Idiom, Napoleon, Rat Attack, Seconds Alive

The recent bad weather did nothing to quell the appetites of Exeter's music hungry crowd on this night. Most early attendees (and a couple of band-members) were expecting a light to moderated turnout to go hand in hand with the rain, but as the heavens opened for another soggy south-western evening the crowd poured in for an eventful evening at the Cavern.



Seconds Alive kicked off the evenings proceedings. You can often tell a bands' musical influences by the music they play. Parkway Drive was the first thing that sprung to mind when these youngsters got things under-way, which is not a bad thing. Pounding beats, technically brilliant riffs and a mixture of vocal styles from Tom Russell caught the crowds attention; with time and dedication, Seconds Alive could be a band to look out for. These guys (and girl – drummer Rach Adams) set a pace that would be, in a word, relentless.



Next up was Rat Attack. To be honest, I'd never heard of Rat Attack, but there was a lot of talk about them and their Merch Stand was pretty impressive; so I figured there could be something pretty cool about to happen. Pretty cool is, to be fair, an understatement. With a fresh blend of socially & politically fuelled rock/punk/alt/indie/metal and one of the sparkliest jacket I've ever seen, Rat Attack were quite simply f***ing amazing.



Napoleon, a name famous throughout history – usually for being a short angry French dude. I've heard of Napoleon the band too. There's a sticker of theirs on the lamp-post on my street, I see it every day. I hadn't however seen nor heard the band until tonight.

Napoleon are Brutal! Fast-paced, face-ripping, ass-kicking, ear-explodingly brutality. If anyone was capable of picking things up a notch, it was Napoleon. I was actually beginning to worry that by the time the head-liners took the stage, would the crowd have any energy left..?



Idiom are a fun band live. They really are. But they'll also kick your ass if you stop paying attention for a split-second. Idiom bring the party. They're about to take the party on the road with Skindred in December, so this was in a sense, a warm-up gig before the tour. I've seen these boys live a few times. Nothing I've ever seen them do before tonight was on a par with this show. Idiom did what all of the wind and rain couldn't do – they blew the roof off. If you've never seen Idiom live, and you're thinking of going to see the Skindred tour with them and Huron – go. You will not regret it. Some bands worry about how they look or if people will 'get it' and I know Exeter is their 'home-town' - but tonight, everyone in the building got it. The Experienced Idiom fan to the first-timer, the place was ablaze. From new to old, this was possibly their best set to date. From vocalist Matt Sharland's crowd surfing, the almost wall of death (there wasn't enough room – or it just didn't happen, it was hard to tell) and bassist Grant Knight's wandering around the venue playing – Idiom entertain and so do their fans.

The encore of 'Placebo' was always going to be a popular choice with the fans, but when Matt invited the crowd to join them onstage – well you knew there wasn't going to be enough room for the band. And there wasn't. I've never seen a gig end with the band and the crowd changing places, but everyone left out of there with a smile on their face and a memory of a mind blowing gig. Probably one of the best nights I've seen in a long time.

FUTURE GIGS

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