Psychostick – Baithead – Saigon Kiss
 @ The Waterfront Studio, Norwich – 26.09.16

Review By Vicky Jackson-Milne

 

Tonight Norwich was in for a rare treat of the side splitting variety as comedy metallers Psychokillers, sorry I mean Pshychostick rolled into town.  But before they were allowed to unleash their uncensored no holds barred madness on the audience, it was down to two of our local bands to set everyone up for the night.

 

First up were rockers Saigon Kiss with their simple blend of metal and heavy rock ‘n’ roll.  An agreed odd choice for opening this evening but a great performance none the less.  Kicking off with ‘A Rope And Razor’ swiftly followed by ‘Dirty Boy’ and ‘Crimson Desire’ which took a very strange piratey sounding turn, Kev (Vox) continued to growl out the lyrics backed up by Steve (Guitar) with his heavy riffs and the undulating rhythm provided by Greg (bass) and Alex (drums).  Rounding off their set with ‘The Sentinel’, ‘Nightman’ and ‘Devils Whore’, Saigon Kiss put on a good show for the small gathered crowd.  However, I’m not sure if a couple of those tracks were experiments with sound as there were wah wah sounding bass solos, and very odd timings that made the odd section sound a bit messy.  Though I would say that perhaps these guys should follow the way of one of their tracks and go down the Pirate Metal route, they already have their own resident pirate in their bass player Greg!  All jokes aside, these guys have been going for a long time and always play consistently.  A solid opener for the gig.

 Next up this evening, another Norwich band in the form of Baithead with their classic southern sounding metal style.  Blasting into their first song ‘Baithead’ and hammering through ‘Drive The Nails In’ (no pun intended) and ‘Black Lung’, it was quite clear to see that these guys love what they’re doing, great presence on stage and the energy brought by their frontman J Skinzz (vox) was infectious.  Lots of crowd interaction including Skinzz jumping off stage into the crowd to start his very own circle pit.  You can tell that these guys are young and are having lots of fun, which will be evident by the names to follow in this review.  Brilliant occasional heavy breakdowns served up by Dick Buttkuss (guitar), Izzy Phuck (guitar), El Garcon (bass) and Baccy Plug Taylaa (drums),but not too many breakdowns that it gets predictable. Lots of southern groove and smooth but heavy riffs thrown in.  These lads even travel to the land of Reggae going into ‘No Love Till Midnight’, encouraging the crowd to grab a partner for a slow dance.  Rounding off their brilliant set with ‘Zoot Suit Car Boot’ and ‘Tear Up The Rug’, Baithead put in a great performance, though they need to work on getting the name of the headliner band right…..third time lucky chaps ha ha. 

                                         

Time for the headliners to take the stage and immediately floor everyone with their wall of sound.  Self described comedy metal/hardcore band, these guys instantly got the crowd moving and heads banging and pitting constantly.  With the roar and clean lyrics sprayed out by Rawrb (vox) and his vibrant head gear, the audience lapped it all up.  Ploughing through their epic set list with treats such as ‘Because Boobs’, ‘Do You Want A Taco?’ and ‘I Hate Doing Laundry’ these guys really know how to make things heavy.  They even played the heaviest song ever, it was ‘So Heavy’.  Lifting the roof off of the waterfront, Physchostick also played the Song Lottery with the crowd.  Due to their 4 albums worth of tracks to choose from, they needed help with their set list.  First of the lottery songs was ‘Orgasm = Love’. Moving swiftly on, Rawrb’s next stunt was chucking a sombrero out into the mass of flying hair and sweaty bodies, the challenge was to grab a piece of it without getting thrown out by security, with a backing track of sheer heavy crunching riffs slammed out by Moose (Bass) and J (Guitar) and the constant pounding of Alex on drums. Tying up the loose ends on this gargantuan set, with ‘I can Only Count to 4’ and ‘Hokey Pokey’ I don’t think there was a person in the room that wasn’t smiling and having a fucking awesome time.

 

These guys really know how to put on a show and they certainly are not showing any sign of slowing down even though they’ve been touring for what seems like forever.  If you haven’t seen or heard Phsychostick, the only way I could think to describe them is that System Of A Down and Evil Scarecrow went on some sort of sordid and peculiar date, made sweet, heavy love and produced this roaring bundle of funny. Madder than a box of frogs, they are definitely not a band to take lightly and I implore you to see them or buy their albums, everyone needs a little bit of Psycho in their life!

 

CHECK THEM OUT:

Saigon Kiss:

https://www.facebook.com/saigonkiss/?fref=ts

https://soundcloud.com/saigonkiss

 

Baithead:

https://www.facebook.com/TearUpTheRug/?fref=ts

http://baithead.bandcamp.com/releases

 

Psychostick:

https://www.facebook.com/Psychostick/

http://psychostick.com/

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