Shows like these are notorious for their crowd interaction, the mosh pits, the lead singer jumping into the crowd, the sweaty fat guy with his top off swinging it above his head, it can be these antics that makes these type of gigs so enjoyable to attend. However, it’s a shame when sometimes a minority of people take there enthusiasm a bit too far and get carried away with it, swinging there bodies all over the place, especially into small girls and people who are clearly not in the mosh pit. Different people enjoy gigs in different ways, some people like to mosh as there expression of enjoyment of the music, and some people just like to enjoy the music. The two should not have to clash, even at a small venue such as Joiners. In spite of this, the raw emotion that was shown by each band on the night is enough to get even the mellowest of guys stirred. The Intimacy of Joiners makes it feel like you’re at one with the band, the audience able to see each emotion on the bands faces – to study/to admire.
Seething Akira was first to get the crowd pumped up, their mixture of rap vocals and hard breakdowns very much alike to Hacktivist themselves. A cover of Dizzee Rascals famous track ‘Fix Up Look Sharp’ went down very well. The One Hundred, who have been touring with Hacktivist for the past two and a half weeks, seemed to draw in much more of a crowd as Joiners filled up quite substantially for there set. The lead vocalists mixture of growling and rapping worked a treat as they mixed things up from slow hip-hop, metalcore, to straight up rap metal. Reeling off a number of tracks from their ‘Subculture’ EP, ‘Downfall’ and ‘Kingsmen’ being the main highlights.
As expected it was the main guys themselves who stole the show, Hacktivist showing on the night just why they are growing so fast in popularity, not just in the UK but also in Europe. The two vocalists form a formidable partnership, stirring up the crowd with fast paced rap vocals and deep soaring choruses. Mosh pits, walls of death, crowd surfing – the set had it all. ‘False Idols’, ‘Deceive and Defy’, alongside covers of ‘Niggas In Paris’ and ‘I Got 5 On It’, stood out as the main tracks on the night, the Reading native band consistently mixing things up. As one of the lead vocalists said towards the end of the set “Southampton you have been torn a new one”, and all in all I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who would disagree with him.
8/10
First published: December 13, 2014
Where?: https://noisecannon.com/2014/12/12/hacktivist-the-joiners-southampton/
Will Garnett 