Live From Manchester!

[Mike]

Fez are you going to see Take That this evening? :D

[Fez]

as tempting as that sounds...

future of the left / kong / warm widow
manchester academy 3
04/12/07

warm widow a dubious name for a band though i have heard worse, this trio aren’t actually that bad mixing nirvana guitar freak outs with some solid danceable tunes. it would have been more enjoyable if the frontman didn’t keep making constant references to how few people were there to watch, but what did he expect for a tuesday night playing on a bill where the headline act were still on their first tour? competent enough though there are plenty of other acts like them in this town.

kong you’ll certainly remember seeing this band even if it wont necessarily be for the right reasons. dressed all in red, apart from when the guitarist took his pants off after the third song, and with clown’s make up on their faces, they didn’t so much play music as experiment with sound. it was an interesting exercise that enjoyed mixed results as some songs seemed to disintergrate entirely into random noise, and i could only tell it was the same song when the intro was repeated. the frontman also insisted on talking to the crowd like a five year old putting on a silly voice, generally reinforcing the impression if this band get anywhere it will be for novelty value only.

future of the left rising from the ashes of the much missed band mclusky who were renowned for often non-sensical words hardwired to great walloping rock tunes, this new line up play pretty much the same stuff. in fact, the new album curses could very easily be just the fourth mclusky record and that wouldn’t be a bad thing. it was fun but i probably wasn’t the only one expecting the old sounds of ‘lightsabre cock-sucking blues’ to start up every time one of the new songs ended.

[Fez]

goldblade / argy bargy / the grit
manchester academy 3
07/12/07

the grit – gotta hold off on reviewing this birmingham lot because we missed most of the set waiting for the bus. what i did get to hear was very good, resurrecting the old fashioned rockabilly punk that really gets a crowd moving which isn’t an easy accomplishment with partisan crowds for other bands. interestingly and quite unusual, there were three guitarist and a guy playing stand up bass – not as good as the living end’s bass player but his glows in the dark for gods sake. definitely would like another chance to see them.

argy bargy this is what happens when middle-aged men who never grew up are in a good band; they stick to concentrating on rocking songs knowing no one will be impressed with their girth as it tries to roll out from behind sweaty tee shirts. currently working on their first album for ten years, these london lads are a solid outfit worth watching in a small venue but it’s a bit too late for them to break into the big time.

goldblade manchester’s finest punk band since the buzzcocks, we first saw them supporting the misfits two years ago and had to go back when we found out about this gig. a great live outfit with frontman, john rob, never stopping moving as he dances like a maniac for a high-fuelled hour, culminating in an impromtu stage invasion by pretty much everyone who had been bouncing to the music in front of the stage. as exhausting to watch as a five mile run, seeing goldblade is a fantastic night out.

[mr_e]

The Grit were from Birmingham? I honestly though they were from the north-east. Either way, impressive band, good sound quality as well considering they were the first band on. The double bass looked all the more impressive in such a small venue.

Argy Bargy scared me slightly, plus I thought they were the stage hands for a minute. Visually not so appealing, as Fez touched on, but a good workmanlike performance. Older, but still have all the aggression. Bizarrely, they're probably not much older than John Robb, but they look sooo different.

Speaking of John Robb...the guy probably looks so toned for his age (45 or 46?) because he just can't keep still on stage. Brilliant fun to watch. Band seem pretty tight, although Robb's voice was shot by the end of the set. Top night overall.

Fez is this the right "The Grit"? Looks about right.

[Fez]

yeah, thats them though when i said birmingham i think i was getting confused with someone else

[Fez]

anarchistic undertones x-mas bash 2 featuring:
the restarts / my own religion / something somethings / cot death / offbeat heroes / projectile vomit / dammit / davenport collective
satan’s hollow manchester
16/12/07

satan’s hollow – because santa and satan are anagrams of each other, both are associated with the colour red and likewise referred to sometimes as nick, this horror film set inspired hole seemed like the perfect place for a punk rock christmas party. a dark place of ott gothic decorations with a centrally located stage and decent bar, it’s a cool place to hang out with little time wasted between bands. it should have been a £5 entrance on the door, but after getting checked for id[!] and given a wristband to get back in, i was told to go upstairs and the money would be sorted out there. i wandered in expecting to get stopped but no one pulled me up so i ended up getting the whole day’s entertainment for free! the local punk community had come out to spend a day, or at least seven hours, enjoying whatever was put in front of them and with eight bands on offer the quantity couldn’t be argued with even if the quality to begin with was less dependable. venue score

davenport collective – the problem with reggae influenced rock is the bass player has to know how to pin down a solid groove and the brass section have to be good to cut it, because the guitars always play the same bloody chords no matter what song is being offered to the crowd. Unfortunately, with a sax player who was completely anonymous and a bassist absent without leave, all the collective managed for twenty minutes was some aimless tunes hampered further by vocals lost to a poor sound mix. overly generous applause followed each identikit-song, though as everyone was still sober at 5pm i think it was far and away more than was genuinely deserved. 1s

dammit – viewing this cornwall outfit’s myspace site you could be forgiven for thinking a trio of undiscovered rock gods on the verge of conquering the planet were about to take to the stage. tragically however, this quasi-thrash metal/punk outfit took up the limp wrested gauntlet dropped by the davenport collective and despite the change in guitar sound, amateur hour wasn’t over quite yet. veering from metal to punk and failing to command either, the band were actually technically good musicians but lacked an important ingredient; some decent songs. even their brief set contained enough space to include a passable rendition of the misfits standard ‘I turned into a martian’, but if anything this simply highlighted the deficiency in what original material the trio had to call upon. 1s

projectile vomit – despite being beaten into second place for worst band name of the evening, more on that later, this hardened four-piece marked the gig kicking into a higher gear and the first discovery of something that had so far been missing; anthems. obviously enthral to edinburgh’s own punk legends ‘the exploited’, the band had an impressively aggressive attitude and helped in no small amount by a young frontman built like a tank who had apparently brought at least a dozen of his drinking buddies down with him to visit us soft english nancy boys. a welcome improvement to the proceedings.

offbeat heroes – an object lesson in how to play ska even if a critic would say little has been added to the successful formula other bands have been churning out for a decade or more. it lifted the atmosphere and by then i had realised a large number of the audience members were actually in acts that were taking the stage. entertaining although i would struggle to pick out any particular songs and the saxophone player managed to prove beyond doubt that white kids should not be allowed to have their hair in dreadlocks – it just doesn’t work.

cot death – and the winners of the worst name of night award goes to these guys. thankfully, this harsher version of the ska punk blueprint had put much more thought into their material than they had to the band name, and armed with a frontman who threw himself around like stitches and bruises were part of his trade, were the best of the small timers on the evening’s bill. with real variety, passion and energy to the music, the only mystery concerning them is explaining why most of the band appeared again later in the night calling themselves my own religion …

the something somethings – the death of many new acts trying to make an impression on a foreign crowd can be down to a poor sound mix, but these guys seemed more inclined toward musical suicide. a large portion of the blame has to be pinned on singer who was a gobby little shit between songs, and then didn’t really do much during the brief moments some noise broke out of the amplifiers. i would find it hard to believe some cock up didn’t ruin most of the songs from being played properly, and while it seemed a lot of people were having a good laugh, it wasn’t much fun to watch for the outsiders.

my own religion - …in which four members of the aforementioned cot death returned minus saxophone and with the guitarist taking over from the other frontman. focusing much more on a punishing brand of hard core punk, this is what i imagine to be the ideal mixture for the group who probably started cot death to give their other friends something to do. if the two different outfits were amalgamated into one, a serious talent would be in the offing that could mix ska and hardcore without breaking stride which isn’t normally easy to accomplish, but unless someone can convince the saxophonist to take a break for most of the set that sadly isn’t going to happen.

the restarts – having become used to attending gigs in bigger venues were the headline act at least have one roadie to do the donkey work for them, seeing these london punk veterans setting up their own equipment was a little odd, but once the music started it was clear why this trio were the main draw of the night. blending straight ahead two minutes anthem with rhythm-driven slower numbers, the band were pure class leaving the only question being why weren’t they playing to more people. still, being allowed to get so close to these prime exponents of punk n’ roll was something of an honour and it made paying £10 for seven hours parking seem even more of a bargain.

a quality day out.

[Mike]

That is one hell of a day out! Shame most of them are averagely rated but does not detract I am sure!

[Fez]

henry rollins
manchester academy 1
30/01/08

a personal hero and one of the iconic angry youngmen of american hardcore, rollins is a whirlwind of ideas, political views and crushingly funny observations. the three hour show followed the blackflag frontman through his mission to reach out to the world and find out just what the hell is going on out there and dispell the myth all amercians are uninformed morons. on holiday in pakistan when abutto was assassinated, journeying to iran after the bush administration put the country on its 'axis of evil' list, rollins confesses he likes to keep busy and believes danger is just a necessary part of life at its limits. in the midst of this story of globe-trotting for political knowledge come anacdotes of playing with the legendary ruts at paul foxes last gig before dying of cancer, the hilarious realisation the iraq war could be halted tomorrow if van halens fans replaced the marines and that pet snakes aren't much company. punishingly funny

[stimpsonslostson]

That sounds like a great night out. Rollins is great- articulate and yet more than a little intimidating.
I'll start reviewing gigs now I've found this thread... I've got tickets for quite a few, starting with the Dropkicks on Feb 9th.
P

[Fez]

dropkick murphys / mad caddies / the briggs
manchester academy 1
09/02/2008

the briggs - im going to be really mean with my ratings for the whole of this gig because i was right at the front against the barrier and consequently my hearing is still totally fucked, and not in 'hell yeah, motorhead rule!' kind of way but more 'oh fuck ive gone deaf'. anyway, a good opening band who certainly threw themselves around and wanted desperately to get more of the crowd enthused with their californian pop-rock, i think the only real stumbling block was this kind of sun-kissed wannabe-teenaged rebellion by men in their late twenties / thirties is getting really old and wasn't much cop to begin with. its inoffensive and quite catchy if you dont wanna think too much about the lryics but its been done before by the likes of blink 182 - a band im still hoping to have outlawed by the european court of human rights.

mad caddies 1s - visions of less than jake return with avengence when i saw this lot walk on and that isn't a good thing. i dont know what it is about this soulless, shallow, feel nothing party time jock rock i dont like, but every trumpet accompanied note of music left me feeling cold inside. when done properly ska is a beautiful thing while the only redeeming feature about this band is that eventually they left the stage.

dropkick murphys - i desperately want to give them a higher rating because i know everyone was having a good time, but from the opening song the sound mix was so bad down at the front my hearing was screwed to a point when the bassist started to sing he actually sounded like he'd been sucking helium all night. i had to wait for the choruses to start before recognising some of my favourite songs but thankfully the beat carried me through so i didnt keep pausing to wonder what the hell i was supposed to be listening to. 'kiss me im shit faced' is still a glorious moment of stage invading mayhem though to continue the idea of good with the bad when the same thing happened during the closer 'skinhead...' it rendered the tune as just an assault of noise. still a fantastic band but next time im taking earplugs!

[stimpsonslostson]

We arrived as the mad caddies came on they seemed ok, but certainly nothing special- I'd heard good things about them and was a little disappointed.

The Dropkicks certainly got the crowd going.... but as Fez mentioned the sound wasn't good. We were near the sound booth and the pipes were lost in the mix, the vocals were either off or muddy. The atmosphere was good tho'.
Its not the first time I've been to Academy1 since the refurb and seen bands struggle with the mix.

[Fez]

black francis / xxxteens
manchester academy 2
12/02/08

xxxteens - not sure if they're local but this was interesting stuff from this british outfit, a sort of joy division / velvet underground avant-gaurde rock band. there was a depth and intelligence to the music that most indie bands sadly lack, and the frontman cut a striking figure because he actually didn't do much until he had to sing, just stood stock still in his black sunglasses and watched the audience watching him in a very dark venue, yet somehow he had this aura of cool. reading out a protest poem to a jam session going on during the final song was pretty brave for them to try too and it worked.

black francis - my only knowledge of frank black before tonight's gig was through listening to him sing with the legenardy band the pixies, so i was a little nervous about what i was going to hear from his solo work. i was further worried when i found out black's latest album 'bluefinger' is a rock opera about a dead dutch painter, but all that tension was forgotten when the first song opened up and i realised i was in for a good hour and half of bluesy rock n' roll. if you know anything about the pixies you'll know some of the songs are a bit off the wall [incest, aliens, more incest] and black's solo stuff is just as inspired with titles like 'needle in the vein' and 'tight black rubber'. brilliant from beginning to end.

[Fez]

gallows / set your goals / fucked up / sss
manchester academy 2
22/02/08

sss - enthusiastic scouse metalcore, whatever the hell that means, with a great conversational frontman, though it would have been nice if he spent a little more time concentrating on singing clearly and not howling like a drunken banshee. it was well received but there was a distinct lack of musical craft from anyone with an instrument in their hands and the bassist tried to compensate for this by jumping around the stage while the guiturist seemed happy to hide in the corner.

fucked up - ever seen a three hundred pound half naked singer being carried high by the crowd who are focused on turning the dancefloor into a warzone? i have and it was touchingly beautiful. with the stage packed with three guitarists, a bass and the drumkit, the larger than life frontman spent most of the set crowd-surfing and encouraging the already wound up audience to push the limits of going mental. fantastic.

set your goals - a bit of a come down for this american metally-punky-shouty group of lads, most people were obviously aware of who they are and wanted to enjoy the set but i was a bit non-plused; it was okay though im not planning a raid on any music shop to find out more about them.

gallows - you wanna know what modern british punk sounds like? its loud, aggressive, heavily tattooed and doesn't try and compete with anyone across the pond by bothering to 'americanise' what its doing. frank carter is the only punk figurehead worthy of note at the moment and he comes across as a focused, intelligent guy who doesn't have time for any of that kerrang! soft sell shit. a refreshing change in the waters of rock is periodically exploding everytime this lot take to the stage and if more homegrown talent of this calibre can crawl its way to the surface, punk will be looking alot healthy next year.

[Fez]

anti-flag / king blues / all idols fall
manchester club academy
02/03/08

all idols fall - although gallows might be the only british hardcore band of note to put their heads above the trench parapet, there is an underground scene if you can find it, and these very loud chaps have a frontman who i cant help thinking bases his on stage persona on henry rollins - not a bad thing by any means and he can actually sing which is a frightening rare thing in the harder reaches of punk. unfortunately, most of the good vocal work was lost in the screech of feedback but working the crowd from the close quarters of the barrier ensured a positive impact was made.

king blues - not an electric guitar in sight yet this rock/reggae mix was fantastic with some genuinely intelligent things to say which shows punk hasn't lost touch with politics completely. hailing from camden town, this multi-cultural collective are possibly the most exciting homegrown thing ive seen since beat union, and the style on display would probably make this act more significant in what it has to contribute to music.

anti-flag - a shame the wider world of rock doesn't engage its brain more otherwise anti-flag would be much more popular. the stage present is certainly a formidable battery of party-time meets politics, and the general feel of the whole gig, the last of the band's current uk tour before the release of a new album following the great success of 'for blood and empire', was a great celebration of what important things punk can be. ironically, following a mid-song announcement encouraging us all to treat each other as friends, an explosion of beer across my back signalled the start of two guys beating seven shades of shit out of each other - and this wasn't any girly 'you grab my collar, i'll grab yours and we'll wrestle for a bit', this pair were slugging each other in the face. it shows if anything the enduring problem with punk - for all the good intentions of the majority, we'll always be cursed by some braindead thugs

[Fez]

stiff little fingers / the men they couldn't hang / dile
manchester academy 1
15/03/08

dile - managing to dominate the crowded stage with his viseral presence, the opinionated lead singer made for an engaging change to most of his type who have to cover up a lack of singing ability with mid-song rants, and held the attention of those in the audience who had made it to the venue for the early start. backed by a seven piece band with some instantly great tunes to call upon, this was a self-assured performance that was highly impressive throughout.

the men they couldn't hang - imagine if you can what the dropkick murphys would sound like if they had never embraced the folkier elements of what makes the band's sound so appealing, and you'll be left with a pretty accurate idea of what this irish pub rock act sound like. it was amiable enough, though a joke aimed at the recently deceased greater manchester police commander who apparently committed suicide on snowdon was as pointless as it was in poor taste, yet the chasm of difference between pub rock and genuine rock n' roll skill was displayed when two covers were thrown into the set; firstly the clash's superb anthem 'bankrobber' and then the traditional folk song 'the green fields of france', a much better version of which can be heard on 'the warrior's code' by the dropkicks. maybe we cant hang these men but there's always a firing squad.

stiff little fingers - spending almost the entire set being crushed against the barrier with some sweaty drunk breathing down my neck couldn't distract from what was a fantastic set from this old band of northern irish pros. even songs from the band's thirty year career i didn't know were still immediately absorbing, and the rhythym section in particular were a note perfect treat for people like me who are impressed with the inter-play of drum and bass.