We felt just a bit nostalgic about the pop-punk days, so we decided to check out crossover metallers Chunk! No, Captain Chunk while they were in town.
[date]December 2nd, 2015[/date]
[venue]The Underworld Camden[/venue]
[city]London, UK[/city]
[support_bands]Boston Manor, Trash Boat[/support_bands]
The Paris natives are a band that have really fascinated me in the short-term I have known about them. As a wee-lad pop-punk was all that I could listen to as it was all on the radio and all I could buy at my local record store. It was my gateway into heavier things in one way or another. Later down the line the genre arguably saw it’s decline, and whilst the music I tend to lean towards these days might be on the much more heavier and technical plane, I can still get nostalgic for the happier tunes of pop-punk.
When I discovered Chunk I instantly found what they did to be extremely clever, especially from my musical timeline. Heavy djent-esque riffing with positive melodies and pop-punk progression, layered with the sweet suburban vocal lines and the brutal growling. A contrast so intriguing you can call me a fan now. So here I am at the Camden Underworld tonight to live out the good old days of pop-punk.
Chunk’s music is almost exclusively high-energy, which drew out my thoughts that their albums could transfer very well on to a live stage. With a sizable London crowd present, nothing had really prepared me for the response when the band roared on to the stage with their hit ‘Haters Gonna Hate‘.
Barely any person was left behind as the whole venue pushed towards the stage, jumping high and stretching their hands in the air as they tried to shake the ever grateful hands of frontman Bertrand Poncet.
With the band quickly moving into ‘Playing Dead‘, it became more apparent that a fairly younger audience was here to see the bands tonight. So much energy was being thrown at the performance that I was getting battered harder than I have in thrash metal pits before, but it warmed my heart in two instances. The first that younger audiences in the UK still have a great appreciation for live rock and metal, the second is that so many people have a love for Chunk! No, Captain Chunk, something I myself have been criticised for liking before.
The high octane performance continued with tracks like ‘Pull You Under‘ and ‘Restart‘, with not one joule of energy being spared by the entire venue. It was in the final song of ‘In Friends We Trust‘ where the band invited all the fans on stage to end the party. I have never seen such a mass wave of people storm the stage at the Underworld, but it was quite the spectacle.
After the final notes ended what was a short but sweet headline set I learned two things. 1 – Say what you want about the band’s music, but Chunk! No, Captain Chunk are a fantastic live band. 2 -There is hope for Generation Z yet.
