On a blustery evening in February, Jake Longhurst trekked to Rescue Rooms to witness one of
the top 100 metal albums ever (as chosen by Rolling Stone) played in full by Life of Agony.
Rescue Rooms has always been an awesome venue; since I’ve been in Nottingham it’s been arguably the most reliable venue for a good show, having played host to bands like Kid Kapichi, Knocked Loose, Crawlers and more. This was to be no different on the evening in question, when Life of Agony tore up the venue with a full playthrough of their incredible debut album River Runs Red. The concept album is dark, powerful, and vivid, and yet still feels extremely relatable, making it a tour de force of groovy, heavy music.
First up to set the mood was a group called Tarah Who? They brought a mixture of punk and grunge to Nottingham, with a little bit of a groovy touch, to begin the proceedings. Whilst the band weren’t massively to my taste, they were still very good and were a very good choice to be the first support act. However, I will say that the next band was much more up my alley. Acting as main support for Life of Agony was the seminal NYHC (New York Hardcore) band Madball, who I saw at my first ever standing show way back in January 2018! They were potent and powerful then, and nothing had changed in the course of five years, as the band made Rescue Rooms into their own personal arena of moshpits and gang chants. Songs like Set It Off and Hold It Down blew the room wide open, and tracks like Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop and Doc Marten Stomp set everything into overload. They were a perfect way to set up for the headliners, raising the energy in the room to unfathomable levels.
"[...] Life of Agony had shown all in attendance that whilst it’s not always easy, life doesn’t have to feel like agony when you’ve got a good band on."
As Life of Agony walked out to rip through the impeccable album River Runs Red, the crowd lost it. Everyone was going crazy, and when the first riff hit on song one of the album, This Time, it was as if someone had set a pack of dogs loose on free food - the mosh pit erupted and there were hundreds of fists in the air to seemingly every word. The band had breaks throughout the set for each of the recorded segments, such as on the third song Monday, allowing us some breathing room, but when the title track started immediately afterwards the breathing room immediately became space for more moshing, with choruses of the title ringing around my ears for many hours after the show. Method of Groove and The Stain Remains were highlights of the latter part of their album playthrough set. After the album was finished, they took what was a well deserved short break, before they stormed through some more hits like Scars, Let’s Pretend, and Lost at 22, before they finished the set with Weeds. The band made one hell of an evening, and bar some slight tech issues and a moment with security the gig was an absolutely phenomenal one.
It was with high spirits and a spring in my step that I walked away from Rescue Rooms, as Life of Agony had shown all in attendance that whilst it’s not always easy, life doesn’t have to feel like agony when you’ve got a good band on.
Jake Longhurst
Edited by: Jodie Averis
Cover image courtesy of Ents24.
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