On Friday 22nd April, Queen Street Brewhouse held another one of their popular gigs that are now becoming a weekly tradition for Colchester students to attend, making it a frequent socialising spot for surrounding teens to end their week. Hosting a range of different events showcasing Colchester’s emerging talent, Queen Street Brewhouse once again opened its doors to local bands and music fanatics.

 

This week’s lineup included the band Panic Mode (@_panic_mode_) playing from 9pm to 10:30pm with support from Battak (@__battak__) who warmed up the crowd and played from 7pm to 8:30pm. The pub is quickly becoming a regular gig spot for local upcoming bands with previous gigs involving the likes of High Fly, Greebo, Intrinsic and The Verdicts; however, this was Panic Mode’s first time playing at Queen Street Brewhouse. They’re relatively new to the game with the band’s official social media presence starting in March this year, but their talent speaks for itself and their strong sense of stylistic direction can be heard in their music. Battak consists of four members that each bring a musical talent to the group. It's made up of a guitarist, bassist, vocalist and drummer. Battak played an mix of original and cover songs at the gig, bringing up the energy with classics such as ‘Sex on Fire’ by Kings of Leon and ‘Drain You’ by Nirvana.

 

The pub is charming and quaint, but gets very easily cramped with the amount of people that turn up so a lot of the audience spilled out onto the street and round the outside of the pub into the smoking area. After the performances, people usually stay later but due to noise complaints it ended earlier than anticipated.

 

Many of the photos from the gig posted on the band’s instagram, as well as the cover photo for this article, were taken by Elani Doug. She mentioned that she was introduced to Battak through a friend of the band and things went from there. On talking about her experience with concert photography, she said “I've never really been to a gig like that to do photography so it was really new and fun, obviously the massive crowd made it more difficult, but it was really good.”