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Jake Longhurst

Outbreak Festival Review

On the same weekend as the biggest festival in the UK, a much smaller affair was going on in Manchester City Centre that frankly showed Glasto one very friendly middle finger, and provided a sensational event for a fraction of the cost in a far easier to get to location. Jake Longhurst reviews.


The festival is rooted in the hardcore scene, and this year has taken the hip-hop scene under

its wing too, to provide a slightly more eclectic lineup than previous years have done. That

was not the only notable change, as the venue has also changed since last year - the

Bowler’s Exhibition Centre has been foregone for a former railway station called Depot

Mayfield, right next to Piccadilly station in the centre of the city.


The new venue feels like a perfect fit for such an event, with the brick and steel structures creating an imposing venue that’s perfect for the sheer chaos of the UK’s best hardcore weekend.

Now to talk about the lineup. It’s incredible. I could stop there, but since the team put so much work into it I think I’ll go into a bit more detail. On day one, thrashers Pest Control opened the entire event and had Mancunians spin kicking at 1pm on a Friday, which is a brilliant start to any weekend if you ask me. They were a phenomenal way to kick off proceedings, and next up on the same stage was the

ludicrous Sunami. If you’re aware of the band Knocked Loose, then Sunami feel like a slightly less technical version of them. If you aren’t aware of either band, imagine if a caveman wrote a stupidly heavy soundtrack to a back alley brawl and you’re in the right ballpark. Cups were flying, limbs were flying, people were flying, it was a spectacle that I would love to witness again. The rest of the day did not disappoint mind, with Fleshwater and Koyo later on the main stage providing plenty of heft and moshing, Militarie Gun and One Step Closer furthering this, and then High Vis turned up with a very ‘them’ cover of Oasis’ ‘What’s The Story (Morning Glory)’ that went down a treat. I then had some food ahead of Fridays big name, Converge. The band are revered in hardcore circles, and there’s a sizeable percentage of hardcore fans of a certain age (many of whom were in attendance) who have their seminal album Jane Doe’s cover art tattooed on them somewhere. The seitself was wonderful - the band ripped through some of the best music the scene has ever seen, and even finished with the seldom-played ‘The Saddest Day’ which made Friday quite the opposite of the title.


Saturday was no different; I started the day with two of the best live bands I’ve seen this year in Candy and Scowl. Candy deserved far more people watching them, as they careened through a setlist that would decimate most onlookers, and yet had a tragically low number of stage divers and moshers (although I did throw my hat into the ring to try up the numbers). Not such a problem was had for Scowl, mind, as their crowd operated by a very simple mantra the whole set through - if there’s room on stage, there’s room to stage dive.

The energy throughout their set was almost unmatched for the rest of the day, but Soul Glo did get very close not too long afterwards with a crowd of 60-odd people on the stage, and some crowd surfers becoming brave enough to try it on the crowd on the very narrow stage!

Jesus Piece were up next with what I can only describe as sonic decimation. The bands latest album is a brutal and uncompromising piece of art that is best experienced live, albeit possibly with earplugs for those who aren’t entirely ready to lose their hearing just yet.


Machine Girl came onto the main stage afterwards and was an act I was very much new to,

but thoroughly enjoyed. I can’t describe the sound easily, but the general feeling was that of being totally overwhelmed through the ears, which I thought was absolutely brilliant. There was so much going on that I didn’t know entirely what to make of it, other than that it was awesome! But whilst there were only two more acts of the day, the stakes were about to be raised enormously. Code Orange took to the stage after screening some snippets from the film Taxi Driver and opened a monumental subheadline set with their new single ‘Grooming The Replacement’ before launching straight into ‘Swallowing The Rabbit Whole’. The entire set was pure mania, and they’ve set themselves up perfectly to come back and headline next time, with crowd favourites ‘Bleeding In The Blur’ and ‘Forever’ sending the already crazy crowd into overdrive. The only act of the entire weekend that rivalled their set was the one immediately afterwards, Saturday’s headliners Death Grips. With an unchanging red background that obscured any details of those on stage, Death Grips performed music for the sake of music, showing everybody in attendance what they were about with crazy

blast beats and next level flow. For an act I was expecting to be utterly shown up by the

aforementioned Code Orange, they not only rejected the idea but completely stomped on it

and cemented their set as one of the very best of the event.






Sunday came around all too quickly, as it often does, but brought with it a lineup that was

swollen with talent. Zulu, Buggin and Speed could just as easily be the lineup of a year

defining tour as it was the first three bands of Sunday’s shows. All three performed sets that

were tailor made for sending crowds into an uproar, and succeeded brilliantly. The rest of the

day changed tack somewhat, as a large portion of acts for the rest of the event were hip-hop

and rap artists rather than hardcore and metal acts, with the beautiful exception of Trapped

Under Ice and their prison riot-equivalent set. Lil Ugly Mane and Lord Apex were two of the

highlights for me personally out of the hip-hop side of things, until we reached the weekends

final headliner, Denzel Curry. Mr Curry has been deemed by many to have the best grasp of

rap flow in modern music, and he is also on top of some of the most intense beats in the

genre. As he walked out, the crowd were already in ecstasy as it was clear a make-or-break

moment was to be had that surely was only going to be positive. Death Grips may be a

hip-hop act but are acutely influenced by more extreme music and it shows, whereas Denzel is possibly the first truly left-field headliner in the festivals history. His set almost felt like a trial run for future organiser's, one that could set a standard for all Outbreak’s to follow. Luckily (at least in my eyes) he was sensational.


From the very moment he got going the energy in the room was palpable, surging through the venue. There was of course a standout moment, a singularity in the set, which was his anthem ‘Ultimate’. It may well have been the loudest singalong of the entire festival, and the precedent he has set for hip-hop artists to join Outbreak is surely one that can now carry on.


After a weekend as triumphant as that, it seems almost trivial to say I’ll be back again next

year. Maybe I’ll get to Glastonbury one day, but as long as Outbreak sits across the same

few days as the Worthy Farm behemoth, you won’t catch me in those golden fields, so if you

need me just look up at the stage - I’ll be diving off it with a yellow bum-bag if you look

closely.


Jake Longhurst

 

Edited by Olivia Hannant, Video Courtesy of Outbreak Youtube


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