endless bummer

(I think they were meal worms actually)

I heard about this gig pretty late on Friday but managed to rally a lift over to Liverpool which was excellent. If you know me at all then you probably know that I love Hammer Attack, so to see them play their last ever gig was a must for me. I had never been to the Barfly in Liverpool before. It was a pretty decent venue, perfect for close DIY shows. At one point, some dude tipped maggots or meal worms into my cupped hands and as we left all I could feel was the crunching on insects as we walked out. The show was put on by Meshuggy who seem to be a multi purpose promoter.
The gig kicked off with Nowhere Fast, who were featured members of Hammer Attack, most notably the drummer from HA on vocals. It was fast and violent punk rock with elements of crust and powerviolence played well and with a straight face. I’m going to scout out any demos or recordings that I can find of these; I thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot wait to see them again.
Next band up was Sports Day, sitting in the apex between the triforce of Henry Fiat’s Open Sore, Dean Dirg and The Shitty Limits with power pop riffage under hardcore inflected vocals, all the while the vocalist jerked and spazzed around like he was in a Talking Heads video. It was all great fun, and they got a small pit going. They were definitely one of the best new punk bands I have seen in a long time and can’t wait till they undoubtedly reach similar status to that of Cold Ones.
Hammer Attack are fucking awesome, my love of HA started a year or so back when I saw them play in some dingy little venue down south and I have been hooked ever since. This was their last ever show which is terrible news for me and my ears; luckily they were giving away demo CDs to mark the occasion. They played fast and sloppy powerviolent noisecore to such a perfect degree you would think they invented the genre, just the right amount of punky breakdowns and hardcore beatdowns make it sound so fresh and new. This is a band that will definitely be missed.
Things went a bit odd next; the show took a turn I wasn’t expecting when the next band took to the stage. Bow & Arrow are a misnomer, they were a shock and that is something I cannot overstate. On a bill of fast punk bands, they stood out a mile. Its not that they didn’t play fast, because they definitely did. Either way, it was fucking excellent. I have had a difficult time explaining what this band were like to people who have asked, the best way I have found is “imagine if Kyuss spent their youth listening to Black Flag, SSD and Infest instead of Sabbath and their ilk”. I have had a nosy on their Myspace page and they don’t seem to have recorded anything yet, but they need to get a demo out there for sure.
Local celebrities Cold Ones took to the stage next, it was their Vomit release show although the album wasn’t ready just yet. If you haven’t heard Cold Ones yet, you probably live under a stone, their repertoire of barnstorming anthemic fast punk rock bangers is the stuff of legend. It is easy to see why these are one of the most popular bands on the current scene, they are funny, tight and always engaging. There were some decent mosh rucks, the sound was crisp and clear and the band played excellent.

If there was anything wrong with this show, it was that there was no distro or merch stand. I wanted CDs aplenty and maybe even a tee or two.

Also, I may or may not have a cassette including the new Cold Ones album so you might be seeing a review of that pretty darn soon.