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Shindignation Review – Part 1

Shindignation Festival

For the first time ever, Shindignation came to the streets of Bow to put on a festival highlighting the talent, that newer bands are pumping out. Like many modern festivals, it is an inner-city festival spanned across four venues in Bow, East London.

The range of bands on show was pretty diverse, we were treated to our usual mix of indie music, as well as some punk, heavy Rock and R&B. This article is our side of Shindignation, where we saw some Indie and punk bands. For a more diverse range of sounds, have a read of what Alex had to say about the other stages at the festival tomorrow.

The four venues at Shindignation all had their own characters as venues. The engine rooms, a recording studio turned in to a makeshift venue, it had a reception desk used as a bar and some ratty furniture out the front used as a smoking area. This venue was where we spent most of the day.

WAYDE

Essex based Wayde, formerly known as The Hair Blair Bunch, graced the engine rooms stage at 4:30 pm. Their melancholic sound is coupled with aggressive gravelly vocals, creating a huge distance between the more delicate and slow tones the band had to offer. 

Gloomy with a visually indeterminable aesthetic, Wayde proved to be vastly varied from what I’d come to expect from their studio material. While enjoyable to see live, it was undeniable that their Soundcloud content proved to be incredibly different in comparison.

Wayde’s grungey live vocal tones are comparable to those of an illegitimate love child belonging to Grohl and Cobain – albeit more refined, yet still pleasingly gravelly in its delivery.

ADRENALINE ANIMALS

Aptly named and unapologetically brash, Adrenaline animals were one of the highlights of Shindignation. Snarling vocals support bellowing echoes of new wave punk and heavy guitar driven rock, providing thick enticing riffs and a more refined sound than other bands at Shindignation

Melodies were refined to have distinguishable instruments and the sounds bleed into each other, like a murky watercolour canvas to create the perfect melodic mix. 

The intense, unwavering stare of Adrenaline Animals frontman, was somewhat reminiscent to that of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong. Seeming mildly unhinged and incapable of blinking.

Another similarity shared by a particularly prolific band was the repetition within the song. ‘This Is England’, a crowd pleasing track with repetition on a similar level to The Red Hot Chili Peppers, ‘Give It Away Now’ that could be compared to a punk infused football chant.

Whilst they only have one song on their Soundcloud account, they’re definitely ones to keep an eye out for in the future.

THE BLOOM

The Bloom has an interesting back story, and that’s nice – I like a band with a good story, it means that when I write about them, I can talk about more than just their music.

The intercontinental foundations of this band is a complex, but interesting mix of nationalities. The lead singer, Luke kordyl from Australia, moved the UK to start a band, Joining bassist Quentin Duraul from France, drummer Eduardo Dolzan from Brazil and guitarist Ed Melton –from Norwich.

The Set had an upbeat tempo throughout, with a metronome sound ever-present. It was a pretty chilled out affair. It was a nice change to some of the other punk bands that played The Engine Rooms.

They felt confident with their sound, each track sounded individual, but you could feel that they had a unified feel that they worked to, you would know who you are listening to.

DRONNINGEN

The most energetic band were Dronningen, they were by far the band that were jumping around the most, also best at getting the crowd hyped about the set. Dronningan were like a lively and over excited version of The Marmosets, with the tempo of Blink 182 mixed to create an aggressive combination of malicious vocals, and sinister drumming.

The band were an interesting blend of characters. The drummer is incredibly talented at setting the pace that characterises Dronningen so well. The lead singers unmistakable punk voice let you know what you were in for as soon as they started playing, however, the guitarist looked like he didn’t want to be there. Maybe it’s the Punk ‘emo’ way, but he looked like a fatigued eight-year-old following his mum around Asda.

THE DARTS

We interviewed The Darts at Shindignation, so look out for that later this week, they’re great guys, with the right attitude needed to break through in this tough industry, you can tell they are doing this because it’s what they love.

The Darts music had a lovely summery feeling to them, the guitar licks give you a warm feeling, the vocals could have had more punch at times, and they need to work on their crowd interaction, never the less it didn’t take away from how great the foundations of what could be something great.

I’m looking forward to the future of The Darts, with a sound and foundation this strong, all they have to do is work on their weaknesses, and they will sound like a more mature band.

SKINNY MILK

Skinny Milk put on a pretty intense headline set at The Beehive, the Brighton band were one of the more experienced groups at Shindignation, and it showed, their set was perfectly carried out.

The lead singer stood in the crowd, while the drummer took up the whole of the small stage, in an attempt to get the crowd going for the punk rock band.

The sound was pretty appealing. It’s a unique sound that is hard to compare – think vocals and tempo of The Clash and drumming from Elbow’s heavier material.

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