Live Review: (hed)p.e. w/Conveyer, Double Experience & Scrawn @ Camden Underworld 24/02/2018!

We never thought we’d see the day that Huntington Beach California crossover crew (hed)p.e. would announce such a big tour of the UK. But here we are. Camden Underworld may not be sold out tonight but it is about as close it it comes.

Opening up tonight are a small classic metal (i.e. early Megadeth) band by the name of Scrawn [6/10] This run is their first in the UK and while they look like a hardcore band, they don’t play like one. The five piece include a bass player who while having a fantastic beard also plays a stand up bass. It’s a thing of beauty. The band are truely humbled to be here tonight and love every minute.

Canadian trio Double Experience [7/10] are up next and they play through a set that demands the slowly growing crowds attention. It’s a high energy traditional hard rock set with leanings towards the hardcore side of things. It’s very obvious that the band very quickly win over the crowd. Any band that can roll out a song about Godzilla commands attention.

Conveyer [7/10] deliver a set of post hardcore music that sets them apart from the crowd really quickly. They might not have a powerful amount that is different from the pack but what they do have they deliver with a quality that is a step up from the rest. Their new album “No Future” is a real build on their Victory Records debut “When Given Time To Grow”.

(Hed)p.e.  [9/10] are as close to perfection as I gets tonight. Their live set isn’t so much about playing the songs everyone wants to hear but about jamming through a free-flow set whereby the band play a couple of minutes of each song before segwaying into the next song. Every style from hip-hop to reggae to metal gets an airing as the band have to be seen to be believed. It’s a set that includes “Waste of Time” from the bands current album but is also heavy on material from “Back to Base X”, “Amerika” and “Broke” era material. It’s a career spanning set (“I’ve got mouths to feed”, “We’re fighting against a curfew”) that is rich in material that everyone knows. Even “The Meadow” gets an airing. In truth the anthems stand out but the audience could hear anything from (hed)p.e. and they would lap it up. “Renegade” is a piece of mid set magic that has the crowd sing-a-long going from the very off. “Raise Hell” repeats the charm while “Killing Time” & “Swan Dive” have the crowd descending into madness. Jared Gomes crew couldn’t have squeezed much more into their set. As a band they have come to represent the working class rock star, the level of professionalism and musicianship on show is unbelievable.