The long and atrocious tradition of heavy bands wearing masks or makeup varies wildly, from the sublime, such as The Locust. to the ridiculous, like Gwar, all the way through to the just bad with Insane Clown Posse. 

But this endlessly entertaining set from Ohio metallers Mushroomhead was up there with the best.

Few stage shows are as accomplished or plain fun.

With the Blue Man Group’s spectacular water drums and UV lighting an unlikely though inspired reference point, the previously unasked-for link between performance art, rap-metal, slasher films and tribal percussion was provided wonderfully on brilliant opener Qwerty.

Though newer, heavier material from recent album The Righteous and The Butterfly worked best with the multiple drums and the vocalists intensity.
Earlier, Faith No More-esque favourites Solitaire/Unravelling and Sun Doesn’t Rise offered a more melodic counterpoint.

A faintly embarrassing cover of Prince’s When Doves Cry as felt wrong (they’re better than that trend for nu-metallers to cover 80s hits), though this was otherwise a near-perfect sensory assault.

Support came from Exeter’s Sanguine, whose brand of (new?) nu-metal evoked Mushroomhead’s most successful era nicely, particularly covering absent co-headliners American Head Charge.

Local Misfits-meets-metal types Hell Puppets satisfied the mask-wearing stage show criteria though sadly little else, musically.