Skindred start with the apocalyptic sound of Set Fazers immediately signalling their intent. Hard-edged relentless Metal attack music with Reggae, Dub, Rap, and Dancehall all boiling in the mix. Seriously anarchic fun!
Welsh Rude Boy Rasta Metalhead Benji Webbe ambles on to the stage and signifies his Boss status.
Paid the cause to be the Boss! / Know what you see/ You see a bad mother!
Skindred are heralded on by AC-DC’s Thunderstruck instead. It serves the same purpose as The Boss by James Brown. A warning for the controlled mayhem to follow.
The first show in New Zealand after burning up stadiums and festivals for close to a decade everywhere else. But then, everything comes to he who waits.
Webbe may appreciate the sentiment. Before arriving in this country, I had a brief chat with him.
He is a fan of William Shakespeare, who he has re-named as Willie Wobbledagger, and his musical manifesto is to thine own self be true. From Hamlet and the character of Polonius.
Webbe had a West Indian father who emigrated in the early Sixties, and a mother from Cardiff. He was born and raised in Newport Wales, and he has a faint Welsh accent.
He listened to everything and naturally had a grounding in Reggae. His older brother Clifford was a Rasta, and he helped raise the young Clive John CJ Benji Webbe, when he became an orphan at age 11.
Punk broke before he was a teen, and from a street level he saw similarities in both sets of disaffected youth. It was the Specials, one of the best Two-Tone bands that turned his head around.
A mixed-race group combining Reggae and Indie Pop. And with that the more dance-oriented styles of Ska and Rocksteady.
Punks and skinheads had more in common than they had differences.
On stage Webbe emphasises his mantra of love and unity.
Post Punk embraced Metal as it got faster with Motorhead and Metallica as influences.
Hip-Hop and the roots of Rap draw their approach from the old street traditions of trading verbal insults as displacement activity to avoid physical confrontations.
It can be summed up as yo’ mamma...
His first band where he worked on the template for this sound was Dub War, formed in Newport in 1993.
Skindred came together in 1998 and by the time of the first album Babylon, the band was in place.
Mikey Demus guitar, Daniel Pugsley bass and Arya Goggin drums.
Set Fazers is science fiction Terminator style and as we expect from Metal, the drums lay out the frontal attack. Off their latest and most successful album Smile (2023).
Those songs were the result of the lockdown years, where Webbe decided to be productive in the time of fear and dread. The songs reflect that.
Pressure is off their debut album Babylon (2002) and continues the harsh abrasive maelstrom.
Ratrace is where we hear toasting style Rap and some appropriately heavy bass lines.
There is a singalong to Oasis’s Wonderwall and the band morphs it into Worlds on Fire. Some heavy guitar crunching as the Reggae-style vocals head back to growling Metal.
L.O.V.E. (Smile Please) has some Motown roots and a nod to Smokey Robinson’s My Girl. I’ve got sunshine/ When it’s raining. It plays to a Disco rhythm. A short burst on a keyboard then the song keeps getting interrupted. Eventually it gets to Dub Dancehall Reggae, and Webbe comes out in a big hat and wig and appears to channel Lee Scratch Perry.
Nobody is one of their great early songs and Webbe comes out in full Sly Stone spaced-out cowboy costume. White with spangles and huge tassels on the arms.
When I asked him about the influence of the harder Soul Funk of the Family Stone and James Brown, he claimed it wasn’t music he could get into at the time.
Tonight, he displays a lot of the theatricality of Brother Brown, but his banter is faster and much more profane. What are you saying, motherfucker!?
Kill the Power suggests Public Enemy in song title alone. It does have the siren sounds and sharp jagged riffs which taps into the energy of the celebrated Rappers.
Kaosis are hardcore Industrial Metal and full-on theatrical Horrorcore in their hyped presentation.
They formed in 2019 from Australian and New Zealand musicians.
There are six on stage tonight. Two female dancers who have the air of dominatrixes. A drummer with a beast mask, guitarist, bass player and a fierce-looking lead singer who likely calls himself Xenozex.
A battering rhythm machine and heavy-duty drone riffs are the order, with impressive laser lights.
They could easily feature in a Rob Zombie movie with the Devil’s Rejects, and they convey a sense of menace. All in good fun.
Bullet Hole is off their 2019 album Hitech-Lowlife. The girls use water guns and the singer could sound like the Beastie Boys if they ever embraced Metal. Shoot to kill!
They ask the audience to form up for the Wall of Death. Two lines and people run and smash into each other. To the sound of hardcore Punk.
The song that follows certainly has a post-Ramones sensibility.
A highly entertaining Metal ensemble and deserve a headline show at least.
First act to open were Rumpus Machine, and for a quartet of school children they were genuinely impressive.
All from the same family. Daniel Hyde age 16 and lead vocals and guitar, Matthew Hyde 14 and guitar, Hannah Hyde 13 and bass, Ashley Hyde 13 and drums.
The girls are twins and run the engine room.
T
hey have a good Power Pop sound with some of the Kiwi Reggae sound.
They are very impressive with their cover of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which is a complex song.
They manage a darker heavier guitar sound to echo the Metal music about to come, over their last two numbers.
Skindred make a tour-de-force over Gimme That Boom and extend it out.
There are several costume changes for Webbe, and with Our Religion, he comes out looking like a Mongol marauding warrior.
They close with Warning and cap it off with the Newport helicopter. Take your shirt off and swing it above your head.
The audience has been treated to the full blast of a classic all-out Skindred performance. The promise is for a show next year. They will need a big venue.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Leonie Moreland
Skindred
Kaosis
Rumpus Machine
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