In the run-up to the recording of their first full-length LP, Bastions are back in Wrexham. They bring with them two other stunning acts – Goodtime Boys and Battle For Paris. Frenzi, now renamed The Midnight Lounge is an ideal venue for a gig of this nature, featuring the perfect blend of an intimate setting with high quality standards.

The gig is a SOCIALIST night, and judging by other recent lineups, The Midnight Lounge is the place to be for upcoming live music in the area.

Battle For Paris open with a journey through their technical, casual-defying structures. Their stern commitment to their songs provides an enthralling performance which is as engaging to watch as it is to hear. But overall, it’s genuine, decent, well-crafted music which unfortunately doesn’t have as much of an audience as they deserve.

Goodtime Boys follow, and do so well. They’re more to the point than Battle For Paris, and no less impressive. That’s one thing which is interesting about tonight – for 3 bands whose genres can be traced back to punk-styled roots, there is a high level of skilled musicianship at play tonight.

They work their way through the desperate bleakness of their music, playing mainly from their latest offering, the stunning Are We Now, Or Have We Ever Been EP. Hopefully this won’t be the last time they make their way North to Wrexham.

Bastions emerge with devastatingly heavy new song Organs, and waste no time giving Island Living an early airing immediately after. Their show is best described as pandemonium. There’s always a sense of occasion and performance with Bastions, and tonight is no different.

Bastions frontman Jamie’s stage presence would be impossible to contain on most stages, which is why tonight he bases himself forward towards the gathered audience. That’s not to say he was staying there though – he bounds and stumbles towards and away from the stage and the people surrounding, in a trance-like state.

They’re musically solid as ever tonight, including some very interesting new material. The burning heaviness of the songs mixed with their brand of progressive technicality fills the venue well and is engaging from start to finish. They conclude in typically unhinged fashion, with Misery King managing to spur some movement and reaction.

Their performance is more simply summed up by a quote on the night.

“How do they do it? How do they do that every time?”

If that answer were known, we could wave goodbye to any comments or notions of the UK’s music scene being too polite or apathetic. Until then, we can rely on bands like Bastions.