LIVE FROM THE PIT: N0trixx, Lickshot and Nuns Of The Tundra

It’s the Easter bank holiday weekend, what more of an excuse can you need for a day filled with live music. We spent our Saturday down at Gloucester’s Guildhall for an ‘Alt All Dayer’ put on by your friendly neighbourhood alternative market trader come live music promotor, The Dark Corner.

The live music kicked off in the early afternoon with performances from AUBS THE KID (featuring IDLE HANDS), THE UNDECIDED, ECHOES OF OBSIDIAN, BLACKLISTED MC, HOLLOW RITUAL and DEATH IS A GIRL; all of which were accented by DJ’s HONEYBONES and SOUL METHOD keeping the crowds entertained during the change overs.

Our coverage, however, picks up during the later stages of the day, firstly with the queen of ‘trapped metal’ and rapidly rising star of the underground metal scene, the enigmatic N0TRIXX. Masked and hooded, her eyes piercingly white, the best way to describe a N0TRIXX live show is intense. 

During one of her chats to the crowd she mentions that she suffers with multiple-identities, one of which is a music producer, with all of the songs (bar one) on tonight’s set list produced by her. She also goes on to talk about how she took up music full time 4 years ago after losing both her job, her family and her home after standing up against the invasion of Ukraine in her native Russia.

Having recently released the album ‘A Catalogue Of Madness And Melencholia’, an LP where every track is centred around a different mental health issue. Although for the most part, N0TRIXX could not be contained by the stage; a particular highlight was “St. Chaos” a track from the album dedicated to ADHD see’s her deep into the crowd almost forcing the audience to join her in a ritual of cathartic release in the form of “moving your fuccking feet”. Afterwards, “sorry for being a dick, but it's all for your own good, it's good to get moving, you’ll enjoy the music so much more if you do”.

Local Ska/Nu-Metal/Hip-Hop/Grime/Punk legends, Gloucester’s very own LICKSHOT took the last space on the undercard. Their sound is a melting pot of influences from both their own, and anyone else who is north of 30 years old, youth; lyrically punk, at its core nu-metal, the combination of Stephen ‘Prime Position’ Grimes Hip-Hop/Grime vocals, Dan Snowdon’s Ska tinged guitar tone, Aaron ‘Ron’ Evan’s at times knocking out a straight up D&B beat all tied together with the grooviest tones and harsh vocals from bassist Joe Barton; it's all energy, it’s all fun, it’s impossible not to bop along. 

The guys have a new EP (‘LICK’) dropping this coming Friday, during tonight's quick fire set, we were treated to a couple of brand new tracks from the upcoming release in the form of “Paragon” and “Solutions” (one for all of the emo heads,if you were sad in 2004, then this track is most definitely for you). Sadly the set is a short one this evening, at just six tracks they close out with fan favourite “Back To The Roots” from their debut album 2025’s ‘Inside The Ride’, this live rendition with an extra heavy ending that you won’t hear on the album version.

Closing out a jam packed day of all live music from the entire spectrum of the ‘Alternative’ sphere, were Bristol/Cheltenham based desert/alt-rock lads NUNS OF THE TUNDRA, drenched in fog and bathed blue they emerged onto the stage to the sounds of the Mighty Boosh sketch that inspired their name, the four piece now seemingly a five with the addition of a third guitarist.

We are treated to a brand new track “Caveman” which see’s frontman Troy Tittley instructing the crowd to scream “ooga booga!” along with him.

Later, Tittley mentions that the next song “Float Away”, one of the bands earlier releases from 2017, never felt right to be played live until the sudden and untimely passing of the band's original bassist Tom Benson in his sleep at the age of just 28, subsequently their 2025 self-titled debut album which is booth dedicated to Tom and the content of which is fuelled by that grief. The song is stripped back, its emotional, the entire Guildhall is filled with phone torches raised in reverence. 

Drummer Hugo Bowman start to beat out the recognisable introductory beat to QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE’s “Song For The Dead”, there's a noticeable pop from the crowd as they start to recognise the tune and the rest of the band join in, but before Tittley can break into his best Josh Homme impression the song morphs into their own track “With Me” which would signify the “end” of the set.

Inevitable chants of one more song follow the all too familiar ruse, we all knew there was more to come, visible to almost the entire crowd, there was a clock on the soundman's desk at the side of stage that had been counting down during every bands set, there were a solid 15 minutes still to run. “Who’s over 30, how about we do some songs then we all go to bed, deal?”. What followed was a 1, 2 punch of “Pray 4 U SLay 4 U” and a the bands biggest hit to date, “Low”, if you’ve not had the latter infiltrate your social feeds in the last couple of years then you are surely in the minority of “alt-music space social media users”.

Words and Photos: Simon Arinze