Patriot
East Coast Oi! Fest
May 2008
text & pixs by Jillian Abbene
(SugarBuzz Wash DC/Richmond)
SugarBuzz Magazine
Patriot’s serious following is definite testimony at the Fest. Opening with, ‘CHBC ’ (Chapel Hill Boot Crew), starts with a snaking bass intro attached to a one-noted guitar quiver while the fuzzed-up rhythm guitar holds the ’77 chops. The lead vocalist, Eddie, has a wool cap propped on top of his head. His demeanor is docile, yet his vocals are sharp, gravely, and very consistent. Dave, the guitarist for The Traditionals, and Skip, Patriot’s Manager, chime in on the chorus linking the M8 with that one-noted quiver and tight-driving rhythms—bringing home lots of claps. It’s off to a solid start.
‘Morning After,’ is more melodic with drum-a-tats, cymbals tings, and with a more subdued guitar rhythm. Add ins of the clean combo precision-riff guitar along with Eddie’s more vocal crooning, leaves just enough room for a nice ending in chorus harmonies.
The live version of, ‘Chewing Glass,’ has a deeper, denser, sound with guitar pants in faster cadenced street Oi. Eddie’s vocals are more gravely than usual on the M8 as it spotlights an effortless clean riff. Further, as if breaking a chunk off of heavy bass, a massive searing scale holds all the way to the end.
A stand out song, ‘Best of Friends,’ is so damned catchy. Keeping in accordance to street punk, ‘77 style, the crowd joins in on, “We are the best of friends/We will stick together until the very end/they will try to break us, but we will never bend/’cause we are the best of friends.” Eddie is forefront, and although the lyrics are simple, the message is more profound as the tune itself. There is highlighted camaraderie here as the new lead guitarist Jeremy, holds one long note—well through four verses with the crowd fixated. It’s a superb ending all inclusive of an accapella chorus, one octave up, and with drums pounding all the way to the crash.
The Clash influenced, ‘Cohesion,’ changes the vibe with an opening with one monster guitar seer, and reggae beats grooving. To only have been taken over by a guitar solo, the pit runs in circled fury, and Eddie lets out a gut-hearty echo-laugh on top of the bass line. The guitar strums changes the pace and backs up the reggae reverb a second time, enough to evenly end of the song.
The last song, ‘Songs For The Youth,’ has Dave from The Traditionals again joining in on guitar pluckings as nice double drum-pounds nestle inside the chorus line. For the finale, Eddie hands the mike stand to the audience for crowd participation with repeated (twice) accapella choruses collective with guitar, to join in on the tune. It was touching. Faster drum pounds and shouts in between closes the song and set out with crowd cheers.
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