LIVE: Trash Talk, Astroid Boys @ Green Door Store, Brighton [10/07/2013]

By Chris Marshman

Trash Talk’s reputation for getting a bad name at venues isn’t exactly anything new, but still it continues to carry on. After the drama with bouncers and thrown punches at their Brighton visits over the past few years, tonight they find themselves pulling up to a comparatively smaller venue, one that was always going to sell out and is already busy with people awaiting their music.

The first and only support tonight might come as an eye-brow-raiser for some – welsh hip-hop infused hardcore might not be the most obvious billing. Once they get going though, they do pack a considerable punch, and despite the fact they may not have won over all of the doubters in the room tonight, it’s enough to get a sizeable chunk of the crowd stomping back and forth to their two-step driven beats.

When Trash Talk arrive for their set, the room immediately goes off as expected. There are bodies hurling themselves from stage monitors, PA speakers, or any inch of high ground they can find. “Last time we were in Brighton it was pretty whack, so let’s make up for it” instructs long-haired lead singer Lee Spielman. Later, he drops the always awkward clanger of addressing a Brighton crowd as Bristol. Twice. At other shows, this sort of conduct would be met with vehement disdain and a round of boo-ing. Tonight however, everyone is on a friendly vibe and it’s quickly shrugged off by all. He goes on to spend the majority of their set either on top of the crowd, running through it, or staring it down from the stage.

New drummer and ex-Mars Volta sticksman Thomas Pridgen seems right at home with the rest of the band, pushing them further than before and fleshing out drum parts in songs like ‘Destroy’. Meanwhile, mayhem continues when one stage diver leaps from the speakers and dangles from the green beams that hold the building together. Smashing through tracks like ‘Envy’ and ‘Walking Disease’ with the same fury and quick succession that they’ve penned in the past, Trash Talk rip their way through a set that doesn’t neglect the older favourites as well as featuring killer new tracks from last year’s ‘119’ release. A steel ladder appears on stage before someone swiftly launches themselves from it, and later during a high point in their set, ‘Sacremento Is Dead’, an innocent light fitting is yanked to the floor by a falling body.

A lack of security certainly made for smoother proceedings this evening and alongside all the cumbersome acrobatics, the Sacramento punks showed they are still hitting just as hard as they were when they began to break the UK a handful of years ago.

JAMES FOX