While every weekend at The Vault in St Peter Port is a busy one, it definitely seemed like Friday 17th and Saturday 18th May were that bit busier than usual as, following the return of their early evening, post work session, featuring Callum Aitken, The Shabs took to the stage on Friday followed by Hollow Youth and Bloomfield on the Saturday.
The Shabs – 17/05/24
Before The Shabs took to the stage their frontman, Jon Shaban, began proceedings with a set of his solo material.
Having seen him play solo a few times now his performance was as good natured and relaxed as ever but it was clear he had more of a focus on his solo songs, which showed a more personal edge and nice contrast to the songs written for the band.
While the audience may only have been relatively small they were appreciative and Jon didn’t just play at them but to them, aided no doubt by several being close friends, but he brought everyone along for the ride while also throwing in a 60s, Simon & Garfunkel, style cover of Green Day’s Basket Case and his take on Frank Turner’s Dan’s Song (tonight retitled Ryan’s Song after Shabs bass player Ryan McArthur).
After a short break Jon returned to the stage along with Ryan as, going by their description, the original core line up of The Shabs who formed in South Africa more than a decade ago.
With some of the songs being familiar from Jon’s past solo sets and others new (or the best part of new) to me, they brought a great energy for a two piece of guitar and bass while Ryan’s more exuberant energy played as a great contrast to Jon’s.
Just the addition of bass and backing vocals really brought out the folk punk side of their songs with a catchiness and instant singalong quality that was hard to resist with highlights coming in the form of Settle Down, Quit Your Job and We’re Not Going Home, before a rousing rendition of Against Me’s classic Sink, Florida, Sink (which came with a shout of ‘trans rights’ from Ryan), all of which made for a great set and whet appetites for the full band appearing at Chaos in a few weeks time.
Hollow Youth and Bloomfield – 18/05/24
Twenty four hours later, and The Vault was set up for something rather louder as Hollow Youth took to the stage for the first time in a few months and wasted no time blasting their take on vintage metalcore as an intro tape of a distorted take on the US National anthem merged flawlessly into opener Dog Complex from their debut EP, The Darkest Times.
Throughout the set the band used a series of audio clips and intro tapes to tie the songs together and, I have to say, this is probably the most effective use I’ve seen if this kind of approach in Guernsey.
As he always is, frontman Tom ‘Shinfo’ Domaille was a powerhouse both vocally and in grabbing the crowd’s attention, which ensured the whole thing didn’t get lost in the backing tracks and the kind of over thinking that can lead band’s to becoming too focussed on the tech at the expense of the performance.
Meanwhile it was clear the rest of the band were having a great time on stage and played with more energy than ever, as Scott Angus provided the first of the night’s two masterclass performances on the drums.
Across the set the band mixed tracks from their debut EP with newer material spanning brutally thrashing hardcore to singalong highs like on Demons before heading into even heavier territory for the final three songs which, at moments, brought to mind Californian doom-mongers High On Fire.
New and penultimate number, Slow Death, saw the band find a real crushing groove with what is possibly their best song yet, before The Darkest Times brought the set, that was their best set yet, to a close on a genuine high.
With Hollow Youth having set the bar high Bloomfield had their work cut out and, for their first couple of songs, it felt like might fall at the first hurdle – though I have to admit that was more to do with where I was stood than with the band as their lack of onstage sound meant that standing right in front of the stage meant virtually all I could hear were Toby Beasley’s drums.
Moving nearer one of the PA speakers by third track (and personal favourite) Backbite things we’re back on a more even keel, sonically, and really things never looked back from there and the four-piece went on to deliver a standout performance.
Mixing older favourites from their A Long Wait For Nothing and Pressures EPs, such as MD-36, 2 Months and Flowerbed with a wealth of brand new material they got singalongs going for Clay and Eulogy while showing a drive to try new things and push the boundaries of their chosen, ‘pop-punk’ flavoured, style and, while all this boundary pushing might not have entirely hit the mark, it was great to see them trying new things.
Francesco Rega continued to demonstrate his growth as a frontman as Toby Beasley (drums) and Charlie Spicer (bass) provided the on stage energy both musically and otherwise, while guitarist and newest member Ollie Thomas showed off a terrific skill on his chosen instrument, though maybe wasn’t the most captivating on stage.
It was the final track of their main set, Threads, that provided my highlight of Bloomfield’s set (despite the title bringing to mind that horrific, post-nuclear war, Sheffield traffic warden) while an encore that saw Hollow Youth’s Shinfo join them for a short sharp shock of a song (that I can’t say I recognised but went down a storm), brought the whole weekend of music to a rousing climax.
Tommy Girard 