are played keeps them fresh, and because of it, I've hardly stopped listening to Glassjaw for a minute since this set. As Daryl leaves the stage with a "thank you" and a kiss blown out to the audience, I'm once again struck by how special this band are. We shouldn't take them for granted.

Watching the last twenty minutes of The Menzingers (9/10) underneath a double-rainbow sunset is probably the closest thing to a religious experience I’ll ever have, so it’s a good thing the soundtrack was befitting. With joyous singalongs to the likes of 'I Don't Wanna Be An Asshole Anymore' and 'Gates', it's pretty safe to say that this is one of the best sets of the day, even if I haven't managed to see it from the start. Unfortunately, during 'Nice Things' (the planned penultimate song in the setlist), the sound is suddenly, gracelessly cut off, much to the ire of the audience. It takes a while for The Menzingers to comprehend what's going on, but when they do, they abandon their microphones and lead the crowd in an impromptu a capella rendition of the last half of the song. It's bittersweet but beautiful, and only soldifies the love I have for the Scranton quartet. 

The Slam Dunk lineup’s biggest weakness this year was its headliners, and I didn’t particularly care for any of the three final bands on the bill. Despite this, I opted to give them each a chance and split the last hour of the day into thirds.

First up were NOFX (6/10), who were pretty much exactly as I expected; their reputation precedes them even though I’ve never caught them live before. Blasting through short, energetic punk tracks with what felt like little comedy skits in between from Fat Mike, the band put on a solid enough show for their many loyal fans. Again, though, their style isn't necessarily my wheelhouse, and so personally I didn't get too much pleasure from the twenty minutes of NOFX I saw. They were, however, more enjoyable than Bullet For My Valentine (5.5/10). Any band who thinks it's acceptable to bolster their set with a five-minute drum solo in the place of a song goes down massively in my estimation, and that's exactly what BFMV do straight after a decent rendition of 'The Last Fight'. From that point onwards, the focus on their more recent material is enough to drive me away - it's just pretty straightforward, meat-and-potatoes metal.

Against all odds, then, I manage to end my Slam Dunk 2019 watching the last fifteen minutes of All Time Low (6.5/10), a band who are very much not for me. Out of the three headliners, though, I thought they actually put on the best show overall. They're unbearably pandering, yes, and I'm definitely not the target demographic, but between the stage show and occasional throwback bop, the boyband-esque pop-rock institutions close out the festival in suitable style. Let's hope we get A Day To Remember in next year though, hey?

Photo nicked from Slam Dunk Festival Facebook page