Medulla Nocte were supposed to be the headliners, but had to pull out due to vocalist Paul "busting his leg".
So Skeem were still first on, and, uh, noooooooo. Some ok riffs in there, some ok vocals, but for the most part, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to contrived American rappy hipcore kind of stuff, rapped vocals, American sounding accents, swaying shuffle guitar playing, not my thing, got very veeeery bored of this stuff already.
Assert are one of the few bands that genuinely intimidate. There's maybe a dozen people in here tops, and you feel all the time that Britt is going to single you out, he does for one, just after they've messed up a song. "Aren't we fucking great" he chuckles. "You, with the arms folded, come here. Aren't we great" 'Brilliant' comes the none too convincing reply. It's humour, and there's a great deal of it in the Assert delivery, guitarist hoisted on vocalist shoulders ala Maiden, "we're signing a major label deal and selling out when you see us in the Metal Hamster" and the likes. It's also very intense. But melodic as well, the likes of ATV, Mizzerley In Rizzerly, Left Opposition and so forth. There's a couple of people, literally, down the front well into it, getting onstage to singalong, and it's good enough stuff. At the end, the thanks for sticking around sound genuine. They intimidate, but hey, so what.