Lincoln Tattoo Convention
The Engine Shed
Lincoln
Sunday, October 22nd 2023
A full two days of tattooing and piercing along with a burlesque show and a drag competition which featured the wonderful named Pop Tart, Sperm Donna, The Witch Blair, Tasty and Ella Demonio. The Sunday gave us a battle of the bands where seven bands from the Lincolnshire area were given fifteen minutes to show what they could do. They were judged by two members of The Band From County Hell and another bloke. They were looking for originality, ability and how they cope if anything goes wrong amongst other things.
First up were Archy and the Astronauts who had appeared at a few festivals and have had some exposure within the New Wave Of Classic Rock. Talk about young they came on like they were at a school talent contest, but boy did they rock like men! They cranked out some grungy, bass-heavy stoner funk that seemed to fly by. Their final cut – ‘Stone Cold Killer’ (I think) was immense and showed just how much talent these guys have. It was big and bold with loads of melody and proper catchy.
Solo entertainer Vulgarhithm pitched up dressed in a white doctor’s coat, mask and a ‘Madonna’ mic. He played chunky riffs to an industrial backing tape which bordered on techno and try as he might he cajoled the crowd into joining in but it just didn’t work. I caught the lead singer/guitarist of Scarlet Joy, Sophie, as I was getting a cup of tea, and she described her band as grungy.
Yeah, they were with a dash of alt/punk. Sophie sounded to me like a cross between Siouxsie Sioux and Poly Styrene. However, she across as a bit too polite when the music needed her to add more bite and attitude. Once that’s there, Scarlet Joy will be a real force and she proved it on ‘Count Down The Days’. Rock duo Soaper did nothing for me with their White Stripes/Royal Blood thing then, we got some proper metal with Now Disconnect who gave us a healthy dose of passionate grunge metal.
They gave us a well-rounded and versatile three numbers that included melodic breakdowns, real death metal passages with harsh vocals and some crushing metal on ‘Curtain Call’ which was absolute class. News For Parrots pushed out some Celtic-flavoured punk n roll which at times reminded me of The Damned but not in a good way. Last but not least we got some quality metalcore from Buried By My Heartache who were superb especially their latest single ‘Suffer In Silence’.
Now, I’ve been to a few battles of the bands and it’s always fairly controversial as to who you think should win. We all had our favourites, but it was down to the three judges who adhered to their criteria. All seven bands offered something different but there could only be one winner of the £1,000 first prize – Archy and the Astronauts.
This was just a small part of a wonderful weekend which will be repeated next year. If you’re free then get along to historic Lincoln for a great time.
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