Queen Zee and The Sasstones, Salt The Snail, Forever In Debt, Dead Houses: EBGBS, Liverpool

EBGBs hosted a wild punk riot for their final Liverpool Music Week show, and Getintothis’ Lauren Wise was there to catch all the action. 

On its final night the DIY Breakdown stage in EBGBs, Liverpool Music Week ensured every act would make this stage the one to remember, and the one to be at next year.

Heading up a night of pure punk rock, four-piece Dead Houses took to the stage. Their heavy metal with a dose of punk thrown in for good measure was everything you would expect (and hope) it to be.

The tight four piece had complete confidence in their own music and with a strong drummer and an interactive frontman ready to rile up the crowd for the night, they had every right to.

The penultimate song was the one that stood out, and the entire performance set the scene for the increasing energy levels that would soon take ensue.

Next up were three-piece Forever In Debt. Maintaining the momentum of a heavy rock/metal backbone, they didn’t stick to religiously and instead danced around with other genres.

Boyfriends is where this became most obvious, with a change to a funky disco bassline mixing up the atmosphere and creating a distinguishing song that would have the audience bopping their heads long after they’d come off stage.

Their final song was the opportunity for each member to display their talents and connect with the crowd both through their music and through in-between-song-banter.

Recap on all the Liverpool Music Week action here 

The final support act to hit the DIY Breakout Stage were Salt The Snail, and if we thought Wild Fruit Art Collective were amping up the audience participation last night, it was nothing compared to what Salt The Snail served up.

If you decide to head to a Salt The Snail gig, you need to be invested and willing to either be picked up and cradled or offered a mince pie.

And in a twist to writing their own set list, they gave the audience creative control by whizzing out paper plates with song titles on for everyone to shout out.

In amongst the glow sticks and light shows were short punchy songs that everyone sung along to, proving that fans appreciate the interactive style and won’t have it any other way.

And finally it was Queen Zee And The Sasstones’ turn to take to the stage, with a pumped up and wild eyed audience ready to be blown away in a pure punk riot.

And that’s exactly what they got.

An adrenaline fuelled show was in store, with no dull moments and barely any eyes leaving the stage.

Every second needed to be drunk in to ensure nothing was wasted, as no matter how many times you see them live, each song is as exciting and fresh as if played with the vigour of a teenage band’s first show, but with the talent of experienced performers.

Queen Zee is the ultimate lead of a band with an ability to build energy both with the crowd and the rest of the band, as well as by creating songs that need to be heard.

While tracks such as Medicine and Sissy Fists have clear meanings, there’s a bitterness to the live performances, with overtones of sarcasm as though they could be saying “Do we really need to be fucking saying this in 2017?”

An unanticipated cover of Dizzee Rascal’s Bonkers was next on offer, and the audience were fully on board with Queen Zee‘s tightly packed punk version of the 2009 hit.

As the final song loomed before us all, Queen Zee dedicated it to the victims of last year’s Orlando shooting, preceding the song with “Fuck homophobia, fuck transphobia – this is for anyone who’s LGBT.”

Images by Getintothis’ Lucy McLachlan

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