“That’s alright if you’ve never heard of us, we like a cold room,” Bobby told the crowd at the start of the set. After the roaring vigour of Bad Nerve’s set so far, the contrast of the sudden silence was deafening.īobby Nerves’ sunglasses hid the inevitable glimmer of mischief in his eyes as he surveyed the scene with an air of “How far can we push this? How long can they stand it?” Just when it was almost too much to bear, a shock shout of “1-2-3-4!” took us all by surprise, breaking the impasse as Bad Nerves crashed into their next song which hit us twice as hard, thanks to that powerful gulf the silence left in its wake.
If you weren’t already in rapt attention, you were aware that any muttered conversations suddenly stalled. The audience became as still as the band onstage, who were seemingly suffering some sort of graphics card failure. Without warning, the five-piece suddenly stood as still as statues, emitting no sound except for drummer Sam Thompson tapping his sixteenth note on the hi-hat as the tension built. His energetic performance, singing in a higher register than most of their punk comrades, but losing none of the venom, gave a unique flavour to Bad Nerves’ jubilant punk stylings. No long guitar solos here, just quick and dirty power chords delivered at a frenetic pace, perfect for singer Bobby Nerves’ melodies to hook their way straight into your brain. Tearing into their opening track at 200bpm, the fast and furious power pop punk band from Essex set the standard of intensity for the duration of their set. Next up was touring support band Bad Nerves, strutting onto the stage looking like they’d been torn straight out of the late ’70s NYC punk scene, with bleached hair, shades and torn tank tops. Dishing out muscular guitar riffs with reckless abandon, and howling vocals reminiscent of American bands like Rival Sons and Reignwolf, they prepared our ears for a night of loud and raucous rock & roll.
The first band to greet the exuberant crowd gathered at Sheffield’s Leadmill last Friday night was hard hitting, heavy blues rock band Stand Amongst Giants. Tigercub’s expertly delivered bone crunching riffs and gritty alternative rock was devoured by a hungry Sheffield crowd who have been eagerly awaiting the return of the Brighton trio. Tigercub | Bad Nerves | Stand Amongst Giants