Giants and This Distance kick-off their first night of tour together with a night of progressive hardcore rock at Harry’s Bar in Stoke.Harry’s Bar hosts a night of two-stepping and windmilling all round with music from a couple of melodic hardcore bands with impressive instrumental breakdowns. The venue is nothing but a small bar and a tiny room upstairs with an open floor stage. Although being open floor allows for more movement and involvement with tonight’s intimate crowd. Sadly tonight’s (predominantly male) crowd is lacking in numbers, with only about 20 people in the room, including the bands and crew.
First up are Giants, a band who boast high energy and hold an impressive E.P to their name. When playing the song ‘Another Day, Another Year (Wasted)’ vocalist Ed Parker encourages the small crowd to sing back the lyrics “wasting time”. But the crowd waits for last song before getting more involved by two-stepping and singing along. Parker holds out his mic, letting a couple of guys in the crowd sing for him.
This Distance, from South Wales are tonight’s headline act. Not long after they take to the floor vocalist Scott Jones is asking for a place to stay tonight and insisting that people buy their merch as he goes on to explain they “really need help on this tour”. Times are tough for unsigned bands as petrol prices have increased recently and finding a place to stay after each night of tour isn’t always easy. This Distance are a decent band, with a similar sound to their tour mates Giants, both with a hardcore/melodic sound with instrumentals aplenty. As This Distance play their song ‘Mind Over Matter’ Jones says “I want to see more energy, I want to see everyone pick their feet up. Two-step every fucking one of you”. Giants and crew start a circle pit which doesn’t last long but does encourage some two-stepping. At one point Giants’ Guitarist/Vocalist Jack Longman decides to start a one-man circle pit. As This Distance close the show Jones asks the crowd to “wake the fuck up”. Perhaps if the room was full and people were drunker it really could kick-off and almost does as guys run from wall to wall two-stepping and ferociously swinging their arms around, windmilling.
Later on tonight both bands post on Facebook a thanks to everyone that came out to see them play. It’s clear that both bands are highly appreciative of the people who turn up to their shows to check out their music and they look forward to the rest of their tour.
