Swaggering on stage to the blaring sounds of ‘Invasion of the tribbles’ by that old punk rock rabble Hot Nasties, Palma Violets are met by a crowd enthused with the energy of some sort of coke driven euphoria. And following the warm up heckles of merch guy, crowd worker and all round nutter – Harry Violent, the band blast right into a brilliant set of gritty, dirty, old school punk rock.
Guitars explode, drums rattle and the crowd loses it (including myself and my posse). It’s unusual to see a mosh pit at an indie band, but when it happens it’s a beautiful thing.
Palma Violets were so mental on stage we couldn’t get a good shot!
Front man Chilli staggers around the stage like a man possessed, accompanied by lead guitarist and fellow vocalist, Sam Fryer who stands with shades donned, cool and comprised, breaking calm now and then to go crazy with Chilli for a bit before he has to return to the mic. Theres a great synergy between the two lads on stage and the crowd seemed to really go for it.
In fact, the band was so mobile it was virtually impossible for us to get a good picture of them doing their thing.
Chilli and Harry Violent hug after the encore, how sweet.
‘Best of Friends’ was the best song of the night by far. Explosive energy, bellowing vocals and all round low-fi grit left me feeling like I was in some dirty, back alley punk club in the late 70’s (In a really good way of course). A personal highlight for me would have to be screaming the chorus for the song along with Harry Violent in the midst of the mosh pit, skinny-jeaned teens flailing all around us like a Topman-tornado.
