Having recently moved back to North Wales from Cardiff, I have been on the lookout for decent local shows and the twitter account @northwalesgigs proved to be very useful in alerting me to the fact that The St Pierre Snake Invasion (a band I have seen many times around the Cardiff/Bristol area) were playing at The North in Rhyl, so naturally I had to go down to catch them play, owing to the fact I’m a big fan of them.
Opening the show was punk outfit Braxton Hicks. Admittedly they were a little sloppy – they ended up playing their first song three times due to various setbacks! – but they more than made up for this with their sheer energy and enthusiasm for what they did. They just seemed to be out there to have fun and it really came across in their performance. I particularly liked the fact that the band wanted to get the whole of the room involved, especially when bassist Neil ventured out of the room mid-song and into the smokers area! The three-piece had a great stage presence and are definitely worth checking out if they’re playing in your local area.
It certainly was refreshing to see The St Pierre Snake Invasion again. This band really do have their live show nailed and seeing them live is always a pleasure. Their music is a unique style of punk and translates perfectly live from their outstanding new EP, Everyone Is Entitled To My Own Opinion. The banter between band and crowd was amusing and I have to admit, I wondered what frontman Damien would say about their song that was about a “dick from North Wales”, but he gave the same introduction as usual, as well as saying one of the characters (note: not the aforementioned dick!) in the song was Neil from Braxton Hicks!
The band stormed through a killer set, featuring a fantastic blend of songs including ‘Encore! Encore!’ and my personal favourite ‘Hey Kids! Do The Choke Stroke’, before finishing things off with ‘If The Only Way Is Essex, You Can Kill Me Now’, a song that about all that’s wrong in the world. This band really is a force to reckon with – and I can only hope they’ll return to The North again soon!
8/10
