Devil Gate Drive, Anime, Housebound and Acid
27/02/04
Zeal

I don’t often go to all-ages gigs, especially at zeal but as Devil Gate Drive were playing and I like Anime, I thought I might pop down for a look. Acid were the first band, they are a newish Rockquest band, going down the whole Sex Pistols, Butthole Surfers genre. With and angry-screechy front man and songs like “I like to go really fast” they quickly went through their short set.

Following them were Housebound. Their generic Greenday covers band sound got boring fast. I stopped paying attention and talked with some of the other bands about the promotion of all age’s gigs and such topics. Housebound did not play long.

Anime were next and with a roar, they had the crowd in their hands, the whole crowd (maybe one hundred and fifty or two hundred people) moved into an angry hyped up mosh. Their huge drum sound filled the room and any break in play they received a huge enthusiastic applause. On their last song the lead singer broke a string on his guitar, the sheer force of their show won the crowd. After Anime most people didn’t bother staying for Devil Gate Drive, that was their loss.

A biting retro guitar sound and a confident swagger were the immediate aspects of Devil Gate Drive’s show. The fifty or so people who were left, took a while to get into Devil Gate Drive, as the band’s sound and a lot of their guitar work went over the heads of the young audience. After Anime, Devil Gate Drive showed to the remaining audience what professionalism and a lot of practice do to a band that hunger for success. By now the crowd were absorbing the energy that Devil Gate Drive were putting out, two beat girls appeared on a platform and the crowd began pogoing about the venue. For their last song (a Velvet Underground number) Devil Gate Drive invited the crowd up to the stage and all the energy of the crowd was transported up to the stage. I saw some young teens playing one of the guitars, suddenly the sound man jumped up on stage and began hammering away at the pedals on stage. Amazing the boy’s with the sounds they were producing. Finally Devil Gate Drive finished up, but the crowd milled about waiting for a chance to see their new heroes.

If you want to stage an all ages concert talk to Devil Gate Drive they're pretty good at it.