Post by davecox on Jun 8, 2009 12:53:21 GMT
Thursday May 21st – Star Fucking Hipsters, Moral Dillema, 2 Sick Monkeys, Dead Subverts
@ The Star & Garter, Manchester
What a fuckin weekend! Too much going on in 4 days (and not enough going on upstairs, because of it) for me to write an intelligent, MWJ “dictionary.com” style review. Opt for list of thoughts/memories instead.
4:23pm- catch train from Colwyn bay billy no mates as no ones up for Manchester tonight. Sam from Impaled Existence at c/bay train station is a bonus as he’s goin to shotton on the piss. We have a laugh/ chat with the help of 4 cheeky cans of “hairy teeth” strongbow, which get me well on my way. arrive at the star and garter about half an hour before the doors open, an get chatting to dave from east London, he’s been long distancing it on cheap but ridiculously long bus journeys all day and tells me tomorrow he’s going up to Glasgow to see star fuckin hipsters again, before flying back home. Fair doos.
Doors open, dean (slit promotions) is looking a bit anxious, i read a myspace bulletin saying if there was a shit turn out he’d probably top himself! Thankfully he hasn’t yet as he’s a good bloke, all be it extremely brave, putting on 3 big names in 6 days, I’d fuckin shit my mingin, crusty kecks if that was me, although I suppose its abit easier to pull off in a city like Manchester where theres a bigger punk scene than somewhere like north wales…? I said bigger, not better ;-)
An so its on with the first band, DEAD SUBVERTS. These boys from Cornwall(?) have helped us (global parasite) out loads with their label (pumpkin records), compilation cd’s and gig contacts. Proper fuckin diy band these with a well good attitude, how it should be. Much respect. Never seen them play before but blown away by how good the drummer is, reminds me of ton (minus nine lives/stuntface) but with loads of blast beats thrown in for good measure. Really chanty hardcore punk with something to say as an added bonus. Songs like “Taking Civil Liberties” and “You Call This Civilisation?” were slapped in ya face like nobodies business, an the songs ive not heard before were just as ferocious. They invite stza (leftover crack/star fuckin hipsters) on stage for a beer bong, cue video evidence… www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxIk4CzuPrw
All good stuff.
Next up 2 SICK MONKEYS. was given a demo by these a while back in Morecambe (possibly 2003), but shamefully, never actually listened to it, I tried finding the demo recently but it seems ive lost it. dickhead. Theyre ace, they consist of a bassist and drummer but have a much fuller sound than you might expect. The bassist uses loads of bass chords and creates a sound that sounds like a lot more than just one instrument, an the drummers on top of his game aswell. It is the bassist that gives this band such character though, he entertains the crowd with his fast paced wit an southern ‘del boy’ banter. Lyrics like “who do ya think smoked all ya hash? who’s do ya think knicked all ya cash? who set fire to ya dog? Me, me, me, me, me, me me me etc”. upbeat, feel good plod along sort of stuff, you need to hear them yaself really. Give em a listen on myspaz innit.
Next band: MORAL DILEMA. Matt misfit copied me their album a few weeks prior to this gig so I was lookin forward to seein them when I found out they were on the bill aswell. A 3 piece from London somewhere I think. All upbeat, singalong chanty stuff, remind me of f-minus at times in the way the singing switches from 1 person to another. Other times they sound like against me and then the restarts. Probably not fair to compare them to other bands as they do have their own style in their own right. But im no muso, I don’t know all the fuckin musical terms an stuff, (apart from “Flange”). Moral delema are well worth a listen anyway. Stand out track for me was at the end of their set, not sure what the songs called cos my cd is a copy with no track listing but they hammered out a song about the police beatin fuck out of people, sounds quite generic in writing but the song is really fuckin good, well worth givin em a try.
Next up THE STAR FUCKING HIPSTERS. Consisting of members of leftover crack, the slackers and apparently the bouncing souls although I didn’t recognize anyone from the bouncing souls tonight…? Anyway, been hammering SFH’s album “Until were dead” since the misfit gave me a copy about a month or 2 ago, much like leftover crack but with a few more slower songs, but just as good. They open tonights set with a song about 9/11 being an inside job (“smart folks know what I mean”). By this time the whole room is bouncing, an its all fuckin goooood. Im pissed by now aswell an dancing like a twat. Managed to film another video, of them doing “Two Cups Of Tea” but memory ran out on camera so its not very long video… here it is… www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyyplbFot7o
I miss the last train at 11:15 or whatever it is as SFH are playin their last couple of songs, couldn’t care less though cos its one of them. Lucky for me though after the gig im invited back to the autonomads/war coma’s squat. the dead subverts an moral dilemma are stayin there aswell. Anyway, much more drinks/smokes/slurring fun had here, including someone passing out an everyone drawin all over him (for once its not me), I crawl into a taxi at around 4am to catch a train at 5:05, which is delayed til 6:05. an how jammy is this… I passed out on the train an was woken up by the tanoy saying “you are now at Colwyn bay”… run off the train, jumping through the closing doors “Indianna Jones” style, with the ticket man shouting “go on lad”, it was classy ya should’ve seen it! Walked up station road, stumbled on a bus, got home about half 8 / 9 ish and slept for about 2 hours til I got picked up to head off to Southampton…
Friday May 22nd – Global Parasite, Martha Beck, Haywire, In Her Ruin, Smokey Bastards @ The Hobbit, Southampton
I brought a carrier bag full of bananas, apples an pears to share with matt, gary an gaz for the road trip an I think this is probably the best way of describing my state of mind as it deteriorated over the course of 4 days, at this point looking abit tired but still juicy an full of flavour (just like fruit). managed to get about an hours sleep on the way down to southampton an wasn’t really feeling THAT tired at this point. Was lookin forward to meetin up with Alice an Sarah, good friends of ours from the wasted festival in Morecambe, who’ve become regulars at the dirty weekend and rebellion festival in blackpool. It was Sarah’s birthday aswell which is why this gig was organised so we knew it would be a merry one to say the least. We arrived in Southampton at about 5pm, dropped off the gear at the hobbit before headin over to sarah’s house, which we found easily enough thanks to ‘Julie’ the sat nav. Felt fuckin ace to arrive after such a long drive, sit down with a refreshing beer an smoke, mmmmm. They kindly made us some tasty veggie spag bol an I took the role of ‘the dog’ getting dished all the leftovers that matt an gary couldn’t finish (skinny fuckers!). After listenin to some girl that no one (not even the people that lived there) knew, telling some very interesting and far fetched stories about breaking a policeman’s nose an getting away with it cos her dad knows him; I think she was on speed… we moved on back to the hobbit to catch the first band…
THE SMOKEY BASTARDS, a sort of irish folk band from Reading consisting of about 6 members, including violin, accordion etc. theyre drummer couldn’t make it tonight an there were moments when they struggled to stay in time because of it, but most of it sounded ace, really colourful an interesting music, played really well. They had songs about the local alchoholics sitting on roundabouts with no shoes etc. I was thinking I’ll have to approach these when they finish to ask if they have any demo’s, but forgot. Was also thinking merry chris would love these as he loves his irish folk music, an that it was a shame he couldn’t make it since he drove us down here last time.
Next up were IN HER RUIN. Musically, this band were quite talented but didn’t keep me interested, yes I suppose its subjective cos im not into this type of music but I do think it was generally quite boring. It was like trendy sounding screamo type stuff, im not very familiar with this type of music to make any informed or intelligent observations but I know I couldn’t make out any kind of lyrical content, an although you can argue that’s the same with punk, I think its fair to say this was just growls an squeals from start to finish. If there were any deep an meaningful points being made, there was no attempt to express them inbetween the songs, so an outsider like me who’d never heard them before leaves none the wiser. Visually (it shouldn’t matter, but it seemed like it did to this band), a bit dodgy in my opinion, all this Jon Travolta emo dancing, hair straighteners an cheesy smiles, ya know when theyre all throwin their moves an lookin round to check everyone saw them do it. Right on, dude. Too much style, not enough passion. To be fair, they looked like they were having fun an who am I to knock that, I just wonder whether they’ll still be into it when it goes out of fashion. Their mates formed a pyramid down the front an it was ace to see the bassist from Haywire (Southampton punk band) climb up on top with his fist in the air, causing the whole thing to come crashin down gloriously!
Which brings us to the next band, HAYWIRE… more my cuppa tea, hardcore punk with a anarcho edge to it, there were a few moments when they slipped out of time, particularly when their songs went into blast beats, but I think its cos the snare is a lot quieter when its that fast an it didn’t cut through. If the snare was mic’d up I don’t think they’d have suffered this problem, as they sounded tight as fuck in other parts. They had a song about the G20, an said something about how Ian Tomlinson was literally beaten to death, an didnt die from a heart attack. It wouldn’t surprise me anymore. Strange that the city of London CCTV was down for the two days of that protest though, and NATO troops were on stand by, they were obviously anticipating the excuse to attack protests en masse and didn’t want the camera’s on. Anyway, really enjoyed Haywire’s set, an seemed like a decent bunch in the brief conversations we had with them after the gig. Theyre up for gig swaps, watch this space…
Next band, MARTHA BECK. see what I wrote about In Her Ruin… but with different people and seem more confident and experienced on stage.
Then we played an we were ofcourse the best band ever (that’s sarcasm), maybe someone else that was there can write something about us, if one of those emo bands wanna write something that could be interesting! After playing the last song far too quickly, I felt very very fucked, and it wasn’t very long before I was pukin up all over the bog floor. Something which is getting far too routine nowadays, and I don’t know why.
After the gig we went back to Sarah’s for the house party, she lives in a really residential area, PA speaker’s pumpin out music really fuckin loud all night til about 7am apparently or something daft like that. No complaints while we were there atleast, which was quite impressive. I opted for some cheap 7.5% ‘Amber Jack’ cider an made a mess of myself, talking all kinds of deep ramblings with some bloke who I cant remember his name and gaz rampton. I think the bloodline of mary magdelin / da vinci code was the ‘hot topic’ for a few hours, but I cant remember what was said about it by anyone. Eventually found a quiet floor space at about 6am an got abit of a ‘power nap’ til about half 11. Then we all got movin again to pick up the gear from the hobbit an get a move on to the next gig in Birmingham. The bag of fruit was by now looking pretty uninviting, a banana had split in the bag and the cider gave my head a similarly ‘rotton fruit’ type feeling. You get the idea anyway… so off we go to Birmingham.
Saturday May 23rd – Assert, Machinochrist, Global Parasite, Theo, Anti Virus @ The Wagon And Horse, Birmingham
Despite being knackered an hungover, we were all enjoyin what seemed like a really quick drive up to brum. With windows down an music nice an loud, the sun was warm an the air in the face was just what the doctor ordered. We arrived in Birmingham around half 4 / 5pm an had enough time to go for a walk into the city centre (not enough time to find the shop selling legal highs, but this problem was solved later on). A quick pit stop at a pizza take away an were topped up an ready for another all nighter! back to the venue, found out Subhumans played there the night before an wonder whether that will effect the turn out tonight.
ANTI VIRUS are joining us for this one an when they arrive its time for a pint before settin up the amps etc. as time goes on, and not that many people arrive we feel gutted for anti virus when theyre asked to start playing (to us 4 and 2 others), it seems the subhumans did get everyone out last night an no one can be arsed, or probably more likely; everyone’s too skint for tonight’s gig. Which was a shame cos anti virus were soundin mean! I didn’t do the usual ‘No Classification’ and ‘Burn The Temple’ as its been getting abit too predictable and routine, an so I enjoyed watchin them play those songs without havin to worry about getting involved. Stand out track for me tonight though was ‘Waiting To Die’. Well good, really lookin forward to hearing that recorded properly. The promoter tells us to help ourselves to a crate of beer behind the bar, which ofcourse we comply to, wouldn’t wanna upset anyone!
Next up, THEO. A solo guitarist/drummer who records a few lines on his guitar, looping them with his pedals, an then plays drums over the top, doing it all live. we played with this guy in Wolverhampton last year at a benefit for the ‘shut down heckler & koch’ campaign an were impressed then by the talent he obviously has. The only thing I thought was towards the end of his set it was getting abit samey, like his formula for each song seemed to be the same. Starting off the song with a fairly quiet, interesting riff, then adding some kind of harmonising lead over the top, an maybe something else on top of that before moving on to the drum kit and playing about 4 or 5 different beats over the same guitar loops, before ending the song with more guitar playing white noise, then cutting the loop dead to start the next song immediately (following the same formula again). But fair doos, he was up there doin what he obviously enjoys doin, plus he had the biggest crowd of the night an went down well with the 20 odd people in the room.
Next up was us…
After us was MACHINOCHRIST, a DJ on his laptop, doin half an hour of none stop aphex twin type crazy drum an bass, but with much less rhthym, it was all over the place an my head was hurting after pukin up in the bogs again.
And last on tonight was ASSERT, for those who aren’t familiar with these theyre basically full on thrash hardcore punk from brum with plenty to say. havnt seen these since they played the Dudley a few years ago, that night there was a shit turn out an britt cornered me in the bogs sayin if they didn’t get some petrol money the Dudley would get burnt down. To be honest I wasn’t sure how it would go tonight, whether he’d recognise me an be funny or whatever. I didn’t bother tryin to patch things up, its not my job to an Im not gonna run round lickin rim just cos of some trivial shit in the past. There is no issue. Back to what matters, the music; ‘Righteous Assembly’ is a fuckin ace album, particularly when your well pissed off, a few of the songs on that album were played tonight, like ‘1,2,3,4 Go’, ‘Never Forget You’ and ‘Start A War’. Probably a few others but cant remember now. Really wanted to get their new album but didn’t have any money as usual. Weve booked them for the dirty weekend at the hendre hall in September (11th and 12th) so come an take the musical onslaught!
After that, a load more drinks are drunk, too much for gary to drive to the party the promoter’s invited us to, so we get a couple of taxi’s, the one we got broke down half way but that’s another story, an not that exciting either. An the party is in another residential area, an again with a very loud sound system. There is a hell of a lot of empathy at this party, for some probably fairly obvious reason, although I don’t really wanna spell it out. As I write this im getting flash backs of singin pressure drop by toots and the maytals at the top of my lungs, aahhh good times! anyway I end up passing out, leaving myself vulnerable to jam and his ‘teabag’ routine, fuckin bastard. I think he got a photo of it aswell which will probably end up on here. I did get him back the next day though by scratching my sweaty, cheesy balls for about ten minutes an putting my fingers in his mouth an up his nostrils. He didn’t like that one bit, an im not surprised, I sniffed my fingers afterwards an it wasn’t pleasant.
Sunday May 24th – Subhumans, Meinhof, Refuse All, War Coma, The Rebel Conspiracy @ The Star And Garter, Manchester
By now the bag of fruit had been dumped at a service station somewhere north of Birmingham, an my sense of humour had deteriorated into spitting greenies in my hand an slapping jam in the face (he’d just shown me the pic of him teabagging me). Arrived back home about 4:45pm, had about enough time to eat an apple (of the cox variety, ofcourse), before being picked up by MWJ for Subhumans tonight. I mumbled various feeble attempts to explain why I was feeling so ‘unstable’ but not sure if any of it made sense. Had a fair bit of sleep on the way there this time. Met up with ‘sticky vicky’ on arrival at the venue, was also good to see a load of other friends an familiar faces from the other night an past gigs in the north west.
THE REBEL CONSPIRACY kick things off, not sure where these are from, couldn’t make out the accent. But pretty good punk rock. They look fairly young but are full of confidence on stage an sound pretty good, remind me of the dayglo abortions but without the snotty vocals. Cant really sit down anymore as head is getting heavy an don’t wanna pass out an end up punching a wall again.
Next up WAR COMA, the drummer from the autonomads plays for these, an I think sam from kamikaze sperm…? the rest of the band are all familiar faces from regular Manchester/Stockport/Bradford gigs in the past. Full on d-beat type stuff here, makin some really interesting, conflict type hamonising riffs, an the singer had a roaring voice, an jumpin down off the stage an bouncing round with a few people that had started dancing. Definitely wanna get these down here at some point soon, watch this space…
Next up REFUSE ALL. Angry anarcho punk from London. first impressions where nothing new here, fairly generic. But as I stuck it out an gave em a fair go, they grew on me loads. They ended with a pretty slow one about something like ‘do you really believe your free?’ or something like that, was good anyway. Im suffering a serious lack of memory about this evening an I wasn’t drunk at all.
Next up were MEINHOF, we played with these a while back in Bradford, really enjoyed them then an really enjoyed them tonight aswell. They’ve changed the line up slightly since then, I think the singer used to just sing but now she’s playing bass aswell. I noticed this time she’s a hell of a good frontwoman for this band, full of nasty eye-balling at the audience an a chunky scream that reminded me of lemmy! There’s an obvious tank girl similarity aswell. Gonna try an get these up to north wales too at some point.
And so finally, its SUBHUMANS. Was so fuckin tired an drained by this point, felt absolutely exhausted. But when they kicked into the opening song ‘All Gone Dead’ there was just an urge to get stuck in down the front. Had to be done didn’t it? They churned through the classic back catalogue an soon there was a hefty crowd dancing like bastards. They did suffer a few technical difficulties though mid set, not enough guitar in the monitors, then too much guitar in the monitors (making it feed back) an I heard the drummer mention his monitor wasn’t working for a couple of songs aswell. But once that was sorted they got back into it, knockin out ‘this is not an advert’, ‘apathy’, ‘joe public’, ‘society’, ‘mickey mouse is dead’ ‘work rest play die’ aswell as a load of others but I cant think, they finished off with the anthemic ‘religious wars’. Seen the Subhumans a fair few times now an they never fail, it was an ace way to end the weekend aswell. Captured ‘no’ on video an here it is… www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1ixoU06fJ4
Review, pics an vids by dave cox
@ The Star & Garter, Manchester
What a fuckin weekend! Too much going on in 4 days (and not enough going on upstairs, because of it) for me to write an intelligent, MWJ “dictionary.com” style review. Opt for list of thoughts/memories instead.
4:23pm- catch train from Colwyn bay billy no mates as no ones up for Manchester tonight. Sam from Impaled Existence at c/bay train station is a bonus as he’s goin to shotton on the piss. We have a laugh/ chat with the help of 4 cheeky cans of “hairy teeth” strongbow, which get me well on my way. arrive at the star and garter about half an hour before the doors open, an get chatting to dave from east London, he’s been long distancing it on cheap but ridiculously long bus journeys all day and tells me tomorrow he’s going up to Glasgow to see star fuckin hipsters again, before flying back home. Fair doos.
Doors open, dean (slit promotions) is looking a bit anxious, i read a myspace bulletin saying if there was a shit turn out he’d probably top himself! Thankfully he hasn’t yet as he’s a good bloke, all be it extremely brave, putting on 3 big names in 6 days, I’d fuckin shit my mingin, crusty kecks if that was me, although I suppose its abit easier to pull off in a city like Manchester where theres a bigger punk scene than somewhere like north wales…? I said bigger, not better ;-)
An so its on with the first band, DEAD SUBVERTS. These boys from Cornwall(?) have helped us (global parasite) out loads with their label (pumpkin records), compilation cd’s and gig contacts. Proper fuckin diy band these with a well good attitude, how it should be. Much respect. Never seen them play before but blown away by how good the drummer is, reminds me of ton (minus nine lives/stuntface) but with loads of blast beats thrown in for good measure. Really chanty hardcore punk with something to say as an added bonus. Songs like “Taking Civil Liberties” and “You Call This Civilisation?” were slapped in ya face like nobodies business, an the songs ive not heard before were just as ferocious. They invite stza (leftover crack/star fuckin hipsters) on stage for a beer bong, cue video evidence… www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxIk4CzuPrw
All good stuff.
Next up 2 SICK MONKEYS. was given a demo by these a while back in Morecambe (possibly 2003), but shamefully, never actually listened to it, I tried finding the demo recently but it seems ive lost it. dickhead. Theyre ace, they consist of a bassist and drummer but have a much fuller sound than you might expect. The bassist uses loads of bass chords and creates a sound that sounds like a lot more than just one instrument, an the drummers on top of his game aswell. It is the bassist that gives this band such character though, he entertains the crowd with his fast paced wit an southern ‘del boy’ banter. Lyrics like “who do ya think smoked all ya hash? who’s do ya think knicked all ya cash? who set fire to ya dog? Me, me, me, me, me, me me me etc”. upbeat, feel good plod along sort of stuff, you need to hear them yaself really. Give em a listen on myspaz innit.
Next band: MORAL DILEMA. Matt misfit copied me their album a few weeks prior to this gig so I was lookin forward to seein them when I found out they were on the bill aswell. A 3 piece from London somewhere I think. All upbeat, singalong chanty stuff, remind me of f-minus at times in the way the singing switches from 1 person to another. Other times they sound like against me and then the restarts. Probably not fair to compare them to other bands as they do have their own style in their own right. But im no muso, I don’t know all the fuckin musical terms an stuff, (apart from “Flange”). Moral delema are well worth a listen anyway. Stand out track for me was at the end of their set, not sure what the songs called cos my cd is a copy with no track listing but they hammered out a song about the police beatin fuck out of people, sounds quite generic in writing but the song is really fuckin good, well worth givin em a try.
Next up THE STAR FUCKING HIPSTERS. Consisting of members of leftover crack, the slackers and apparently the bouncing souls although I didn’t recognize anyone from the bouncing souls tonight…? Anyway, been hammering SFH’s album “Until were dead” since the misfit gave me a copy about a month or 2 ago, much like leftover crack but with a few more slower songs, but just as good. They open tonights set with a song about 9/11 being an inside job (“smart folks know what I mean”). By this time the whole room is bouncing, an its all fuckin goooood. Im pissed by now aswell an dancing like a twat. Managed to film another video, of them doing “Two Cups Of Tea” but memory ran out on camera so its not very long video… here it is… www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyyplbFot7o
I miss the last train at 11:15 or whatever it is as SFH are playin their last couple of songs, couldn’t care less though cos its one of them. Lucky for me though after the gig im invited back to the autonomads/war coma’s squat. the dead subverts an moral dilemma are stayin there aswell. Anyway, much more drinks/smokes/slurring fun had here, including someone passing out an everyone drawin all over him (for once its not me), I crawl into a taxi at around 4am to catch a train at 5:05, which is delayed til 6:05. an how jammy is this… I passed out on the train an was woken up by the tanoy saying “you are now at Colwyn bay”… run off the train, jumping through the closing doors “Indianna Jones” style, with the ticket man shouting “go on lad”, it was classy ya should’ve seen it! Walked up station road, stumbled on a bus, got home about half 8 / 9 ish and slept for about 2 hours til I got picked up to head off to Southampton…
Friday May 22nd – Global Parasite, Martha Beck, Haywire, In Her Ruin, Smokey Bastards @ The Hobbit, Southampton
I brought a carrier bag full of bananas, apples an pears to share with matt, gary an gaz for the road trip an I think this is probably the best way of describing my state of mind as it deteriorated over the course of 4 days, at this point looking abit tired but still juicy an full of flavour (just like fruit). managed to get about an hours sleep on the way down to southampton an wasn’t really feeling THAT tired at this point. Was lookin forward to meetin up with Alice an Sarah, good friends of ours from the wasted festival in Morecambe, who’ve become regulars at the dirty weekend and rebellion festival in blackpool. It was Sarah’s birthday aswell which is why this gig was organised so we knew it would be a merry one to say the least. We arrived in Southampton at about 5pm, dropped off the gear at the hobbit before headin over to sarah’s house, which we found easily enough thanks to ‘Julie’ the sat nav. Felt fuckin ace to arrive after such a long drive, sit down with a refreshing beer an smoke, mmmmm. They kindly made us some tasty veggie spag bol an I took the role of ‘the dog’ getting dished all the leftovers that matt an gary couldn’t finish (skinny fuckers!). After listenin to some girl that no one (not even the people that lived there) knew, telling some very interesting and far fetched stories about breaking a policeman’s nose an getting away with it cos her dad knows him; I think she was on speed… we moved on back to the hobbit to catch the first band…
THE SMOKEY BASTARDS, a sort of irish folk band from Reading consisting of about 6 members, including violin, accordion etc. theyre drummer couldn’t make it tonight an there were moments when they struggled to stay in time because of it, but most of it sounded ace, really colourful an interesting music, played really well. They had songs about the local alchoholics sitting on roundabouts with no shoes etc. I was thinking I’ll have to approach these when they finish to ask if they have any demo’s, but forgot. Was also thinking merry chris would love these as he loves his irish folk music, an that it was a shame he couldn’t make it since he drove us down here last time.
Next up were IN HER RUIN. Musically, this band were quite talented but didn’t keep me interested, yes I suppose its subjective cos im not into this type of music but I do think it was generally quite boring. It was like trendy sounding screamo type stuff, im not very familiar with this type of music to make any informed or intelligent observations but I know I couldn’t make out any kind of lyrical content, an although you can argue that’s the same with punk, I think its fair to say this was just growls an squeals from start to finish. If there were any deep an meaningful points being made, there was no attempt to express them inbetween the songs, so an outsider like me who’d never heard them before leaves none the wiser. Visually (it shouldn’t matter, but it seemed like it did to this band), a bit dodgy in my opinion, all this Jon Travolta emo dancing, hair straighteners an cheesy smiles, ya know when theyre all throwin their moves an lookin round to check everyone saw them do it. Right on, dude. Too much style, not enough passion. To be fair, they looked like they were having fun an who am I to knock that, I just wonder whether they’ll still be into it when it goes out of fashion. Their mates formed a pyramid down the front an it was ace to see the bassist from Haywire (Southampton punk band) climb up on top with his fist in the air, causing the whole thing to come crashin down gloriously!
Which brings us to the next band, HAYWIRE… more my cuppa tea, hardcore punk with a anarcho edge to it, there were a few moments when they slipped out of time, particularly when their songs went into blast beats, but I think its cos the snare is a lot quieter when its that fast an it didn’t cut through. If the snare was mic’d up I don’t think they’d have suffered this problem, as they sounded tight as fuck in other parts. They had a song about the G20, an said something about how Ian Tomlinson was literally beaten to death, an didnt die from a heart attack. It wouldn’t surprise me anymore. Strange that the city of London CCTV was down for the two days of that protest though, and NATO troops were on stand by, they were obviously anticipating the excuse to attack protests en masse and didn’t want the camera’s on. Anyway, really enjoyed Haywire’s set, an seemed like a decent bunch in the brief conversations we had with them after the gig. Theyre up for gig swaps, watch this space…
Next band, MARTHA BECK. see what I wrote about In Her Ruin… but with different people and seem more confident and experienced on stage.
Then we played an we were ofcourse the best band ever (that’s sarcasm), maybe someone else that was there can write something about us, if one of those emo bands wanna write something that could be interesting! After playing the last song far too quickly, I felt very very fucked, and it wasn’t very long before I was pukin up all over the bog floor. Something which is getting far too routine nowadays, and I don’t know why.
After the gig we went back to Sarah’s for the house party, she lives in a really residential area, PA speaker’s pumpin out music really fuckin loud all night til about 7am apparently or something daft like that. No complaints while we were there atleast, which was quite impressive. I opted for some cheap 7.5% ‘Amber Jack’ cider an made a mess of myself, talking all kinds of deep ramblings with some bloke who I cant remember his name and gaz rampton. I think the bloodline of mary magdelin / da vinci code was the ‘hot topic’ for a few hours, but I cant remember what was said about it by anyone. Eventually found a quiet floor space at about 6am an got abit of a ‘power nap’ til about half 11. Then we all got movin again to pick up the gear from the hobbit an get a move on to the next gig in Birmingham. The bag of fruit was by now looking pretty uninviting, a banana had split in the bag and the cider gave my head a similarly ‘rotton fruit’ type feeling. You get the idea anyway… so off we go to Birmingham.
Saturday May 23rd – Assert, Machinochrist, Global Parasite, Theo, Anti Virus @ The Wagon And Horse, Birmingham
Despite being knackered an hungover, we were all enjoyin what seemed like a really quick drive up to brum. With windows down an music nice an loud, the sun was warm an the air in the face was just what the doctor ordered. We arrived in Birmingham around half 4 / 5pm an had enough time to go for a walk into the city centre (not enough time to find the shop selling legal highs, but this problem was solved later on). A quick pit stop at a pizza take away an were topped up an ready for another all nighter! back to the venue, found out Subhumans played there the night before an wonder whether that will effect the turn out tonight.
ANTI VIRUS are joining us for this one an when they arrive its time for a pint before settin up the amps etc. as time goes on, and not that many people arrive we feel gutted for anti virus when theyre asked to start playing (to us 4 and 2 others), it seems the subhumans did get everyone out last night an no one can be arsed, or probably more likely; everyone’s too skint for tonight’s gig. Which was a shame cos anti virus were soundin mean! I didn’t do the usual ‘No Classification’ and ‘Burn The Temple’ as its been getting abit too predictable and routine, an so I enjoyed watchin them play those songs without havin to worry about getting involved. Stand out track for me tonight though was ‘Waiting To Die’. Well good, really lookin forward to hearing that recorded properly. The promoter tells us to help ourselves to a crate of beer behind the bar, which ofcourse we comply to, wouldn’t wanna upset anyone!
Next up, THEO. A solo guitarist/drummer who records a few lines on his guitar, looping them with his pedals, an then plays drums over the top, doing it all live. we played with this guy in Wolverhampton last year at a benefit for the ‘shut down heckler & koch’ campaign an were impressed then by the talent he obviously has. The only thing I thought was towards the end of his set it was getting abit samey, like his formula for each song seemed to be the same. Starting off the song with a fairly quiet, interesting riff, then adding some kind of harmonising lead over the top, an maybe something else on top of that before moving on to the drum kit and playing about 4 or 5 different beats over the same guitar loops, before ending the song with more guitar playing white noise, then cutting the loop dead to start the next song immediately (following the same formula again). But fair doos, he was up there doin what he obviously enjoys doin, plus he had the biggest crowd of the night an went down well with the 20 odd people in the room.
Next up was us…
After us was MACHINOCHRIST, a DJ on his laptop, doin half an hour of none stop aphex twin type crazy drum an bass, but with much less rhthym, it was all over the place an my head was hurting after pukin up in the bogs again.
And last on tonight was ASSERT, for those who aren’t familiar with these theyre basically full on thrash hardcore punk from brum with plenty to say. havnt seen these since they played the Dudley a few years ago, that night there was a shit turn out an britt cornered me in the bogs sayin if they didn’t get some petrol money the Dudley would get burnt down. To be honest I wasn’t sure how it would go tonight, whether he’d recognise me an be funny or whatever. I didn’t bother tryin to patch things up, its not my job to an Im not gonna run round lickin rim just cos of some trivial shit in the past. There is no issue. Back to what matters, the music; ‘Righteous Assembly’ is a fuckin ace album, particularly when your well pissed off, a few of the songs on that album were played tonight, like ‘1,2,3,4 Go’, ‘Never Forget You’ and ‘Start A War’. Probably a few others but cant remember now. Really wanted to get their new album but didn’t have any money as usual. Weve booked them for the dirty weekend at the hendre hall in September (11th and 12th) so come an take the musical onslaught!
After that, a load more drinks are drunk, too much for gary to drive to the party the promoter’s invited us to, so we get a couple of taxi’s, the one we got broke down half way but that’s another story, an not that exciting either. An the party is in another residential area, an again with a very loud sound system. There is a hell of a lot of empathy at this party, for some probably fairly obvious reason, although I don’t really wanna spell it out. As I write this im getting flash backs of singin pressure drop by toots and the maytals at the top of my lungs, aahhh good times! anyway I end up passing out, leaving myself vulnerable to jam and his ‘teabag’ routine, fuckin bastard. I think he got a photo of it aswell which will probably end up on here. I did get him back the next day though by scratching my sweaty, cheesy balls for about ten minutes an putting my fingers in his mouth an up his nostrils. He didn’t like that one bit, an im not surprised, I sniffed my fingers afterwards an it wasn’t pleasant.
Sunday May 24th – Subhumans, Meinhof, Refuse All, War Coma, The Rebel Conspiracy @ The Star And Garter, Manchester
By now the bag of fruit had been dumped at a service station somewhere north of Birmingham, an my sense of humour had deteriorated into spitting greenies in my hand an slapping jam in the face (he’d just shown me the pic of him teabagging me). Arrived back home about 4:45pm, had about enough time to eat an apple (of the cox variety, ofcourse), before being picked up by MWJ for Subhumans tonight. I mumbled various feeble attempts to explain why I was feeling so ‘unstable’ but not sure if any of it made sense. Had a fair bit of sleep on the way there this time. Met up with ‘sticky vicky’ on arrival at the venue, was also good to see a load of other friends an familiar faces from the other night an past gigs in the north west.
THE REBEL CONSPIRACY kick things off, not sure where these are from, couldn’t make out the accent. But pretty good punk rock. They look fairly young but are full of confidence on stage an sound pretty good, remind me of the dayglo abortions but without the snotty vocals. Cant really sit down anymore as head is getting heavy an don’t wanna pass out an end up punching a wall again.
Next up WAR COMA, the drummer from the autonomads plays for these, an I think sam from kamikaze sperm…? the rest of the band are all familiar faces from regular Manchester/Stockport/Bradford gigs in the past. Full on d-beat type stuff here, makin some really interesting, conflict type hamonising riffs, an the singer had a roaring voice, an jumpin down off the stage an bouncing round with a few people that had started dancing. Definitely wanna get these down here at some point soon, watch this space…
Next up REFUSE ALL. Angry anarcho punk from London. first impressions where nothing new here, fairly generic. But as I stuck it out an gave em a fair go, they grew on me loads. They ended with a pretty slow one about something like ‘do you really believe your free?’ or something like that, was good anyway. Im suffering a serious lack of memory about this evening an I wasn’t drunk at all.
Next up were MEINHOF, we played with these a while back in Bradford, really enjoyed them then an really enjoyed them tonight aswell. They’ve changed the line up slightly since then, I think the singer used to just sing but now she’s playing bass aswell. I noticed this time she’s a hell of a good frontwoman for this band, full of nasty eye-balling at the audience an a chunky scream that reminded me of lemmy! There’s an obvious tank girl similarity aswell. Gonna try an get these up to north wales too at some point.
And so finally, its SUBHUMANS. Was so fuckin tired an drained by this point, felt absolutely exhausted. But when they kicked into the opening song ‘All Gone Dead’ there was just an urge to get stuck in down the front. Had to be done didn’t it? They churned through the classic back catalogue an soon there was a hefty crowd dancing like bastards. They did suffer a few technical difficulties though mid set, not enough guitar in the monitors, then too much guitar in the monitors (making it feed back) an I heard the drummer mention his monitor wasn’t working for a couple of songs aswell. But once that was sorted they got back into it, knockin out ‘this is not an advert’, ‘apathy’, ‘joe public’, ‘society’, ‘mickey mouse is dead’ ‘work rest play die’ aswell as a load of others but I cant think, they finished off with the anthemic ‘religious wars’. Seen the Subhumans a fair few times now an they never fail, it was an ace way to end the weekend aswell. Captured ‘no’ on video an here it is… www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1ixoU06fJ4
Review, pics an vids by dave cox