Live Review: Soil - Nottingham
10th November 2024
Support: hed(PE), Nonpoint, The Union Underground
Words & Photos: Tom Atkin
Another lovely throw back gig tonight at Nottingham’s Rock City. What can be said about this line up? It is such a great 2000’s group of bands, and with three support scts before Soil. It is a busy one!
Doors opened at 5.30, and there was a flood of people waiting to get in, I think that’s down to the fact that all four of these bands have been around for a fair while and all have their own popularity that follows along.
Starting tonights nostalgia trip is Texas nu-metalers, The Union Underground. The band that has released one album, gone on a hiatus, then reformed with some new members, and still they have pulled a great crowd of passionate fans.
Having never seen them perform before, I was not sure on how they were going to be, And in my opinion, they sounded pretty flawless. Considering this is not the original line up, you would not think that with the way they are on stage. They looked to be loving performing just as much as the crowd are loving seeing them live again. I am sure that these will back over on UK soil at some point soon, and I will definitely be attending another of their shows!
Coming in only fifteen minutes later, we have the high energy Nonpoint. By high energy, I mean very bloody high. We were treated to thirty minutes of just absolutely non stop nu-metal greatness.
With an extensive back catalogue of ten albums means that have a bit more to choose from than tonights openers. Playing songs from their debut album 'Statement' all the way up to 2018’s 'X'. Nonpoint hasn’t really changed their style much over the years, and there is a reason behind this, they don’t need to. They are absolutely astounding. Some could say that nu-metal is dead, but if that was so, this would not sound as great as it does, and this crowd don’t appear to be here just for the nostalgia purposes.
Overall, an amazing performance from a band that I hope are back more often!
Once again we get another short break before the legendary (hed)PE grace us with their presence. I find it hard to believe that these guys have been going now for thirty years! Another band that has an extensive amount of albums to pick from for their set.
Throwing the amazing 'Rat Race' in as the second song of their set was a beautiful choice, introducing anyone that has not heard of them to their unique twist of the nu metal genre. Strangely they did miss arguably their most famous song 'Blackout'off the set list; from what I saw, they were due to play it, but seems they were not able to. However, every single song they did perform was played absolutely perfectly!
The crowd lapping it all up and going absolutely crazy to most of it; 'Sophia' and 'Smoke Two Joints' a cover of The Toyes) are not really go crazy songs! We did get treated to 'Bartender' though, which considering they wrote this back in 2000 still sounds just as amazing!
Finally, the mighty Soil. Lord only knows when I last saw these guys. Formed in 1997, and still featuring three out of the four original members, they have been around the scene for a long old while.
This tour is based around their legendary album 'Scars', the album that arguably brought them into the main stream. This means that they burst on to the stage with 'Breaking Me Down', the lead song of said album. This is an absolutely great opener as it sets the tone for the final act of the night.
I think a fair few people would put Soil in to the one hit wonder category due to the unfathomed success of 'Halo'. Tonight is a strong argument against that, with every single track played the crowd gets behind and they sing every word. The energy of the crowd really has been building up to this throughout the night and it is peaking right now. Soil are absolutely tearing this place down. Throwing out all the tracks from 'Scars', 'Wide Open', 'Two Skins' and 'Unreal' are some favourites of mine from the album and I was not disappointed.
Ryan’s voice is just incredible, it has such a distinctive sound to it that has always really stuck out to me, and hearing it live after all these years it hasn’t really changed. If anything it is slightly better!
Having not listened to all of Scars in a fair while, I forgot just how great it is, this album was peak nu-metal era, and it is so good to hear it being performed with just as much passion as when it first came out. 'Understanding Me', 'The One' and 'Black 7' just backing up the fact that this album was just hit after hit. They still sound somewhat fresh to me, then again I am very much stuck in 2000’s nu metal on the daily.
Closing out the set, they obviously left 'Halo' for the last song. I thought people would just be here to hear that, I was very wrong though, I mean, sure the crowd were happy to hear it. But it was the same reception as the whole of the set.
For the encore, Soil cracked out 'Black Betty', a cover which, in my opinion, is one of the best around. The voice just works with this song. Then Rock City was given an extra with 2004’s 'Pride'. From looking at the other set lists from the tour, this is the first time they have played it. This high energy anthem was just the icing on the cake for the night.
Overall, this was a perfect nu-metal nostalgia show. All the bands played flawlessly, the crowd loved every minute of it, the sound and lighting was spot on.
Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
Be the first to comment