Issue 14 of Stencil Mag

SLAM DUNK FESTIVAL 2012 REVIEW - HATFIELD UNI - MAY 27TH So here we are at Slam Dunk Festival 2012, and once again we have a killer line up to check out, sure you are going to a miss a band that you like, but as soon as you go in, you will be watching someone you want to see all day! There is just so much to choose from, and we love this! The first band we checked out was South Wales finest Straight Lines, the guys are more than confident and pull out a stack of mind melting tracks, it was great to hear some new songs from their new album 'Freaks Like Us' such as 'Commitments' and 'Half Gone' which went down a treat with the early afternoon crowd. We then got to check out Marmozets who are currently being supported by most major publications out there, as they are simply awesome. Their live show is as usual insane, and towards the end of the set we witnessed the guitar and bass player heading in to the crowd to perform, their confidence is impressive and it is only going to help in taking them to the next level, songs of their new EP 'Vexed' go down great, and we for one can't wait to see what's next for this extremely talented upcoming band! Next up we hit the Punktastic stage where they have done a great job in setting up a perfect environment for an acoustic set up! Cartel hit the stage and everyone is singing along straight away, it was exciting to see the band do an acoustic performance, as we rarely get to see the band perform in the UK as it is! Their classic tune 'Honestly' went down extremely well, and only got fans more excited about their stage performance later on that day!

So we head back to the main stage to check out the awesome Lower Than Atlantis, now last time we saw them perform at Slam Dunk Festival, they were in one of the smaller rooms, and you could barely get in there!

Since this points the bands fan base has clearly grown, as it was tough enough to get remotely close to the front to watch this bands performance. The band treat us to a shed load of tunes of 'World Record' mixed in with a Foo Fighters medley, as well as their new song 'If The World Was To End' it all goes down extremely well with crowd surfers from the left to right, and it's safe to say that this performance has only excited fans more to hear the bands new record! Say Anything perform on the main stage next, sure they have been away for a while but the band do their best to make it seem like yesterday since they were last in the UK by just giving the crowd everything they could! Their new track 'Burn A Miracle' goes down really well with the crowd.

We felt that Max Bemmis really did a great job with connecting with the crowd, and it really helped to make an awesome performance! The band round of their slot with the classic 'Alive with the glory of love' this song creates a massive sing along and shows that the band are capable of making a killer comeback, so we for one can't wait to see these guys again! Motion City Soundtrack are just a fantastic band live, I mean to start with Justins voice is always spot on! We got to hear a range of tracks from all of their albums, even their brand new album 'GO' was in the mix and tracks like 'True Romance' went down just great. It was clear to see from this performance that the band do now have a fantastic back catalogue of songs, as every song they pulled out just had a massive sing along! Tracks like 'Everything is Alright' 'LGFUAD' and 'Your Words Destroy My Planet' all went down extremely well, and to be honest there's not much else to say, other than, check this band out live if you have not done so already!