Boysetsfire Live at Islington Academy London Review, 27th June 2011

Boysetsfire are a band who were pioneers with their post-rock/post-hardcore sound when they first hit the airwaves over a decade ago with their breakthrough album After The Eulogy. Pretty much every single screamo or hardcore band from then on as well as bands such as Enter Shikari will have been influenced directly or indirectly by the fierceness and rawness of Boysetsfire and the way their songs were crafted, though I doubt many of the bands they influenced had such a political theme to their material or running through the band as BSF. From that point of view they were more kindred spirits of Rage Against The Machine than some of their peers at the time (the likes of Thursday or At The Drive In).

The news that Boysetsfire had reformed in late 2010 after a five year breakup was a welcome development that was disappointingly under publicised in many areas of the rock, metal and alternative music press, at least in the UK. I think I found out from reading it on a Twitter account. So too was the fact that they had decided to embark on a European tour this summer, including three dates in the UK; I found out the show at Islington Academy (ICA) was happening by complete accident when browsing a ticket website. I had never been a hardcore BSF fan, to the point where I only owned one album (After The Eulogy) and a couple of random songs, but this seemed like it could be something of a special event, so off I went.

Nevertheless, as the day of the show was reached I expected a healthy crowd to be in attendance for Boysetsfire's London return. When I entered the venue, I could count the amount of people in there on my fingers and toes, and immediately thought that this was going to be a disaster (audience wise). Things hadn't improved much by the time of the opening band, as Dangerous, who had come all the way from Adelaide in Australia played their half hour set to somewhere between 40 and 50 people. Dangerous had a lot of energy and enthusiasm but unfortunately the quality of their music did not match their boundless energy, particularly on a couple of songs where the main riff sounded like it had been removed from the draw entitled "Lostprophets unused B-side riffs". Screamo fans may enjoy them but I couldn't find anything to differentiate them from many other similar bands. A score of 4 for the music and 7 for the effort in that they never stopped being high energy and enthusiastic despite playing to effectively an empty room.

Dangerous: Packed capacity crowd

By the time came for main support Antillectual from Holland, the crowd was approaching three figures, then all of a sudden something in the region of 300 people turned up in the space of five minutes, I s**t you not. I know often Londoners turn up slightly late to shows but I've never seen it happen en mass like that before. As a result the Dutch three piece post rock (though it is hard to put a label on them) outfit got a very warm reception which their music thoroughly deserved. Swerving between good melodies and speedy tracks with a distinctive punk feel, the crowd was fully onside with them from the word go. All three members of the band contributed vocals at different times, sometimes all three singing together which made for very interesting vocal dynamics which worked well. The band seemed flattered almost to the point of being embarrased by their good reception, but continued to crank out some high quality music for the duration of their 40 minute set, drummer Riekus Van Montfort in particular was relentless and though not a typical metal drummer has got to be one of the best live drummers I've seen in the last few years. A thoroughly enjoyable unexpected surprise, I recommend everyone check out Antillectual. 7.5

Antillectual: Very pleasant surprise

Time for the main event in a venue that was now very much the opposite of empty and the atmosphere built and built until the point where the lights went down and Boysetsfire returned to the London stage. Within seconds of the initial thunderous roar that greeted them, the band incited pure chaos throughout the front half of the ICA with a furious opening rendition of release the dogs - the front half of the building was suddenly a big moshpit with flailing limbs and bodies all over the place. The relentless pitting continued for the next few songs without let up as people were literally tearing each other apart, only to hug and high five at the conclusion of each track. Singer Nathan Gray didn't talk much, but then he didn't need to as a) he admitted he wasn't much of a talker and b) this was a night where the band could really let the music do the talking for them.

The evening continued much in this vein with the crowd reaction getting louder and fiercer with every song. I've rarely heard such a heartfelt singalong from a crowd as the one on Empire, in direct contrast with the way people seemed intent on killing themselves during Twelve Step Hammer Program, only to launch back into epic singalong mode for my personal favourite The Misery Index amongst the many highlights of the night.

Boysetsfire pits: Caught In A Mosh

The last twenty minutes or so of the show took it to another level and even a slip by the soundman (who the band had apparently given a wrongly ordered setlist to) didnt dent things one bit as a stunning rendition of My Life In The Knife Trade sparked another massive singalong before After The Eulogy incited the most insane moshpits of the night, with the pit opening to newly sized proportions and participants flying into innocent bystanders all over the place. I disappeared into the Islington night as the last strains of traditional closer and fan favourite Rookie were coming off the speakers safe in the knowledge I had witnessed one of the all time great comeback performances. 9.5

Performances like this are few and far between, as are crowd reactions of this nature. The reaction tonight was one that was greeting returning heroes and long lost friends all in one, which is wholly appropriate as no-one ever thought Boysetsfire would step foot into the UK as a band again after the band called it quits five years ago. The audience and band had something of a simbiotic relationship, each would feed off the other driving both on to higher levels of performance and appreciation. I think the whole evening can be summed up by a girl I saw early on in the evening, as she was one of the hardy few there from the start. She had come by herself and didn't seem to speak to anyone, but from the time Boysetsfire were on stage she just had a huge smile, which got bigger the longer they played and lasted through the whole set. The hardcore fans had a triumphant return from their heroes, and slightly more casual observers like myself were wholly won over with a stunning performance, one of the very best I've seen in that venue where I have racked up a lot of gigs over the years. I cannot remember being so pleasantly surprised by a show (though that is not strong enough language, as I'm still buzzing about it as I write this two days later). Boysetsfire are back with a bang that would make an explosion look small. Lets just hope they stick around for repeats of events such as this.