less than jake / dropkick murphys / the living end / billy no mates
manchester apollo
13/11/2006
i decided to get a ticket for this gig last month on a whim as i dimly remember hearing some dropkick murphys stuff some years ago, but every band on tonight was going to be a new experience and i was beginning to question the wisdom of buying random tickets as i drove into manchester. as it turned out the night wasn't completely wasted though it depends if you think two good bands out of four is a decent return for the money.
billy no mates
joyless pop-punk from a british group doing their best to sound like every other blink 182-wannabe blighting the genre, though thankfully they were told by the promoter to get off stage early because the gig was running late. despite obvious energy from the players, the songs blurred into each other and left the audience with the feeling we had heard this same shit a million times before. i only decided they deserved one star because the drummer sang lead vocals which is worthy of some credit as otherwise i wouldn't have rated them at all.
the living end
possibly the best act of the night? this aussie trio deserve a lot of respect at very least because the bassist wears a workman's hardhat on stage and plays a lime green and black double-bass - which he can stand
on and play at the same time! infectious 1950s influenced punk-rock led a gifted guitarist and frontman, the band blazed through a good set of songs and would deffinately be worth checking out if they went on tour on their own.
dropkick murphys
for a hectic hour these guys stormed through anthem after anthem of galic themed punk - they have a bagpipe player for god's sake! - and should have been the top band on the bill, especially for the closing song 'kiss me, i'm shit-faced' which involved an all female stage invasion and the kind of mass audience singing normally reserved for the last night of the bbc proms. the irish partying spirit of these lads from boston was irresistable and the set was pure class, the only downside being some incomprehensiable lyrics because of a poor sound mix.
less than jake
oh dear. the night's supposed headliners played song after song of exactly the same thing - screechy vocals, twangy guitar, saxophone and trombone backing - and were quite simply no where near as good as the band themselves would like to think. the frontman's terrible attempts at humour were unbearable, and when he admitted that the group's new album is shit, i would have said it has the same things in common with everything else they've done. there was an encore but by then i was so bored i - and a number of others - went out to the car park for the journey home.
depending on your viewpoint it was either a good night spoilt by two bad acts, or a bad night saved by two great bands.
