The Crofter’s Rights resides on Stokes Croft in Central Bristol and is well known within the area for providing punters with a variety of local beers and a wide range of musical acts. Over the years I’ve seen pretty much anything from Drum & Bass and Dubstep Nights to Metal and Hardcore bands. On Wednesday 24th May 2023, the Crofter’s Rights became the stomping ground for Tacoma, Washington Low-Fi Grunge outfit Enumclaw. The 4 piece are currently on their ‘Europe is Doomed’ Tour where they had several shows in the UK before heading to France, Germany, then back to the UK for a couple of shows before a singular show in Spain.
Opening for Enumclaw was Humour. 5 friends from Glasgow, Scotland who have created a very unique and mesmerising sound. Their lead guitarist was channelling his inner Tom Morello, rocking a five panel cap and funky shades and his guitar screeching like a Glaswegian Seagull. It was rare that I would glance over at him during the show and his hand would be lower than the twelfth fret! During the second song they brought, what I thought to be, some elements of Math-core with some pretty obscure chord progressions, but hey, it worked!
Their vocalist was definitely a character. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, but he gave off some Sacha Baron Cohen vibes and he sure was rocking that. There was one vocal technique he pulled off that I’d never come across before. Every few bars in certain songs he would pitch his voice for a particular syllable or beat of the song and it gave an incredible illusion of a record player skipping, very individual and eccentric. Every so often he was let out a small scream. A scream that Gnarwolves fans would recognise and be proud of. At the end of certain songs, or during a break he would rest upon his mic stand and stare longingly into the crowd. At certain points it did make me wonder ‘Is this guy OK?’. He announced one song that was about ‘falling out with friends’, and you could tell that this song was coming from a place of pain as he said so. Humour brought a beautifully mixed sound that was perfectly loud exactly when it should have been.
Enumclaw took the stage, looking like they had just rolled in from the skatepark and brought some melodic grit. A good way to describe this show was Washington Pride blended with Philadelphia Angst. Their vocalist, Aramis, brought his trademark vocals and incorporated screams into songs, such as ‘2002’, and he pulled off the screams perfectly as they increased in intensity exactly in line with the energy of the track.
Between several of the songs the band played some short interludes which gave off a binaural sensation, very similar to what some Melodic Hardcore bands have done, such as early Being as an Ocean. The interludes would also transition into something slightly heavier with some down-tempo parts before kicking into the next song.
A few songs into the set and Aramis managed to snap one of the strings on his guitar. The band managed to pull this off very well while Aramis was changing the string the band continued playing a short interlude to help prevent any abrupt stoppages in the show, very well done and professional.
During the show we found out that Enumclaw, being from the United States, are ‘big bottled water people’ as Aramis requested some water. The band then quoted a commercial from the U.S that didn’t quite land with the crowd as the commercial hadn’t made it’s way over the UK. This was the bands first time in Bristol and they were happy, certainly in typical Bristol fashion, an ‘Old white guy with dreads’ gave one of them a tattoo.
The Bassist, Eli, encouraged a dance battle with two people at the front of the crowd who were giving it their all for the whole show. I managed to sit down with Eli after the show who was kind enough to answer a couple of questions. Eli shared that the tour so far had been the sickest time of their lives and that mainland Europe had been the highlight, the band loved all the old architecture. The band however did not love the traffic on this side of the world, which is pretty understandable! The stand-out shows so far on the tour was Paris as Eli exclaimed ‘it went off!’. They also played a small village in Germany called Haldern which was home to a lot of Sheep and livestock.
I asked Eli what one of the wildest things he’d seen at one of their shows was and he delighted in telling me that Nathan, the one white guy in the band (Guitar), jumped off the stage and hit into Eli’s headstock and there was a lot of blood! Nice one Nathan!
On a more meaningful note I asked what Eli wanted people to take away from their music more than anything. Without any hesitation he answered ‘That it’s part of an era, a moment in time.’
If you get the chance to see Enumclaw whilst they’re out on tour or at any point in the future, I would seriously recommend it. These guys are a lot of fun and they bring an iconic sound and style with them wherever they go.