The rain is the reason I first saw Feed The Rhino.
If it hadn’t been coming down heavy enough to make Ark building seem a worthwhile profession I’d have probably stayed stood in the shin deep mud at Leeds Festival in 2013 and watched a couple of main stage safe bets.
But instead the near horizontal downpour drove me and regular gig-going friend Tony into one of the tents just in time to witness half an hour of full-on metal fury.
And the opportunity arose to revisit said furiosity when Feed The Rhino played at Sound Control in Manchester with Baby Godzilla (didn’t see enough) and Night Verses (odd but not unpleasantly so).
They were just as committedly balls-out and honest as they had been at Leeds and it was great to see a band putting so much into their performance which, to be fair, is a characteristic of metal that makes it so appealing.
I’m not massively enamoured with pointless soloing, but juggernaut riffs, howling vocalists, a hammering rhythm section and a frenzied crowd make £8 for a three-band line-up the best value in town.
It might not be to everyone’s taste, but are those whose tastebuds it really tickles being shortchanged by its lack of mainstream availability?
Every now and again some rock titan will get an airing on Later but otherwise, as a genre, it might as well not exist as far as the main channels are concerned.
Watching re-runs of the fabulous Tony Wilson-fronted So It Goes on Sky Arts you can see just how exciting early punk gigs were, and if I was in my early teens again I’d want to be part of it.
Same would apply if some terrestrial broadcaster would take a chance on a half-hour weekly rock/metal show. If they had shown footage from this gig I guarantee it would have opened the eyes and ears of a few youngsters just looking for something loud, noisy and utterly rebellious to get involved with.
The beard and tattoos would just have to wait a year or two, though.
See you down the front 