Destruction Reigns Supreme As Baby Godzilla Take To The Stage
Published
It’s a near sub zero December evening, the kind you would prefer to be in a boozer just two minutes from home, and I’m making may way to the Forum Hertfordshire, a relative newcomer on the live circuit and one that’s looking to rival live music venues on offer in central London. But I’m convinced it’s worth the visit tonight because the venue’s promoter has taken the foresight to book one of the UK’s most feverishly talked about bands, Baby Godzilla.
Baby Godzilla has been picked out by Kerrang! as one of the ‘20 Hottest Bands in the World’, an accolade I imagine to be linkbait headline material the mag has attached to an otherwise mundane feature. But even if that were the case, and all of the other bands featured in said article were commonplace, Baby Godzilla has a reputation that surpasses any cynicism for a chaos that I want to witness.
Tonight’s billing includes Hooligan Collective, a trio of students from the University of Hertfordshire – a local band supporting a hot national band is the raison d'être of the Forum Hertfordhire’s monthly Hatfield Rocks nights – and Zoax, a London five-piece who give an engaging, faultless sounding performance.
Zoax front-man Adam Carroll makes the most of his chance to confront the audience; wrapping up unwitting blokes in microphone leads, stealing hats and invading the bar. It’s a convincing show of hardcore theatrics.
The evening peaks with the arrival on stage of tonight’s headliners Baby Godzilla, a moment that brings the audience together, knocks the heat up a notch and clears the queue to the bar. Following a quick intro to establish a few ground rules – basically go absolutely mental: mosh, headbang and 'sorry if you get hit in the face by a swinging mic stand' – Paul Shelley, Jonny Hall, Matt Reynolds and Tom Marsh, or the Nottingham Four as they shall now be known, let rip.
Quickly abandoning the stage and colonising the centre of the room, you name it, they climbed it: A guitar amp, which was later destroyed; the drum kit, which was later destroyed; and a random set of stepladders, which was possibly later destroyed, no doubt with an angle-grinder the band hold backstage for proper ‘man-up’ shaving – such was the level of sheer lunacy. Baby Godzilla went to work on the venue like Bricktop’s pigs would have on fresh meat after a hunger strike: guitar riffs and death growl vocals ripping apart the venue in just 30 short minutes.
In some respects I feel by not talking up the band’s music a great deal I’ve betrayed them. But having never seen Baby Godzilla live before, when watching such ferocity and endless energy you’re really hard pushed to notice anything else other than the unfolding picture of bedlam.
The rage and choreographed insanity that features in Baby Godzilla videos, like Powerboat Disaster and The Great Hardcore Swindle, is convincingly apparent in their live show and whilst the Kerrang! headline may sound trite, you can’t argue that Baby Godzilla are one of the hottest live bands out there. The Forum Hertfordshire did well to book this one up, convincing me away from my local, and If I can look forward to this level of high octane thrashing from a gig in future I’ll continue making these outings to the Garden City.
Words by Nate Taylor Pictures by Jonathan Yip of SHOT BY YKT