ASTROID BOYS // THINK TANK?, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
Playing their second last show, Astroid Boys give Newcastle the send-off they deserve.
ASTROID BOYS PERFORMING AT NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE’S THINK TANK? - 19.01.2019
PICTURE BY: WILL GORMAN PHOTOGRAPHY
★★★★☆
All the way from Wales the last remaining members of Astroid Boys played their second ever last show. Along for the ride were Newcastle’s own Starve To Survive and the punk/grime group PENGSHUi.
Starting the night off were the nu-metalcore group Starve To Survive who sounded incredible. With their heavy riffs and raucous vocals, they were a sight not to missed. The group are clearly known in Newcastle as many of the members of the growing crowd knew the lyrics to all their songs as vocalist James Freeman would pass the microphone to the crowd and the lyrics would be screamed back to him. The group woke the crowd up with plenty people pushing and shoving. Overall I thought their set was cracking and hope to catch them again very soon. Second up was PENGSHUi all the way from London. With a clear influence from Grime, Rap, Punk and Metal it was certainly a different sound which I enjoyed a lot. With the group not being as known in Newcastle the crowds reactions wasn’t as good as the previous act however as the group become bigger and I expect the three piece to be selling out venues like THINK TANK?. PENGSHUi sounded well-rehearsed and I would like to these back in Newcastle soon.
Astroid Boys! If you’ve ever been to one of their shows you know what to expect: stage dives, crowd surfing and moshing. With the departure of ‘Traxxs’ and ‘Dellux’ I wasn’t sure what to expect however this blew away all my expectations. I have previously seen Astroid boys with the old line up twice when they supported Enter Shikari and then at a headline show last year however this show was easily their best. At the intimate venue Benji told the crowd ‘We’ve had some great memories here’ which was a fitting place to have their second last show at. The first track of their set was Posted which is easily one of my favourites by them, making it even better was when Benji gave the microphone to a member of the crowd who knew all the lyrics word for word. They clearly have a dedicated fan base.
Included in their set were two unreleased songs which were great however they may never be released. Throughout the set Benji mentioned that there are now only three members left and it was clear that he was disappointed about it, however regardless of this he still made a memorable show for the almost sold out venue. As the night drew to an end the crowd began chanting ‘dusted, dusted, dusted’ which is their most popular song. Benji addressed the crowd ‘we have two songs left, we can either do dusted or you can have two more with dusted at the end.’ The second last song was the tame track called ‘sticky.’ As the crowd silenced the intro riff to Dusted began and the crowd went ecstatic. With it being their most popular song, it is clear why! With the mix of rock and grime it’s a prime example of what Astroid Boys have to offer. With the end of the dusted a drum and bass remix began playing which was only ever featured on the music video, it was great to hear it live.
I’m disappointed that this was my last chance to see Astroid Boys however Benji reassured the crowd that he ‘will continue to make music whether that’s under Astroid Boys or another name.’ Overall their set was cracking and they sounded great!