Gig Review: Tomar Control. Reason To Leave and Spiteful Void at The Salty Dog Northwich - Sunday 29 June 2025

Words: Richie Yates, Photos: Adrian Wharton/Richie Yates

We seem to be at the ‘Dog’ a fair bit lately, not just for our own occasional gig promotions there but for other gigs too. They seem to put on an endless amount of class bands and it probably helps that the beer is pretty good too.

This gig is a lot of fun and it starts in the afternoon and ends in the early evening so transport problems are easily sorted. Its hardcore punk all the way with a variety of flavours.

The second time we’ve caught Spiteful Void inside a fortnight and they are rather good. There’s something about the doomy sound they have that catches the ear. Yeah, it hits moments of wildness but its mainly left to the ghoulish frontman to take care of that end, the drums are wild but accurate, the bass booms deep and tight driving things along and the guitar is solid and deep. They seem like they’ve been doing this all their lives and at least in their heads they probably have. Crusty Metallic Dark, I find myself again, really enjoying them.

Reason To Leave have morphed from a start up skate punk band that was good from the off, to something of a far higher standard. We loved their early gigs as they found their feet but now they are so much more solid, tight and confident. They have something musically good to deliver. its fast, crystalline sharp in delivery and they sound like they deserve the slot at Rebellion Festival they have coming up. It’s fast paced all the way through and with some really catchy songs that their vocalist delivers well as he paces (and bounces) around the room.

Tomar Control are on a month long European tour from their native Peru. They have message to spread, in between songs they talk of terrors happening back in their homeland and how they and others are resisting these. Musically they are hardcore punk with a lot of rock n roll. Sharp, aggressive and with great songs a plenty. They fly from straight edged motifs via hardcore sounds to high energy punk flawlessly. There are messages contained in every track describing their background and experiences and yet they have the crowd bouncing around along with them. For a band with a dark and deep background they manage to create a lot of good times around them and the powerful lead vocals with jagged harmonies added make them a delight to hear.