Hit The Deck Festival Preview
For the second year running, Hit The Deck returns across two locations, Bristol on Saturday April 19th and Nottingham on Sunday April 20th. This year the headliner is New York’s Brand New, which is major coup for the festival as Brand New are a band that rarely tour, let alone play shows in the UK. The band’s recent shows in the USA gave them the impressive accomplishment of selling more tickets per second in 2013 than Justin Bieber. There are also rumours that the band will be playing some of their albums in full at the Hit The Deck shows, which is very exciting. With a band that has so many truly incredible albums, this will be a headline set not to miss!
Further down the bill, New Jersey emo legends Saves The Day will be playing, hot off the heels of releasing their new self-titled album. With a set that is bound to feature songs that have defined a genre, they could easily put on one of the best performances of the day. Catering to fans of heavier music are the awesome Kvelerak from Norway – a band whose music can only be described as the perfect soundtrack to complete and utter anarchy. Due to their unique blend of black metal and hardcore music, their entire set will probably consist of absolute chaos and constant tidal waves of crowd surfers. Hit the Deck has always booked some of the best pop-punk bands around and The Blackout are definitely a band who know how to put on a show. With four albums and a bunch of EPs to pick from, these Welsh rockers have a solid back catalogue from which to pick a killer set, and no doubt help Start the Party (their last album. Keep up!).
Staying with the Welsh vibe are Kids In Glass Houses who are playing Hit The Deck as part of an extensive farewell tour. They are a band who many people will be familiar with and will want to see one last time before they disappear for good. This could very easily be the set of the festival with the combination of genuine emotion and smash hits – it is essential you go and see them! On a totally different note, Pulled Apart By Horses will also be playing, and will have you humming “High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive” and “I Punched A Lion In The Throat” hits for days after.
Other smaller bands worth checking out include The Front Bottoms, an acoustic band who played a great show last year, which fans of Brand New and similar bands will enjoy. On the heavier side, Brutality Will Prevail will be appearing. Their ruthless breakdowns and squealing guitars really prove that Hit The Deck is not simply for the pop punk fans. Having recently released Unconditional (see the review here), Memphis May Fire will play an incredible set as always, however it will be interesting to see how the new material goes down live. Representing the punkier side of Hit The Deck, Gnarwolves will also be performing. After the release of Chronicles of Gnarnia (see the our review here: http://burnfm.com/album-reviews/chronicles-of-gnarnia/) this set will definitely be one of the best of the weekend with the band demonstrating why they are tipped as one of the best British punk bands around currently. After appearing at their first festival ever at Warped Tour 2013 (read our review here), Neck Deep will be performing. One of the best young bands around, they are a band who will be worth seeing while they are playing on a smaller stage as they will surely be graduating into bigger venues sooner rather than later. Staying on the pop-punk note, Patent Pending – who opened for Bowling For Soup on their farewell tour – return to the UK with a live set that is full of fun, laughter and great songs. Their light-hearted set is sure to be one of the highlights of the festival, especially for fans of other ska-punk bands such as Reel Big Fish. Jaret Reddick, of Bowling For Soup fame, will be returning with Ryan Hamilton from Smile Smile, and will have a rare performance as People On Vacation.
No doubt Hit The Deck will be incredible this year, however only a taster of the bands playing have been mentioned here, so head on over to Hit the Deck for the full line up and ticket information.
Sam Taylor
