I’d been waiting for this day for ages as I hadn’t seen Assert for years and Rotunda I hadn’t seen since last christmas in Birmingham! I was also looking forward to seeing Tomorrow Burns once again! It was a shame the Leech Bleeders were ill as I hadn’t seen them in a while either!
Despite the turn out not being at its best there were lots of people I don’t see so often like Paul from Wolverhampton for one! It was great catching up with everyone despite having a sore throat!
Come 8pm it was time for Tomorrow Burns to hit the stage!
If you’re into hardcore with a more punk influence then Tomorrow Burns are a band that you should seriously be checking out! For fans of Conflict, Discharge and early Subhumans!
Kicking off the set with the intro No Future Dave Jones and co delivered a strong sixteen track set with numbers Disorder, Taste The Poison, Politicians and the closing track Guns And Knives!
The crowd were lapping up this excellent set and I’m not surprised!
A wicked opening band!
Having had more chats with Marco Ren (We both love to talk people’s ears off) it was time to catch up with Rotunda. I’d never seen this band before until Xmas 25! I really don’t know why but I wasn’t passing up the chance to miss this gig at any cost!
Rotunda play hard edged punk with singalong choruses!
Top Stuff!
Last night Rotunda weren’t messing around!
Diving straight into Neutron Bomb there was no let up whatsoever. The band were tearing through their set like their lives depended on it and the audience were won over!
Their set list consisted of Sirens, War Is Coming, Punk Rock Casualty, Above the Door and Ten Years On before closing with Good Vibes!
Banging set!
When Britt told me he was going to emulate the NYHC sound back in the day I thought he was off his head! UK bands had tried and failed to do just that!
We’d been to see Telford United play and Britt popped into my flat flicking through the Agnostic Front records in my collection and we talked about him forming a band again!
Later on he played me the first demo and I knew then Assert had something going and by the time they released the Assert Yourself EP I was won over!
Assert had done what so many had failed to do!
Not only did Asssert manage to emulate the NYHC sound they had also put their own stamp on their sound too!
Roll on years later to 2026 Engineer Records sent me their comeback album The Great Resist! This is a monster of an album and really does need to be heard – You can see my review HERE!
With Britt having major surgery I was wondering if Assert still had it in them to play their own brand of HC with such intensity as they had done in the past! We’d all gotten older and with my own health issues I know I’d slowed down!
I didn’t have to wait long to find out and as soon as Assert hit the stage they were taking no prisoners with their intense HC sound. The only difference between the old days and present is Britt smiles a bit more these days!
In fact I’d go as far to say Assert were fucking brilliant and there was no compromise whatsoever. Britt’s vocal delivery to Ryan’s guitar work coupled with a fantastic bassist and drum work from Spen I can say I was in heaven!
As I snapped away taking photos my foot was tapping and I just wanted to dance my ass off until I remembered I was holding £1800 worth of camera equipment!
Kicking off with The Great Resist there was no let up with only pop samples inbetween the songs such as Lean On Me, You Set Me On Fire, Violently Blue, Dilute To Taste, Drug Song and many more before closing with Revolution.
I was exhausted just watching Assert – God knows how they felt!
Everyone loved what they saw / heard!
Assert are back – No Compromise!
Tonight was as ferocious as a nuclear blast!
Future dates coming up!
Words / Photos – Kathleen Riot!
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