Supersonic Festival 2024 – Saturday
Saturday and day two of Supersonic Festival was always going to be the main event of this three-day extravaganza as the biggest names on the bill would be performing today throughout Digbeth, which also happened to be the same day when the world celebrated Black Sabbath’s very first gig in Birmingham.
When I tell you the whole town loves their home-grown heroes, this is not an exaggeration. Not that I’m complaining about it – far from it – but today would also be the perfect celebration of all the great things that connect the swarm of heavy music lovers to the city as summer was slowing drawing to a close. Here’s a resume of what happened during this supersonically frantic Saturday (pun very much intended).
After giving the city a well-deserved stroll, I headed to the O2 Institute again to see Smote, a band that I really wanted to see since I missed their Roadburn set a few years back as it was near impossible to enter The Next Stage (no regrets though, I ended up watching an insanely fantastic set from Full of Hell instead).
Their psych-filled noise rock couldn’t fit the bill any better and needless to say, nobody was disappointed. The Newcastle upon Tyne quartet were loud, they were heavy, the mastodontic drums mixed up perfectly with the droney vibe from singer/guitarist/occasional flautist. You can tell they have studied the gentle art of shredding hard from the legends that put Birmingham in the map like Godflesh with a twinge of early Sabbath. We need more flutes and dulcimers in noise-folk, don’t you think? Because the way Smote did it was superb.
As I was about to straddle into the high street to see The Shits, we were informed that Upchuck couldn’t make it to the UK and had to cancel their appearance, making The Shits play in between Agriculture and Emma Ruth Rundle. I knew it wouldn’t be possible, so I hung out a little longer at the Institute with like-minded folks until Senyawa would come on stage as they were another band that I missed at Roadburn 2022, and I was just as excited to see them at last.
Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi have crafted, over the years, a sound like no other, using traditional Indonesian tribal sonorities and adding primal screams that are closer to punk than we’d imagine. If anything, their fifty-odd minute set seemed way too short but oh so intense and mesmerising, proving to anyone who needs to hear it that the ‘global south’ is much heavier than you think.
Shabara’s instrument, which I believe is called a tube zither, was so loud it would make any nu-metal blast-beat look embarrassing because it was that fucking thunderous. It was one of those moments where I felt my Cape Verdean ancestors were chanting along with them, which is weird because none of my family members have any connection to Indonesia, but the connection between past and present was gripping and powerful. Chills, literal chills…
After a quick break, it was time for some Agriculture. The band, not the trade, although they were giving us all the flavours you’re looking for in this new wave of black metal that is blowing up right now; sweet, savoury, tangy, sour and most importantly, heavy. The Flenser’s best USBM band likes to describe their music as ‘ecstatic’ and it certainly felt like it when they barged on stage as the audience at the Institute was waiting for what would be cathartic and immensely enjoyable.
They’ve brought their A-game to Birmingham, in fact, it was even better than their Roadburn set this year – and if you were there, you know what I mean. Mainly playing songs off their most recent EP Living Easy, Agriculture performed a show that many of us will remember as passionate, compelling and, for lack of a better word, ecstatic.
And then there was Emma Ruth Rundle. I’m going to try my hardest not to be emotional talking about this set, so I will focus on the fact that the entire venue was dead silent during its entirety, only to be broken by those pesky photographers on the crash pit (myself included) and the occasional cheers and applause in between songs. But it was still an incredibly pure and beautiful moment seeing her pour her heart out on stage with nothing other than her gentle guitar and enchanting voice.
Whether she was revisiting her old catalogue (mostly her debut solo album Some Heavy Ocean) or gracing us with titbits of her more recent work, Ms Rundle knows how to hit where it hurts – and I mean that in the nicest way possible. It was a challenge not to leave the set bawling my eyes out on the streets of Birmingham because it was as beautiful and heartfelt as you could imagine.
Sure, she might not be the same person she was back then, but the essence of what we love about her was there, right in front of us, and I hope that she knows that those who left ten minutes before the end of her set to see The Body & Dis Fig didn’t do it because she wasn’t great, she absolutely was, and I felt a bit guilty leaving before the end. But Emma Ruth Rundle, if you read this, thank you for blowing us away once more. You were magnificent, but I didn’t expect anything less from you.
But I would be remiss not to talk about The Body & Dis Fig who made my trip to Brum completely worth it. Ho-Ly-Shit-Snacks, it was beyond incredible, and worth rushing towards the Tardis-like XOYO so we wouldn’t miss a thing. And if I’m solely going by the attendance, many of us had the same idea. By the time the show started, it was packed to the max and, despite my strong dislike for smoke machine, it gave this set an undeniable extra oomph that made it even better.
Felicia Chen, better known as Dis Fig, was raunchy and dangerous, twisting the realms of distortion with her powerful vocals whilst The Body were as loud and extreme as you’d want them to be. It’s not a combination we get to see live a lot, but it was certainly something to witness. Very reminiscent of Elizabeth Colour Wheel’s Lane Shi Otayonii when she collaborated with Sightless Pit early last year. It was so good but wished it lasted a little longer to get the party going.
That being said, the after parties with MC Yallah & Debmaster and Homobloc x FVCK PIGS gave the Supersonic crowd plenty to play with. It was all love and fun, and you just didn’t want it to stop… but my feet said otherwise, so I headed back to my humble abode and went on to dream of what Day Three would be like.
The Body & Dis Fig
Emma Ruth Rundle
Agriculture
Senyawa
Smote
Words & Photos by: Nessie Spencer
