When a show is announced featuring a rare appearance from To The Woods, a grunge and indie inflected hard rocking trio who built a formidable reputation a couple of years ago, there is always something of a sense of anticipation.

When you add to that a newly expanded version of grunge band Coastal Fire Dept and upcoming young rockers Isle Stone (who share more than a bit of musical DNA with the other two acts) then it makes for a great looking night even before doors open.

With many hints and warnings about the potential volume of the show it was clear from the off this would indeed be a noisy affair as Isle Stone launched into what was, from what I’ve seen, their best performance to date.

With a few new originals alongside the likes of Rage Against The Machine’s Bulls On Parade, Pearl Jam’s Alive and Red Hot Chill Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik they were as tight as anyone could expect and came across with more presence and energy than in the past, particularly frontman Reuben Esterhuizen, while guitarist Charlie Stevens not just a visual focal point but a musical one too.

That said credit has to go to the band’s other guitar player Alex Queripel who has also developed a formidable ability.

Highlights of the set came with a pin excellent take on another Chilli Peppers’ song, Parallel Universe and then an epic set closing version of prog-metal titans Tool’s Vicarious which suggested there is even more to come from the band who won many new fans here.

After some recent time in the studio working in a debut record Coastal Fire Dept took the step to add a second guitar to their already formidable wall of sound, somewhat echoing their stylistic forebears in Pixies and later period Nirvana.

While during their first song I wasn’t sure if this was going to work with renowned psychedelic soloist Henry Fears of Lord Vapour maybe not being the obvious first choice for such a straight forward sound but, as they launched into second track Coco, there was no looking back.

The dual guitar attack of Henry and frontman Ollie Goddard was like a boot to the chest and, as one member of the audience pointed out, they’d filled a Henry shaped hole none of us, potentially the band included, knew was there.

As well as the thicker and more dynamic guitar sound Coastal Fire Dept seemed on more energetic and fired up form than ever with Ollie more relaxed on stage, bringing more impact to his performance, and rhythm section of Gareth Thomas (drums) and Saad Frihmat (bass) equally as vitalised.

Unfortunately, while their set was likely the best I’ve seen and seemed to demonstrate a new lease of life for the band (not that they were in need of one), a majority of the audience seemed to take this moment to head outside. Given the stylistic similarities between all three bands and the raw power of the performances it seemed odd anyone would choose to skip any of the performances, but maybe that’s just me…

With yet more amplifiers revealed on stage To The Woods also featured an expanded line up here with both Liam Bewey and Jon Degnen joining them on guitar at different points, and it was with Liam on stage that Bobby Battle, Charlie Holmes and Dan Garnham began the set with a rousing rendition of Real American, the entrance theme for era defining American pro-wrestler Hulk Hogan.

From there it was exactly the kind of loud and lairy chaos we’ve come to expect from the band and, even though Bobby was worried about having a bad throat, between himself, Charlie and the audience they never seemed to miss anything and it even seemed to bring everyone together in the spirit of the occasion.

As the set went on there were a few more surprise covers including a Killswitch Engage track that saw Jon Degnen ‘come out of retirement’ (to quote Bobby) that went down a storm.

Along with these we got all the big To The Woods ‘hits’ along with the usual interaction with the audience we’ve come to expect from the larger than life, in physical and charismatic senses, frontman, suitably bedecked in t-shirt bearing the slogan for giant pro-wrestler Braun Strowman, the ‘Monster Among Us’.

To close things off Bewey and Degnen were both back on stage for a raucous but surprisingly faithful take on Creed’s My Sacrifice (another big song for wrestling fans of a certain vintage) that left the crowd calling for more.

Certainly the set wasn’t the slickest To The Woods have ever performed for a couple of reasons, including that ahead of the show they’d only had time for one practice with them all on the island, but really that didn’t matter as with a sheer force of will, and the audience firmly onside and up for a good time, To The Woods rounded off an already good night on a real high.

All three bands then showed that ‘grunge’, for wont of a better word, may have had its heyday in the mainstream more than 20 years ago but it can still be an inventive, enjoyable and powerful style of music today.