Eat Fast storm ahead at a triumphant Alternative Escape show

The crowd at the East Street Tap is spewing out the door within seconds of Eat Fast’s arrival. Rushing forward with ‘Fenham Dreadlock’, it’s all guns blazing for the first of their two Alternative Escape shows today.

“We’re from ‘da north’,” they sarcastically offer up by way of introduction, this marking one of the first times the group have shown their faces, rather than hide behind their day-glo visual. “This song is about all my mates who moved to ‘da south’.”

‘Da south’ rightly laps it up. The recently released ‘Fenham Dread (Lock)’ EP gets a full showing, ‘Byker Drone’ in particular offering perfect insight into just why that distorted debut track pricked so many ears. It all hinges around those blown-out vocals – a megaphone-aping call to arms, marking them out as an island in the seas of fuzzed-out fakers. One of the most exciting new bands around? Without a doubt.

Newer material sounds huge, Eat Fast roughing up their edges with sandpaper rather than taking the usual route of buffing and polishing. Their closer finds that gravelly vocal superseded by a full-throated scream. It’s the perfect encapsulation of the Eat Fast ethos – why bog yourself down in over-thought melody and harmony when there’s so much dirt and grit to spew?