"Aren't Hoax angry?" the Rival Mob's lead singer Brendan Radigan cheekily inquires. "Are you ready to chill now?" He wonders before advising us that any one, woman or man, is welcome to fuck him in the toilet after the set.
What a cut up that Brandan is.
Needless to say, the Roval Mob are a hardcore bands hardcore band, and after sucker punching us with a prog rock intro they settle down into a first rate ramalamadingdong, leaning heavily on their great EP Hardcore For Hardcore , as well as some new songs. Pretty soon a vicious moshpit opens up and finds me beating a hasty retreat from the stage while Brandan comments "Angy, angry, anfy white people."
I find Brendan absolutely hysterical. He is so sure of his bands ability to turn it on in an instant, he relaxes completely and does the one thing he should above all: he mocks hardcores rituals while reveling in it. New songs about, "This song is called 'Be Yourself'" he laughs before settling into "Fucking food fight" -another new song. Never before has one band used the word "fuck" so often in a set. They should rename themselves Scarface.
But they deserve the word, they earn it, with a relentlessly paced, perfectly executed hardcore set. "We're gonna do another new song, but don't worry, there's gonna be a lotta fucking Pitting go on soon".
The Pitting never stops, the Rival Mob never stops. A good band.
Grade: A-