Original Portuguese version here: http://backstageforum.hot-me.com/t4545-reportagem-swr-porto-hard-1-dia
» SWR Inc. brings us another festival destined to please both Greeks and Trojans. On the first day, the target were classic heavy metal and grindcore lovers. Extremely opposite genres, true, but the line-up seemed to work.
There was a little mess-up with the schedule, as 21:00 set, after all, the beginning of the event and not the opening of the doors. Not that it made a lot of a difference: the venue opened a few minutes before that hour, and UTOPIUM, from Lisbon, got on stage briefly after.
By that time Hard Club was practically empty and one could see the disappointment on singer R‘s face. But he gave himself to the music as if surrounded by fans.
Little by little more people started to show up and the applause got louder, although I’m pretty sure almost no one knew the band. I say this because whenever the songs ended abruptly, so typical in grindcore, the audience hesitated, in doubt if it was really over. But then they would clap their hands hard and even scream in approval.
As there were very few words – UTOPIUM had only half an hour to play – and I was included in those who didn’t know the band, I can’t tell which songs were played. I know that last year they’ve released the EP “Conceptive Prescience”, but this is barely 20 minutes long, so probably they’ve played some material to be featured on a future work as well.
The live performance was very good, full of anger and adrenaline, and if more people had been there, I’m sure a moshpit would have popped up. «
