Altered Beast presents NOXSHI and support - 229 Club, 28^th July 2009.

Variety is the spice of life, so somebody important once said. And it's important to bear in mind that, while at an outside glance we at Toxin appear to be interested solely in rave music and electronic beats, our tastes are actually wildly divergent. Words: Will Jobbins
Pics: Aminah Islam
and Stella Arsenis

The single recurring common theme runs along the lines of originality. We like anything that's a bit different; a truly original idea conceived and followed through to conclusion without compromise by dedicated, switched-on and often slightly mad staff. And at the Altered Beast event on the 28^th July at the 229 Club near Regent's Park, that's precisely what happened.

After descending into the subterranean venue and being relieved of an entirely reasonable £5 entry fee (which we could have avoided if we wore fancy dress, but unfortunately my gorilla suit is still being held by the Met as evidence) we made it into the main room itself which had been laid out beautifully with sumptuous décor and an enormous oscillating psychedelic light show. The 229 is located almost directly under the Foreign Student's House and so, as you'd expect, the clientele was young and hip. Many took advantage of the free face painting and their faces glowed in lurid colours under the blacklights, contributing further to a slightly surreal atmosphere.

But if I thought it was surreal then, it was about to go more wildly leftfield than I could possibly imagine. We'd missed the first band, the Vaseline Groovies, but the second band - called The Hungry Grass - took the stage and immediately launched into the first song, playing very bouncy Irish folk music via guitar, fiddle and bhodran! As I've said elsewhere in the pages of Toxin, you can listen to music that doesn't particularly flick your switch and still thoroughly appreciate a talented musician and tight band. And as it happened, the Grass were getting people moving. But before long their time was up and they made way, in front of a now swelling crowd, for the Church Of The Drive Thru Elvis...

These guys hit the crowd hard with a sound reminiscent of classic rock n' roll, but with increased tempo and a lot of energy. Classic '50s rock riffs were given the impact of sledgehammers with liberal amounts of distortion and the tempos were snappy and upbeat. After the best part of a very bouncy hour, the focus shifted back to the DJ - aka Tommy of Broken Note fame - who kept the crowd moving with some extremely dark, glitchy dubstep which contrasted sharply with the live bands up onstage.

When NOXSHI launched, by heck they launched! Waves of tight, technical metal with more than a hint of psychedelia shook the crowd who were, by this point, going mad. It would be unfair to directly compare NOXSHI to Tool, but they were certainly more similar to them than anyone else I could think of - intelligent, progressive rock music demonstrated with great skill, with echoes of straight-up 1960s Californian psychedelia but with a heavy, cerebral edge. Bodypainted and costumed dancers writhed More info on the headliners at
www.myspace.com/noxshimusicthrough the moshing crowd, making for a very tightly packed floor - and a formidable, almost hallucinogenic treat for the senses...


A top night indeed with a wide variety of music, great set up and a friendly crowd. We'll keep you updated when the next one comes up.