East Noise Attack Festival’s third edition went through a lot of trouble until it finally took place on December 1, 2007 at Sofia’s Backstage Club. The date was moved, the venue was changed, bands were swapped… but all is well when it ends well.

The show was supposed to start at 9 p.m., which turned out to be just a good wish. No one was really surprised that the concert started 2 hours later, after a one-hour-long soundcheck for the first band, Brothers in Blood, that took place in front of the audience. Shoota & Co’s performance was solid, but suffered from problems with the equipment (that went through the whole festival). That took a bit from the joy away. It’s fair to note that this time the band’s guitarist Sven was exclusively replaced by Liubo (Melekh, S.W.A.F.I., Rise Up).

Next were G.O.T.C., who wre the most extreme band of the night with their Napalm Death and Brutal Truth influenced music. They were right to note that the audience just sits and watches then perform, because pretty much no one knew their songs. A decent moshpit did take place sometime during their set, though.

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Spot was the band that brought the punk rock note to the night. Sadly, they weren’t welcomed warmly. I’m usualy defending the idea that a broader line-up with different bands would attract more different people to a show, but judging by the reaction Spot and later Crowfish received, I’d say there shouldn’t be such a deep differences between bands. On the other hand, Spot’s performance was a solid as you’d expect from such an experienced band.

During Cold Breath’s set the fest finally started looking like a hardcore show – moshing, singing along and such. B.F.D.M. began their set with a cover of Cro-Mags' “World Peace and continued in that spirit. Only halfway through their set I overheard them saying to each other: “Now let’s play one of our songs!” There’s nothing bad about playing covers – everyone is having fun and knows that the band has songs that are worth it. Beside, people had heard them a week ago when the band toured with Last Hope, so playing a different setlist makes sense.

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When it was time for Crowfish, it was around 2-3 a.m. Most of the people decided to leave just then, which made me wonder. The next day was Sunday, so pretty much no one was supposed to go to work… and you’ve stayed at the show until 2 a.m. and you decide just then that you can't take it anymore? Weird... And such a good band doesn’t deserve to play in front of what looked like the main street of a deserted Wild West ghost town where the only movement is the occasional ball of dust...

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Outrage thanked everyone who had decided to stay for the last bands and then played a relatively short set. Because of the time, I guess. The dudes announced they’ll release a new album next year. Hooray for the band that has existed over 10 years! And, by the way, the closing “Payback” totally crushed everyone.

The last band was Indignity who started off with some new songs. They sounded a lot more on the alternative side of punk and hardcore, but really good nonetheless. The pauses between the songs were filled with vocalist Ico’s propaganda explaining the songs’ meanings. Around 4 a.m. they played their last track and left the stage with no encore nor nothing. A rather strange ending for an otherwise awesome festival, but I guess everyone was pretty tired already. As far as I can remember, there hasn’t been a show that would go on until so… early in the morning.

Report & photos: Stefan Topuzov / Tangra Mega Rock

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