Review by Hugh Spence for MPM
Every once in a while you sleep on a band, or maybe it’s just me, I remember hearing of Skindred when they first came out, I remember reading about them in Kerrang and then seeing them on Scuzz but I never gave them a proper chance and after the belter of a performance they put on I am really kicking myself, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a band with such life, energy and just bring the party to the fans.
So anyway, it’s a chilly Saturday night as the crowd gather at the Telegraph Building and queue around the corner long before the bands start. The first band for myself is Alien Ant Farm, the pop punk band formed in 1996 but really hit it big with ANThology in 2001, so its 25 years since it was released, the perfect opportunity to hear the classics again. As far as nostalgia goes its been a great week on the emerald isle with Korn and Papa Roach playing earlier in the week.
Dryden hits the stage with the band and straight away in to “Courage” from ANThology followed by “Wish”, so straight off the bat its classics and then into “Wrong Things” from 2024’s “mAntras”. Although the band were trying their best to get the crowd going, the gig took a little while to find its groove, with the opening tracks occasionally feeling like the band were trying to hard to recapture their younger selves but as the band played on the awkwardness faded and when they played “Movies” the atmosphere really changed and its a great sing a long.
Dryden then gives us a short speech about MTV and how they used to actually play music videos, so it was a great way to introduce “These Days” from 2003’s “truANT”, the nostalgia is just wonderful.
The band bring it back to more newer songs with “Last dAntz” and “Storms Over” while the energised audience enjoy every moment of it. The band walk off the stage while we get a sound clip of various media outlets talking about Alien Ant Farm’s cover of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”, so its clearly a build up to the song that probably most people in the crowd want to hear.
So yes, Smooth Criminal is understandably the last song for the night from Alien Ant Farm and one that gets the whole building jumping. The performance overall was very enjoyable, it took a little while to get going but it was fantastic once the band found their groove in their 40 minute set.
Its nearly a 30 minute change over as the crowd grows larger and larger but we do get some great tunes pumped through the PA with a nice sing a long to Queen before the lights dim and “Thunderstruck” is blared through the speakers and finally the Star Wars theme, drummer Arya gets behind his kit, guitarist Mikey walks out while pumping his fist in time with the music before bassist Tommy Gleeson joins them on stage. Frontman Benji joins then walks out to huge cheers while kitted out in his bling and then jumping straight into “My People” from their latest album “You Got This” and by the end of the night no one will ever forget the name of the album. Benji instantly commands the stage and has the crowd jumping, singing and just eating out of the palm of his hand. This is quickly followed up by “Set Fazers” from 2023’s “Smile”, Benji’s energy is contagious and spreads through the venue, its rare to get a frontman with such charisma and humour that he can instantly control the crowd.
We the get some vocal training from Benji to get us ready for “Ratrace from 2008’s “Roots Rock Riot”, but about 10 seconds after the song actually kicks off Benji calls a halt to proceedings as he has to give out to the “wankers” just standing there and not moving, “at least act like you want to be here” yells Benji, much to the amusement of the audience, its just another clever way in which Benji can control the audience and get them to dance even more. We’re now back to You Got this for “This Is The Sound” another catchy new song that has every one bouncing with hands in the air.
We are then transported back in time with Pressure from 2004’s “Babylon”, a classic that the audience welcome with open arms, they even manage sneak AC/DC’s Back in Black into the middle of the song along with another AC/DC riff towards the end of the song, in fact, throughout the entire set tonight Skindred are constantly sneaking snippets from other songs and artists into their songs, most to my liking, one not to my liking (Oasis), its a real celebration of music but more importantly a celebration of Skindred.
Benji then splits the crowd into “whoop whoop” and “thats my jam” so get the Skindred Belfast Choir ready for the next song “Thats my Jam”, the whole band look to be having as much fun as the crowd as the entire sea of people from front to back and left to right all waving their arms in the air along with Benji.
For the next song Benji comes down to the crowd while also introducing the band, well, kind of. Benji strongly encourages audience participation as they are recording a video for this song, its “Big em Up” from You Got This, I love that every time Benji says “You Got This” he makes the audience say it too, good marketing.
Next up is just some down right good fun, as Benji does his Max Cavelera impersonation while playing Masters of Puppets and then moving onto to “Turn Around” by Bonnie Tyler as Benji proudly brings out the Welsh flag, after a mix of Papa Roach, Van Halen and House of Pain the atmosphere is electric and everyone is smiling, just an overall great feeling.
Its back to business with “You Got This” from the new album followed by a bass solo of sorts as Tommy plays a variety of classic tunes before Benji comes back out to remind us that times can be tough and we have to struggle through, no matter how hard you work you haven’t got a penny to spend, the perfect introduction to “Broke” from You Got This, a melodic acoustic song we can all sing along with.
The tempo is brought back up by “Kill the Power” from the 2014 album of the same name, once again it has the crowd jumping with hands in the air before being brought down again by the fun “Can I Get A”, a song that wouldn’t be out of place in the early 2000’s skate scene. Its a catchy easy going song with a hypnotic chorus, an easy number to have the crowd dancing instead of moshing.
Benji gets everyone’s fists in the air for “Nobody”, another classic from Babylon, it would be a great way to the end the set but a better way is playing another 2 songs in an encore. After “Nobody” Benji is presented with a big bouquet of flowers which he throws out to the audience while dancing around the stage before walking off.
The band come back out after a short break to huge cheers, after a short build up we are smacked with “Gimme The Boom” from Smile, much to the delight to the whole audience who are bouncing, moshing, jumping and singing, during the song Benji give the band proper introductions.
We have one song left and Benji commands the audience to go down on their knees, which at my age isn’t the isnt thing to do anymore, unfortunately while most of the crowd are on their knees, Benji spotted someone in the audience that needed medical attention, the band walk off stage as a stage hand tells the crowd the situation and just ot bare with them. After a few minutes the person gets carried out and is ok, so the band come out on stage but with no time to get the audience back down on their knees due to curfew the band just go straight into “Warning” to finish off a fantastic nights entertainment, I haven’t been this blown away by a performance in a long time.
After the gig the crowd leave fully satisfied and if you want to be fully satisfied you should catch Skindred playing Glasgow on November 13th and 14th as its their last dates of the year. To be honest I have left a lot out of this review because if I was to go into every detail of their perfectly put together set and performance I’d be here all day. They had a 90 minute set and it was 90 minutes of pure delight. Next time they are back in Ireland I will be front and centre.
Photography by Darren Mcveigh for MPM
