No Age, ATP Nightmare Before Christmas

No Age are just two men. Two human men. But to hear them is to think they are creating the sound of a hundred stampeding elephants (who can play guitar and drums, obviously). Ok, I don’t know where I’m going with this but you get the idea.

From the very start of this Night Before Christmas set the mosh pit is never anything less than a sea of bodies tossed around by the ferocity of the riffs emanating from the stage.

They leave the crowd sweaty, battered and probably bleeding but also stunned and happy. As with every time I’ve seen them, this is a vicious, raucous assault on all your senses. By the end ears are ringing, eyes are bleary and bodies are shaking.

‘Fever Dreaming’, ‘Teen Creeps’, ‘Every Artist Needs A Tragedy’ and ‘Brain Burner’; it’s easy to forget how many hundred storey high riffs they have in their armoury. ‘Fever Dreaming’ especially, with its almost irresistible, face melting riff, forces you to mosh.

Randy Randall’s effects pedals must be nearly molten, the amount of time he forces them to go into overdrive. The sound is vast, nearly drowning out Dean Allen Spunt’s shouty vocals. There’s little talking in between songs – they just launch into each blast of their lo-fi punk (but to call it that is a vast understatement of what they do).

The set takes a detour as they ask for a crowd member to join them for a cover of Black Flag’s ‘Revenge’. When a member of the crowd has the courage to clamber on to the stage (a person who looks no older than 12 maybe) he is so good as to make you suspect he may have been planted in the crowd.

They end with ‘Everybody’s Down’, Spunt coming from behind the drum kit to stare down and shout at the audience. They leave behind a shellshocked crowd – it’s hard to believe Butlins’ Red Room has experienced something like this before (well since the last time No Age played here).