Live Review: Botch, Great Falls and Bad Breeding | The Marble Factory, Bristol | 21/03/2024
Original Metalcore and mathcore legends Botch grace the U.K. on their reunion/finale tour for the first of three nights in Bristol. Bringing along Seattle noise merchants Great Falls and Stevenage anarcho-punk quartet Bad Breeding as support.
Bad Breeding
Opening tonight’s show is Stevenage’s hardcore punk quartet Bad Breeding. Unfortunately only a sparse crowd have gathered to catch the (not so early) start time for tonight’s show, however those not in attendance are the ones missing out. Wasting very little time, Bad Breeding play a furious thirty-minute set of non-stop high velocity aggressive, noisy old school influenced hardcore anarcho-punk rock. Vocalist Chris Dodd stomps across the stage, commanding the larger space and bellowing out rabid spiteful vocals. For the most part, the band sound suitably monstrous, however the drums are lacking a bit of the oomph you would want in the vast warehouse space. The band tear through a career spanning setlist, including vicious new single ‘Survival’, putting on a showcase of everything Bad Breeding are about, politically charged high strung intensity. Before you know it their thirty minute set has flown by in a cathartic burst of UK punk fury.
Great Falls
The attendance is looking a lot healthier for Seattle’s Great Falls, underground veterans who dabble in aspects of noise-rock, hardcore, sludge, doom and experimental spaces. This marks the first time the trio have crossed the Atlantic to play to European and UK audiences in support of their newest album, 2023’s Objects Without Pain. Great Falls are joined onstage for the UK leg of the tour by guest vocalist Lilian Albazi, providing ethereal and ghostly manipulated vocals present on Objects Without Pain. Unfortunately though, things aren’t as smooth as they should be, the start of the set is delayed slightly by tech issues before the band launch into vicious one-two punch of album opener ‘Dragged Home Alive’ and following track ‘Trap Feeding’. On top of that mix issues hamper the set throughout, detracting from the oppressive atmospheres the band are conjuring, leaving them sounding a little too thin at times lacking the nauseating gut punch you’d expect from such a noisy project.
It’s not persistent throughout the entire set, when the band are firing on all cylinders they sound absolutely monolithic, caustic and wildly powerful. Yet by the time the twelve minute ‘Thrown Against the Waves’ comes to a close, it leaves the air sucked out of the room through overwhelming tension and sonic pummeling. Perhaps better suited for a slightly more claustrophobic environment instead of a vast warehouse, Great Falls were still a sight and sound to behold and an interesting precursor to tonight’s headliner.
Botch
Twenty four years. Generations of genres have passed since the last time Metalcore/Mathcore visionaries Botch last set foot on U.K. soil. Their legacy is well established pre and post Botch, inspiring countless waves of artists, remaining as relevant and innovative as they were on their initial run and helping to shape the metalcore and hardcore world as it stands to this day. Taking place halfway through the second EU leg of their reunion/finale tour, tonight is the first of three final U.K. shows, the only date not sold out (not that it’s far off). It doesn’t bother vocalist Dave Verellen all that much as he exclaims “wow, i wasn’t expecting so many people!” to the healthy and rabid crowd gathered in The Marble Factory.
Botch waste little time, violently launching straight into a triple helping from We Are The Romans, ‘Swimming the Channel Vs. Driving the Chunnel’ acts as a walkout theme before unleashing pure fury with the one-two punch of ‘To Our Friends In The Great White North’ and ‘Mondrian Was A Liar’. The crowd repay the favour, immediately falling into a maelstrom of movement, excising twenty years worth of anticipation over the course of a seventy-five minute window. Verellen is soaking in the chaos steadily unravelling before him, taking ample time to joke with the audience between songs. “Who saw us twenty years ago?” He asks to a healthy cluster of cheers, responding in kind with “So how are your kids doing?”
The setlist is a fine tuned balance between Botch’s two studio albums, American Nervosa and We Are The Romans, alongside their farewell EP An Anthology Of Dead Ends. The first cut of the night from their legendary debut, ‘John Woo’ hits like a freight train, the dissonant angular chimes of Dave Knudson’s guitar over the breakdown causing riotous syncopated fist pumping. An Anthology Of Dead Ends gets its turn next, the multi-decade enduring hook of “Spaim” making a fine introduction as the band power through ‘Japam’ and ‘Framce’ back to back. The crowd are lapping it up, whether project their catharsis out in the manic state of the pit, singing along or punching the air from the fringes, it’s clear as day how important Botch have been to so many people.
The pacing is spot on; ‘Oma’ lands at the perfect time, the unhinged two-minute burst ringing out as drummer Tim Latona casually spins on his drum throne and plays the extended piano outro, allowing the crowd a well needed reprieve. ‘Thank God For Worker Bees’ rustles a thick tension with its lo-fi intro, waiting for the spark that is bassist Brian Cook’s rumbling low end presence to set the passionate room ablaze once again. The crowd are loving every second, even the 2022 reunion single ‘One Twenty Two’ garners a passionate response from the audience. The main set is swiftly coming to a close, the sharpened nod of ‘Vietmam’ gives way to the atmospheric torture of ‘Transitions From Persona To Object’. Verellen takes another moment to joke with the crowd: “so after this song we’re gonna disappear for a few minutes then come back… give us a break we’re old now”, as American Nervoso’s opening track ‘Hutton’s Great Heat Engine’ brings the main set to a close in grand fashion.
They start their encore with the welcome surprise of the more relaxed and ambient ‘Afghamistam’, one of the few tranquil crowd moments of the evening. It’s a full circle feeling moment, representing the spaces Cook and Knudson would explore with their future projects. There is only so much time left and there is a sense of urgency in the room as the feeling of finality looms over the audience. Breaking the tension, ‘C. Thomas Howell as ‘The Soul Man’’ is wildly destructive as it slowly unravels towards the bridge and re-inflates over its run time. There is no more fitting set closer than “Saint Matthew Returns To The Womb”. The snappy angular jerk of the main riff tempts the pit to bubble over one final time, the dissonance driving them insane until finally breaking into a final burst of uncontrollable energy.
Transitioning into one final moment, teasing the outtro of ‘Hives’ before walking offstage in Bristol for the final time; Botch have been on phenomenal form this evening. Sounding better than album quality, tonally taking advantage of modern gear to bring their sound to greater heights and playing in as tight of a unit that you’d be forgiven in thinking it was 2002 again. It is easy to see why this legendary aura surrounds them; this same lightning in a bottle mathcore innovator energy hasn’t been felt since the final tour of The Dillinger Escape Plan (who, strangely enough, were their touring bedfellows the last time they set foot in the U.K. all those years ago). The feeling of finality is palpable, everyone in that venue is well aware of the moment in time they just finished experiencing, never to be repeated again. Botch were well established before these final dates to be legends in their own right and there is no doubt that label will persist for anyone bearing witness one final time.
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The Marble Factory