Hadouken! + Sonic Boom Six + Shatter Effect, The Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton, 31/10/13
Hadouken! Opening up this Halloween night at The Slade Rooms are local band, Shatter Effect. Their music is solid enough throughout, with powerful female vocals, foot tapping four to the floor beats and heavy half time breakdowns.
Shatter Effect Pointing out that they’re the only band on the bill without a Street Fighter based band name, Shatter Effect have little struggle fitting in with their set of loud, synthed up tunes. The highlight of their set was third song, “Find What You Love”, which wouldn’t find itself out of place on the Paramore spectrum.
Sonic Boom Six Second up is Manchester five-piece Sonic Boom Six, who quite frankly are absolutely bonkers to watch. With both male and female rap-like vocals, the band are one of the more eclectic I’ve ever seen; their songs are fast paced assaults that have little time to breathe.
Sonic Boom Six As well as this, the front man brings some screaming vocals to the fore, meanwhile, the front woman uses gaps in her singing to practice her best Tim Cahill goal celebration (Google it if you have to); it’s a little odd to watch at times. Regardless, it encourages the crowd to break into their first mosh pit, which is doubtless the first of many. Imagine Limp Bizkit meets The Streets and you’re not even halfway there.
Hadouken! The atmosphere began to build even before Hadouken! came to the stage, with a mosh pit the size of the room forming in anticipation. Moments later, the band open their set with the arcing, room-rattling robotic synths of latest album opener, ‘The Vortex’. This sends the crowd into absolute raptures as white strobe lights flood the room. Second up is a favourite from second album, For The Masses. ‘M.A.D’ is a no holds barred track that gets the crowd in the mood, if they weren’t already. The line “we drop beats that’ll crack your cranium” just about sums it up. If the party hadn’t well and truly started by this point, old school ‘Get Smashed Gate Crash’ was up next. As soon as James Smith utters the words “let’s get this party started”, I’m transported straight back to 2007, probably wearing an oversized hoodie and some high tops to boot.
Hadouken! Sipping a can of Red Stripe, Smith announces the next song as a track from latest album, Every Weekend. ‘As One’ has the entire crowd with their palms in the air, almost touching the dark blue lasers above. The song then blends seamlessly into a Hadouken! favourite, ‘Mic Check’. With the entire crowd starting off on their knees, once it drops everyone in the room leaps into the air; the energy levels are still pumping. After fresh from FIFA ‘Bliss Out’ comes a Halloween costume competition. A ‘dirty zombie nurse’ gets 3rd place, bagging himself a Hadouken! hip flask. A man with sweat-induced runny face paint receives second prize, while Bane presents Hitcher from The Mighty Boosh with a Hadouken! varsity jacket. Snazzy.
Hadouken! Asking the crowd whether they want to “go out with a bang”, the front man’s self-titled “moshing machine” kicks into force. Second album opener ‘Rebirth’ gets the crowd running round in circles, while ‘Turn The Lights Out’ does exactly what it says on the tin; of course, that’s until the bass drops and the audience go bananas. Closing with two songs from Every Weekend, both ‘Parasite’ and ‘Levitate’ make sure for a wild, sweaty and scary Wolverhampton; no one in this room has stopped dancing all night. It’s definitely not 2007 anymore, but Hadouken! have shown tonight that their live energy and catchy dance tunes should never be in doubt; 2013 is a great place to be. Photographs by Edward Taylor
