If you’re looking for a no nonsense, no gimmicks, very in your face metal band, then you absolutely need to go to an ETID gig.
“We’re Every Time I Die from Buffalo, New York. Start a f**king circle pit!” A mere fraction of a second after those words leave front man Keith Buckley’s mouth the chaos in King Tut’s begins with an explosive, albeit extremely ironic opening of “Bored Stiff”
If you could be bored stiff watching ETID then you’d be in dire need of a personality transplant.
I saw them for the first time in March 2015 when they ed Architects at the Glasgow 02 ABC and then again a few months later whilst I was working the 3rd stage as a security guard at the Festival, Donnington. On both of these occasions it has been what I can only describe as insanity! Non stop mosh pits & crowd surfing. Band diving into the crowd, ETID pull out all the stops when they perform.
It would be genuinely difficult to pick specific highlights from last Thursdays show as from start to finish it was off the chain, however if you were to put me on the spot I would say that “Roman Holiday” accompanied with a blunt order from Keith of “Bang your head till it falls the f**k off!” and “Underwater Bimbos From Outer Space” during which the whole of King Tut’s screamed the lyrics “I want to be dead with my friends” till there vocal cords were as shredded as Andy William’s and Jordan Buckley’s guitars.
For a band that rates so highly in the aggression stakes it should be noted that ETID have a very personable side to them too. They took the time to give a shout out to the staff of King Tuts, thanking them for preparing a home cooked meal, an apparent god send for touring bands. They also made good on there promise to come waiting fans for a drink downstairs post gig, all too happy to to sign autographs and pose for photographs.
Whilst writing this review I was trying to think of the low points about the gig and as fan boyish as this might sound I could not find a single fault with ETID’s performance, the sound, the song selection all of them were 100% spot on. Literally the only fault I could find with the gig would be the choice of venue, this is not an outright condemnation of King Tut’s if any of the staff them happen to be reading, I want this to be received as a constructive criticism. I have no doubts that ETID have a reputation on the touring circuit of being a band that bring a dynamic amount of craziness with them. Adorning the walls of King Tut’s were signs bearing orders of NO CROWD SURFING and NO STAGE DIVING. I interpreted this as an attempt to suppress this craziness which is kind of like trying placate a Polar Bear with Fruit & Veg.When I worked the ETID set at , they actually broke the record for the amount of crowd surfers over the barrier, last Thursday was first time I’ve not seen Keith actively encourage more people to come over the barrier and it was somewhat disheartening. To be fair to the security and MAD crew guys who were working behind the barrier that night, they handled the crowd surfing that did occur pretty well and were not overly aggressive or mean. That being said, it was clear to me that surfing is something that is somewhat frowned upon in Tut’s (I myself only went up once and got a telling off for it!) So my final words to Tuts would be if you encounter craziness, don’t suppress it, embrace it! You’ll have whole a lot more fun!
Next time lets see ETID in a bigger venue!
