Serving up tasty riffs

His Ex Capulet, Revelations and Kerplunk, are some of the freshest bands off the circuit, so a crowd as big as this at the Donut’s Play Live event was a surprise.

With a shuffled and replenished line up, His Ex Capulet opened with their own Fox In The Attic and proved to be a satisfying starter for the night, with synth defining their overall sound and frontman Ollie’s harsh vocals dominating the stage, the lads were impressive… enigmatic, but impressive all the same.

It was inevitable their cover of Enter Shikari’s, ‘Sorry You’re Not a Winner’ went down a treat, there was just enough balance of originality without stealing the song completely away. Bands like Enter Shikari and Woe, Is Me as their main distinguished influences – a delightful set of fist pumping and stage storming.

For the main course, new boys Revelations hit the mark, vocalist Brad has some pretty decent pipes and great range.

Revelations started as the teeny boppers of the night and then grew into a force to be reckoned with, their own ‘Reminscence’ and ‘Final Call’ proving creative. They even had the nerve to take over Demoraliser’s ‘Checkmate’ - a brave move.

Of course there were nerves, but given it was their debut and collectively the average age was around 15/16 years old, the band held their own and produced a sound brutal enough for a brawl – shredding their way to debut gig history.

Finally, our guys Kerplunk electrified the stage with their punk rock anthems. The Derbyshire Times’ Band Of The Year winners proved why they are worthy of the title and roused a pit at every riff.

The gritty and rough, slightly awkwardly melodic songs went down a treat, making Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ completely their own. The set was a scorcher, after overcoming the minor tiff when front man Owen nearly took out guitarist Hope, the band threw mass anarchism and attitude a plenty. Brilliant.

Sian Hodkin