FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES // OH YEA CENTRE, BELFAST
FRANK CARTER STORMS BELFAST'S OH YEA CENTRE
FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES PERFORMING AT OH YEAH CENTRE, BELFAST
PICTURE BY: STEVEN DONNELLY PHOTOGRAPHY
Frank Carter took to the Oh Yeah Music Centre’s stage on Tuesday night to perform a blisteringly loud and crazily aggressive set of hardcore punk for a fired-up, sweat-soaked Belfast crowd, who packed the small 290-man venue to the brim, as part of his Modern Ruin album tour. The album, which came out on January 20th, has since received acclaim from the scene and critics combined and, together with his art and tattoo projects, has helped him reach a more mainstream audience while still keeping fans of his older material hanging off his every word.
First up on the night was Brighton based band, Yonaka, who played a high-energy set of indie rock, led by a charismatic vocalist who could easily be compared to be the female Jim Morrison as she danced about the stage and waded into the crowd, getting up close and personal with the audience more than once and sauntering around the floor with an air of authority, taking control of the venue as if she owned it. The band behind her were equally as entertaining, each member clearly putting their all into the performance. They ended their set with the song Bubble Gum, before which copies of their EP were handed out to members of the crowd, who surged forward in a wave to get one of the handful of copies available.
Yonaka were closely followed by Fangclub, a Dublin based band who have been exploding around Ireland over the last few months, headlining venues such as Whelan’s and McHugh’s and appearing on national TV in the ROI a number of times. The grunge trio played a slightly shorter set than expected but made up for it with their Nirvana-esque riffs and catchy hooks which got members of the crowd headbanging and jumping along to every chorus. There was no messing around with this band who seemed like the perfect forerunners for the chaos that was about to ensue.
Then it was on to the man everyone came to see: The main lights dimmed; white smoke drifted across the stage, which was now shrouded in a deep red colour from the row of lights that decorated the front of the drum kit; a line of men in black shirts and white trousers walked onto the stage and before long, Frank Carter, dressed in a white and black pinstripe suit, made his way to the very centre of it all. By this point, the crowd were so tightly packed together that it became almost impossible to actually move, leading to a number of people falling over the rows in front of them and straight onto the stage, something that became a common occurrence over the course of the night to the point where Frank, a man who is known for his crowd surfing and aggressive moshing, was barely able to reach the crowd as the front of the stage became littered with sweaty bodies as people were flung over heads and towards the band. The atmosphere couldn’t have been any better and the musicians realised this, and loved it.
The opening song was Snake Eyes, the audience kicking in with screams and vocals before even Frank did, which was quickly followed by Trouble, getting the crowd jumping and even more pumped than they had been before. One thing which is clear to see is that Frank Carter knows how to work a room, taking phones off people and videoing himself and the band with them. A few brave men even decided to risk taking a selfie with him, which didn’t go according to plan, as he put two men in headlocks on different occasions and led them around the stage, helpless as he laughed, before letting them go and making sure they got back down safely.
FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES PERFORMING AT OH YEAH CENTRE, BELFAST
PICTURE BY: STEVEN DONNELLY PHOTOGRAPHY
The title track of the new album, Modern Ruin, came fourth in the set. Before they played anything, Carter made a little speech, asking for women, and only women, to come on stage and crowd surf, explaining that he wants his own daughter to grow up in a world where she feels safe crowd surfing and trusts the men around her to keep her safe. Of course, a good few women were more than happy to have a go at it and throughout the entire song a stream of people jumped off stage, crowd surfed to the back and ran straight up again to do it all over.
FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES | UPCOMING TOUR DATES:
24 MARCH 2017 | LEEDS Stylus
25 MARCH 2017 | BIRMINGHAM Asylum
26 MARCH 2017 | CARDIFF The Globe
27 MARCH 2017 | EXETER Phoneix
29 MARCH 2017 | SOUTHSEA Wedgerooms
30 MARCH 2017 | LONDON KOKO