On this page I shall review all the gigs I have been to recently and not so recently so that I'll help aide your desicions and who not to see and whom to see. Although it's all a matter of taste and I'm just filling space.....
Most Recent Gig/s
November 8th-Waterdown+Linea77+The hurt process+Dopeamine-The boatrace
October 22nd-Dude on a mission (us)+Paraniod simon+figure of speech_man on the moon
October 18th-Ska night-Big 10+The big-The boatrace
October 10th-Vanilla pod+$up+3quartersdrunk-The portland arms
Well this was always going to be good from the start. First up (after some problems involving the drummer forgetting the cymbols) local punk 3 piece and good friends of mine 3quartersdrunk. With new drummer Craig their has been a definate vast improvment in this bands sound. Although admittidly they do not peform as well tonight as they could have hoped (such as they did at their last Man on the moon gig with 9foldpunch-we all know what a saturday night playing at the moon does for your confidence and thus performance) and the bass sounds a little bit off because it's on it's last legs they still get the crowd going. Highlights for me would have to be the new metal instrumental they open on, "another place called nowhere", "square deal" and of course "it's a kodak moment" with it's funky intro bass line. It's a shame they don't get to air their new material tonight but hopefully if they have a gig soon (or when we play with them/they play with us at the Moon) they will be able to. Next up are Peterborough skacore band $up. I enjoyed this and found it very similar to the stylings of Capdown except focusing less on dub and reggage aspects and more on the core, although half the time you couldn't understand a word the singer was saying it was enjoyable very fast heavy yet skankable (no overuse of ska chords either) and the singers constant journey's into the crowd were great. Last but not least Vanilla Pod, I had only ever heard two songs of this band "Big desicion" and the frankly superb "Total recall" which had to be the highlight of the set with me and also "Surrounded by idiots" (I intend to go out and get some albums from this band very soon). They played melodic punk with a grittier yet still happy bouncy (and yet thoughtful) edge and everyone in the room was moving (including two girls dancing on stage). Another highlight for me was my drunkern advertising of our gig when I handed the flyer to my upcoming gig to the singer from Vanilla Pod he read it out and then when I told him to say Alex's Dad, he said "alex's dad......is gay" classic, t'was a great night.
?-9foldpunch+Caught in a zip+3quartersdrunk
?-Big 10+Hidden Signal-Man on the moon
October 9th-Kneehigh+Mashtun Grace+The Bardos+Vote Bob-Man on the moon
October 4th-Capdown+Douglas+Adaquate 7-The junction
September 20th-Miss black america+support-The portland arms
September 19th-No through road+Mikes new car+caught in a zip+loophole+the riptones+9foldpunch-Battle of the bands, St Ives Burgess Hall
September 13th-Lightyear, Howards Alias,Adaquate 7 ,Evil Macaroni-The boatrace
September 9th-No through road, My pet joey, Model ford, Hidden Signal-The boatrace
August-READING FESTIVAL!
review and pics coming soon (also some pics of other gigs)
17th July-Dude on a mission (us)+Coperation blend+Virgin suicides
?-Ignite+Kneehigh+29 times-The portland arms
23rd June-Solabeat alliance+tonic+others-herts country show ground VW festival
21st June-Mountain Men Anoymonous+The Visit+Dude on a mission(us)-The boatrace, Cambridge
10th June Tribute to nothing+Fellthru at Boatrace, Cambridge
26th May My awsome complimation+No through road+The decline-The portland arms, Cambridge
Well I had gone to see my mates in No through road play and had heard nothing of the other two bands (apart from the fact that we almost played with The Decline, who were lined up to headline the romsey labour club gig although it isn't happening now). First up, The Decline who had a patchy start and some sound difficulties but soon picked it up with covers and some punky material (although not knowing the words to a song they are covering.....?) The bassist was pretty amazing and the drummer mental. I liked the cover of "Blitzberg Bop" the best. Next up No through road who's perfomance has improved ten fold since I last say them play (and played with them) at Man on the moon 3rd of May, highlights Last words (a good opener) hypocrite and one of my personal favourites (although last words is tagging far behind) millions of possibilites which again I added my comedy onstage dancing too.
Last up (once everyone was rounded up from outside that is) my awsome complimation who I enjoyed a great deal, including the laid back new addition keyboardist who would leave stage half way through a song to get a pint then come back on. Good energy in this group and although I could not disguish any of the songs during the gig because I hadn't heard them before although afterwards I did buy their latest ep/mini album "every souvernier has a story" which is very good, emo punk rock.
25th May Whitmore+Solabeat alliance+Mixtwitch+Graveltrap
Dutchmeister boat, on the river themes London
Well this was a pretty amazing gig with a difference. It was on a boat and the atmosphere was that of a tropical tinged party. Dressed as pirates and listening to some great songs played on the PA before graveltrap played an acoustic set for one song then had guest drummers, they were pretty good thumbs up to them (despite the ceiling being so low) the whole boat moving thing was gr8 beer settled in and mixtwitch took the stage providing some gr8 ska punk and an amazing cover of ronan keatings "when you say nothing at all" being the most memorable part of the set, next up Solabeat Alliance (formally spankboy although I can fairly say the new name is sticking) and what can I say. I really love this band. I was at the front singing along watching as Tim raised our pitate flag and jermey played trumpet wearing tom's pirate hook, amongst old/new classics "perfect day" "tounge tied" "summer nights" "cloned" (a personal favourite of mine) although there was no sign of "easy" that I cud remember, the new tracks sounded pretty good and I can't wait for the album, in particular the crowd interaction calling "sola" then "beat" blasting into a new track (the reggage one) these guys are the best thing to come out of moon ska europe at the moment and possibly even the uk ska scene seeing them live is the best thing you can do , the energy they put into their feel good music does just that makes you feel good
I didn't watch much of whitmores set but it sounded good although I'm not too sure about the voice, but overall a great gig great atmosphere great fun Plus tom and matt threw some chairs into the river themes, which I missed.
23rd May Shootin goon+Howards alias, Cambridge boatrace
Despite two of the support bands dropping out this made for an amazing night of ska. First up were Howard's Alias who brought a harder edge to their ska outfit with good vocals mixed with shouting and hard riffs. Two trombonists were on hand (one borrowed from Shootin Goon') but they could have easyily gone without it (except for the only song of their's I had heard ("Rob wants yuou dead"?) some moments were a bit too heavy too skank too. Next up comedy afros a plenty with Shootin Goon who's approach to ska was a lot more traditional but also verged on the punk side of things. An energetic frontman and a very good set, allthough they refused to "do the goon" and take "chances" (the only 2 songs of theirs I'd heard) atmosphere was great lots of skanking with friendly people and a pit that was a lot more skank filled during Shootin' Goons set than it was for howards alias. Will be definatly buying CD's from both.
27th April Hell is for heroes+kinesis+bluebird, Cambridge junction
First up on the bill the frankly crap Bluebird, the American "we don't like American politics we just wanna' rock" didn't convince me let alone anyone else. The sound was good just kind of bland and heavy and the singer was crap climbing up onto the speaker stack but not actually jumping off just remaining their for the duration of the song. Next up Kinesis, who I'd heard good things about, and who ever had told me these good things were right. A very good band, a sort of darker edge of punk mixed with the good elements of this garage rock thing (it was only the vocals slightly that reminded me of this but they were much better vocals than your average garage rock band from NME's so called "new rock revolution") politically charged, their recent single "and they obey" had to be the highlight for me, but I look forward to their album. Last but by no means least Hell is for heroes who were tight energetic and enjoyable (the pit as it useally does at The Junction) focused on pushing to the front which was annoying. They played everything off their album and ended on their first single I Can Climb Mountains. The Slow Song off their album didn't real work as well live though. Still it was a good gig and the album The Neon Handshake is very good.
25th April 3quartersdrunk+Us (dude on a mission)-Private birthday celebrations
19th April Kill Keneda+Jeff+Mikes new car+Us (dude on a mission)
13th April, Wish you were here punk and ska all dayer
Spunge+King Prawn+Whitmore+Spankboy+Graveltrap+Greebo+My grey couch(?)+Kneehigh+Southpaw+?+?-Great yarmouth, Marina Centre
Well this was pretty cool. It started a bit stale the whole daylight thing would have worked if the venue was outdoors. the place was huge but everyone was cramming to the front leaving loadsa space at the back and too little large amounts of skanking. first band were shouty and didn't fit same with the third one. second band my grey couch or sumthing were pretty cool good ska bass lines ended a bit roughly but were good. advantages of venue, bar, wimpy (is that an advantage) lots of chairs...greebo pretty good, knee high were pretty awsome too (we went backstage with the gutarist to get a t-shirt spotting the mental bassist from king prawn on the way) ment to sound like mettalica they were a bit punky but still metally it was odd. sothpaw were boring probably well performed though by this point I wanted some spankboy. Graveltrap were quite good (as you can tell my memory was fairly sketchy) but the highlight of it all was definatly Spankboy (except at first no room to skank, foolish children) I now recognised almost all the songs they played singing along to every word summer nights set it off like you cloned all so very good. Pity about absence of the saxaphone player although John the trombonist made up for it with his quality dancing and mentalism with his instrument.The multi vocalism and crowd interaction went down well plus I skanked onstage with them!. If you haven't seen this band yet you have to see them 10 times better live than on record but get there ep off the moonska site non the less. Whitmore were good although sat out to recover for a lot of that. Went for doughnuts outside came back King Prawn were worse this time than last place playing loadsa new album stuff which was a bit crap except smoke some shit and dominant view and then oldy's day in day out and we survive but again not much memory of that. Spunge were ok new stuff didnt stick to memory to easyily but they played some cool old stuff including no woman no cry cover classic, but absance of room for abuse and skanking song. They were running late security by this point around the stage so we stormed it wenn they turned on the lights and the security made a human barrier watt is this, "don't touch the artists" fools I just wanted to skank. But was pretty cool, John mr trombonist if you ever read this you owe me ten pence.........on second thoughts I not that stingy.
21st March Farse+Not Katies+Buzztones+Fellthru-The boatrace, Cambridge
Well you can always count on the old Moon Ska to provide a night of straight out entertainment and tonight I was certainly not let down. Seeing The Boatrace full to the brim and full of atmosphere and the right sort of crowd for a night of punk and ska things went underway with local ska punk heroes Fellthru. Of course as usual at The Boatrace it took a while for the dancing to get underway but when it did it was great and Fellthru certianly did well, it wasn't very inventive ska but it was good to dance to and that's all you need. Next up were the Buzztones, despite there name sounding like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones they came across more as a weaker version of Consumed (they even looked like them) and I wasn't as convinced although the highlight of their set was an amazing punk cover of Sweet Child O' Mine. Next up Not Katies who were pretty good, again very punky (forgive the sketchy details I was under the influence of booze and music rushing through me). Farse (who were overshadowed by the mighty Spankboy last time I saw them) came across strong. "Eggs is eggs" was the set highlight as well being a good number split into dancy and shouty bits (plus the lead bloke got me to do an impression of an egg and then asked me what type of egg I was even though I said fried when I looked more hard boiled) and the reggage stomp along song (I know no titles). The evening was the best gig I had seen at The Boatrace for all the times I've been there I recommend you see a ska gig here it's ten times better than any other gig here really. Farse are good in there own way, they are different experimental and not always ska, Spankboy are immense regage party ska with a pinch of punk. See them both and support Fellthru.
13th March Pitchshifter+Elviss, The junction, Cambridge
The first and last time I'll ever see Pitchshifter. Not because they were crap but simply because they are splitting up and this is the last time they'll ever play this venue (which left me thinking I should have, which I almost did, see them here when they played in October). First up Elviss and what can I say. They had some good points but they were struggeling, to find out which sort of band they were. With moments of repetive Slayer and shouting (and the potentless use of a megaphone hailer style thing to create SOAD style moments) then jumping into Blink 182 and Foo Fighters style for their singles (not suprising really) and moments of Incubus. Although it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Whereas Pitchshifter were amazing. I only knew three songs and I went the most mental for these ("Down" "8 days" and "Shutdown") but seemed to recognised others and sung along. The pit focused squashed to the front which made it a bit weak but the frontman of the band (JS Claydon I believe) connected with his audience in a funny way and responed to all insults and acusations well. "Genius" and "Microwaved" had to be the highlight of the set and the drummer was amazing creating techno style drum and bass witout the assitance of tapes (although there was some pre song tape etc) and the bassist was mental all dredlocked and ready to go. Shame they are splitting up cos they are a great band my friend who I went with is going to lend me one of their albums to copy. Only thing was they did a very short set and everything finished at 10 with no encore cos they wanted to go out and get drunk in Cambridge.
9th March 2003. Red Hot Chili Peppers plus The Mars Volta
London Docklands Arena
Venue: Good size venue it's just a shame they've gone down the wembley arena road and taken bottles of water off you and make you charge stupid prices once inside.
Gig: First up the support band The Mars Volta. This felt like Dillinger Escape Plan supporting System of a down all over again. You get those bands who think "oh we're completely against coperate music we are nothing that's ever been done before" there's a thin line between different and crap and this band stepped over it. In my opinion, I might add there were some elements of it I liked like the jazzy breaks with just drum and bass it's just the gutarist and the lead vocalist didn't really strike me, the gutarist kept hitting out of tune notes delibertly (sometimes sounded good other times ear piercing) and the vocalist (both of them had huge afros) kept falling over on purpose and throwing the mic stand in the air, while the gutarist just to be "rock and roll" threw his gutair in anger and then topped it off by dancing like a reject from saturday night fever. There last song went on for ages too.
Well despite the wait (which would be pretty obvious anyway) it was definatly worth it.
With a backdrop of oriental statues and bambo the opening bass of By the way rocketed across the arena with Anthony Kiedis in quite an interesting black skirt. There were mental moments they ran through all classics "under the bridge" "californication" "give it away" they did a ramones cover, a song unheard and ended on a 10 minute long jam between flea and john freschenti (flea is amazing) with big video screens and lights and a generally more mellow atmoshpere then most gigs I've been to it was amazing. Also managed to get an altright counterfit t-shirt for four quid. I recommend you see the Chilis live they are headling V2003.
Past gigs (in order from most far away to most recent as well as I can remember)
Linkin Park+Adema+Dilated People-London Docklands arena
Wheatus+Relish-Cambridge Corn Exchange
Sum41+Reel Big Fish+Wilt-Cambridge Corn Exchange
System of a down+The dillenger escape plan-Brixton Academy, London
Greenday+The Crush-Wembley Arena, London
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones+Consumed+Snuff-The Junction, Cambridge
Richard Ashcroft-Cambridge Corn Exchange
Spunge+Farse+Spankboy-Woughton Centre, Milton Keynes
Foo fighters+Cave In-Wembley Arena, London
Big 10-The Locamotive, Cambridge
King Prawn+Adaquate7+Fellthru+Battleska-The junction, Cambridge
Somerset west+Mikes New Car+No through road (local bands)-The Boatrace, Cambridge
ThisGirl+Tribute to nothing+Aurasun-The Boatrace, Cambridge
Reuben+Engerica+Mikes New Car-The Boatrace, Cambridge
Queen Adreena+Mikes new car-The Junction, Cambridge
Feeder+Serafin-Cambridge Corn Exchange
Bowling for soup+Capdown+Simple plan+Uncle Brian-Cambridge Corn Exchange
M.A.S.S+29 times+Mikes New Car-The Boatrace, Cambridge
