A few weeks ago, I was approached by Sam from Fall From Ruin to let me know they were in the HRH Road to Hell competition. A few weeks later I find myself at the Sheffield 02 Academy.
For many of the expectant crowd this was the first festival or even gig they had been to in nearly two years. In the already hot sweaty upstairs smaller venue, we were treated to the surprise guests Apply Within who opened the evening with a superbly energetic set that helped to whip the burgeoning crowd’s excitement to a yet higher level. The energy in the room was building by the moment. Soon it was time for Fall From Ruin to take the stage. Opening with the superb “Mr Nice Guy” followed by a cover of Black Stone Cherry’s “Blame It On The Boom Boom” that had everybody in the room singing along. They then moved on to play “So Long” and closed the set with the fantastic “Sympathy”.
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Fall From Ruin were followed by Building Giants with a set that lived up to their name. They were then followed by Bastette with a truly stunning performance which held the crowd captivated from start to finish. Bastette have been receiving large amounts of radio play over the recent weeks with a performance like this you can see why. Kaluss were up next followed by Kent band The Lost Search Party with Cry For Mercy closing the proceedings.
Now we just had to wait for the votes to be counted. After what seemed like ages the bands were announced in reverse order and Fall From Ruin were second with the excellent Bastette in first place who, after being awarded a makeshift trophy (the other one has not made its way over to the country yet due to the increasingly normal delays we are seeing here in the UK), played a fantastic encore of the hits we have heard so much of on the radio to an ecstatic audience.
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I look forward to seeing what this year’s winners and the runners up achieve over the coming couple of years.
All photos by Shellstar Media
