Slam Dunk Festival North 2022: Review
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Rich Price
With the news coming up from Hadfield that the previous day’s Southern version had been a rousing success – and that the Leeds weather was promising to be warm and dry – appetites were truly whetted for a Bank Holiday Sunday spent with close to sixty of your favourite bands.
Banners on the website have been telling us today was a Sold Out show and there’s a whole horde of people gathered outside the gates long before the advertised opening time. Doing some people watching, and based on T-shirt evidence alone, I’m trying to gauge who the big draws are for the day.
Obviously, we’re looking to The Offspring, Enter Shikari and Malevolence as dominating the worn merchandise, but there’re fair shouts for Bowling For Soup, Less Than Jake and Creeper running them close. I’m in a Graspop Metal Meeting 2010 shirt, keeping it inscrutable and unbiased; but, when putting it in the wash basket later, I noted Billy Talent played in Belgium that year – so much for my intended Swiss neutrality.
With the sun barely over the yard arm the live music begins with The Tyne taking to the Key Club Right stage in front of a steadily growing group. Having Beastie Boys’ Fight for You Right as your intro tape is a bold opening gambit but the band swayed folks to their cause by playing some energetic pop punk and though the sound was a little muddy it didn’t distract from the overall enjoyment. Youth Fountain get the ball rolling on the Left stage with their exuberant take on emotional charged pop punk.
Girlfriends seem to be enjoying their first UK shows; Emarosa appear to be having a blast and LØLØ take to doing a cover of Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody which gets even the passers by singing and is a mighty fine version in its own right. Inventor of the Bimbocore sub-genre, Scene Queen, mix up the sound with a bit of rapping, whereas Greyscale are playing it laid-back and smooth. Rising US artist, Charlotte Sands has her front row bouncing with some aggressive post pop, built on a foundation of funky bass and noodling guitars.
Sincere Engineer open proceedings in the Kerrang Tent and are welcomed by a big shout from the crowd. The band return the favour by serving up a host of catchy tunes, anchored by a big bass-sound and unstinting on the raw vocals. Somewhat akin to Green Day at times, Sincere Engineer seem truly shocked by the reaction they get. At the opposite end of the Kerrang Tent, on the Left stage come Destroy Boys who just get on with the task of playing some good old fashioned traditional punk rock. Hawthorne Heights are bossing it and the tent is so rammed that it must be twenty deep just to watch from the outside. With the Whitney cover wafting down from the Key Club, it’s difficult to get a full handle on what the Ohioans sound like. But, those who’ve managed to get in seem to be having a whale of a time; there’re arms and voices raised so, using the balance of probabilities, I’m willing to accept it’s a rousing success. Fireworks don’t let the impossibly long time since the last record hold them back and have something of a Coldplay flavour to them at times. Australian metallic hardcore outfit, Trophy Eyes, deliver a heap of rousing riffs that defy you not to have a good time and Real Friends goad the Slam Dunk North crowd by suggesting yesterday, at Hadfield – so the South – was a better response. Luckily, they got away with it, but the song Six Feet could have been prophetic. Blackpool’s Boston Manor open with the one-two of Carbon Mono and Desperate Pleasures, dispelling any notion the band is not a brazen rock act.
Sadly, due to conflicts and the sheer amount of people making the most of this line-up, movement around the Temple Newsam site became much more difficult and I was faced with the decision of who to cover. This means my coverage of both the Key Club and Kerrang stages finishes here; I was looking forward particularly to seeing Four Year Strong, Maggie Lindemann and Creeper but it just wasn’t to be this year.
But check back tomorrow for more of our review from the other stages!
All photo credits: Rich Price Photography.
