Headstone Down Live

Headstone Down
The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, May 20, 2010

This five-man band consisting of Aaron Turner on rhythm guitar, Robbie Terrell on lead guitar, Wil Newman on drums, Terry Harton supplying vocals and Brady Vassallo on bass, got together in January 2009 and have gained a name for themselves in a short space of time. I first saw them perform at the Wedgewood Rooms in February and was intrigued to see how their performance had changed since then. Looking at their MySpace site you would think that they are responsible for only performing metal music but when you see them in action you see how wrong you were in thinking this for they perform Southern groove metal with each band member having the chance to shine in each song.
The Wedgewood Rooms really is a special place. It is a long and established venue which has been around for generations, and I enthral when being told by my grandparents of gigs they used to go to at this very spot. There, on a sweltering May night, four hundred and fifty people joined forces in this gig and showed their appreciation for a band who know how much their fans adore them and they responded by performing six awesome songs which got the pulse racing and the heart beating to an unhealthy level. Their popularity is so high that as well as the gig selling out people were queuing outside to try and get in. They actually headlined the night and were supported by Apnia, Nervous Endings, Puresist and C.O.S. Apnia impressed the most out of these four, but it seemed the substantial crowd were only concerned in seeing one band. And my, oh my, how they delivered to an audience demanding a sublime performance.
Submission is one song which I saw them do previously, and here they have built on this. Building up to an admirable and downright groovy sound Robbie performed a solo which many in the audience must have wished they could do themselves. It was at this point when I and many others realised that, unlike several bands gigging at the moment, Headstone Down are a band who know their audience and rewards them with serving up a musical humdinger for them to gorge on. Trotsky too is one tune which I really enjoyed due to it having a different beat than the others they performed that night. Robbie once more showed his credentials as a superb guitarist, and both Brady and Terry gave such an amazing performance in this song that it made many shout deserved appreciation and gratitude at them.
After the band played their final song and the crowd rushed towards them on stage where they gave countless high fives and hugs, it dawned on me that after such a short space of time it will not take long for the world to know how awesome this band really are. Headstone Down are booked for several gigs and festivals throughout 2010, and I see no reason why further success will not be heading in their direction. Russell Hill