Swn Festival

Had a great weekend at the recent Swn Festival in Cardiff. A long weekend of dirty music and dirty alcohol was had by many and I myself enjoyed both.  Saw a lot of top bands and a lot of stinkers but I thought since this is a Welsh Music Blog I would just go through the best Welsh bands I saw

The festival started off with a set from Threatmantics. Now this band has gone through a lot of changes over the last year and now have a folk element added to them. They werent quite as good as I expected and I found myself pining for the Threatmantics of old, the good old heart thomping bass riffs of 'Big Man', instead what was served was mellow folk rock, the band still do what they do very well, I just prefered what they used to do to what they do now.

Next up were Kutosis, first time seeing Kutosis for me and I was not dissapointed. From start to finish they put on a show of hi energy post-punk. Starting with the infectious 'Island' the band stormed through the set with verocity and got everybody in the room moving some part of their body in unison. Top show from a very good band.

Before the festival the biggest news for me was that Attack and Defend where going to be playing, having recently got into this bands back catalouge I was definetly looking forward to seeing them live. I arrived late to catch about half the set but man what a great half a set it was. Playing mostly songs from the excellent 'Theme' and 'Make' albums Attack and Defend showed a packed room at the Model Inn just why their performance was so anticipated by many.

Great performances of 'Cross Times Multiply' and 'Pineapples' as well as a couple of new songs Attack and Defend definetly impressed me and I look forward to any new releases from this excellent band.

Onto the Saturday and a nice early start as we head to Y Fuwch Goch to see our favourite noise makers Exit International. Now considering this was probably about the 50th time I've seen this band live and that I had the worst hangover ever known to mankind I was a little relaxed and half asleep going into the gig but it didn't take Scott and co. long to wake me up and yet again they tear through an awesome set of hard hitting bass punk that always leaves me wanting more. Throwing in a new track or two also got the room excited and ending on the awesome 'Disciple' this band just seem to get better and better with every performance.

I wait in anticipation for an album as it's sure to be a corker. If you are yet to see this band live then you must be insane. Top notch as usual.

On the non welsh band note bands such as The Ex, Swans and Bellini stole the show. All in all a darn good weekend.