Pitchshifter

Sheffield Western Bank Foundry - 29/9/2K

So here we all are, crammed into the Sheffield University Student Union awaiting the best band in the UK knowing they will deliver. But first, the support acts...

First up were Sona Fariq, last seen at what was left of the Lost Weekend, and playing roughly the same set. When they marched on stage to a very muted response from all of 15 people (there were only about 30 actually up front at the time), vocalist Michael Frankel decided to give us the advice 'Wake up Sheffield'.

During the second track, Drop the Bomb, the crowd most certainly did, bounding around with a mass of energy that the band are well known for. They also gave out a few copies of their next single Love You Crazy before airing it, which I just have to meantion I caught one, to the envy of a couple of rather large blokes either side of me. Whilst scurrying away to a different place, the band played a cover of Pitchshifter's Virus (I think-PA was terrible and Frankel had the mic in his gob for part of it), before finishing with Sona Fariq, complete with a dive into the crowd whilst still singing. How many friends can this lot make in a night?

Next up, The Workhorse Movement, with the hefty promise from Frankel that they will 'fuck you up'. And did they? Hell yeah! Both vocalists bounding around the stage, leaping into the crowd on a regular basis (one even standing on us!) and giving us one funked up set. I do apologise for the pun, BTW. Only problem was it's pronounced 'Far-e-kay', not 'Far-eek'.

So with them out of the way and pumping up the crowd, PSI surely had their work cut out. Instead, they came out guns blazing and hurling themselves into it (literally) with Wafer Thin and the crowd erupted on a scale not seen since Pompeii last had inhabitants. Following up with Chump Change they really turned it on for the crowd with 'an old song', blasting Genius at us with authority, and the crowd was looking more like Chicago O'Hare Airport by now with the amount of overhead traffic.

Reverting back to the new material that made up the most of the set, Scene This and Hidden Agenda, dedicated to Consumed, followed up, before another oldie that Jon Clayden didn't undererstand the reaction to, Triad, as well as asking any racists around to '1: Get the fuck out, and 2: Suck all of our dicks', as well as a challenge/'logistical nightmare' of getting the entire crowd to pogo along with the band. Deciding to slow it down a bit(?), Subject to Status came on next, before asking for quiet so he could rant at the record industry for giving rock bands a hard deal and asking us all to go out on October 9th and buy the next track, Dead Battery, 'so that for 1 week we take the place one piece of shit that clogs up the charts.' You have your orders...

Following the rant/Dead Battery combo, we get Microwaved causing more action and a sing-along, encouraged, naturally, before Jon goes on another rant, mostly to sell the Fuck All Boybands shirt, taking us into Keep It Clean and Condescension give the security added reason for their pay raise. Then, after a bit of begging (all night from some 'cock'), we get the place heaving en masse, before a quick question for the audience, Sucks or Fucked? The crowd went for the latter, so we get Everything's Fucked.

Then Jon gives us an insight into how pointless going off and coming on for an encore is, so instead they'll stay onstage and just play a couple more instead. So into Un:UK it is, and Jim Davies TOTALLY fucks it up, so the entire crowd is told to point at Jim. Take 2, they get it right. Then, to finish up, we have W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G. and the crowd can now go home safe in the knowledge that a night out like this will be VERY hard to top...

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