endless bummer

Saturdays round my way are usually pretty dull, all the best gigs tend to pop up mid week so when a band I have been raving about for some time now crop up on a Saturday, you know it is going to be a pretty special night. Santiago is a bar in the centre of Leeds, I hadn’t heard of it before but the room upstairs was excellent for intimate punk rock shows exactly like this one, the drinks were a little bit on the pricey side.

Bear Bones were a late addition to the line up, replacing Fuck With Fire who pulled out for one reason or another. The set was short and sweet, they played melody laced angsty punk which was solid if a little familiar. Because the set was so short, it was over before it had started really but the riffs were catchy and the vocals gruff (except for the girly vocals), I couldn’t really see because there was a bunch of tall dudes down front but it sounded frenetic and fun so I imagine they were probably giving it some welly. I am keen to see these again in a few months.
If you haven’t heard Cop Out, you should probably hand in your scene pass and start listening to Korn or something. Actually don’t do that, just listen to Cop Out and you will be fine. Hailing from Sheffield via New Jersey, and with a PhD in Yemin-ology, these chaps really know how to bring the big noisey melodies. Every song was a banger of anthemic proportions, they really just made you want to sucker punch the air and holler along in that generic gig voice that everyone does. They were just mint and I am looking forward to catching them at the Last Lung all dayer towards the end of this month, you should probably be there.
I was told not to bother with Four Letter Word, but I stuck it out. Yes, that is right, I braved out this band so I could tell you all about it, fearless reader. They weren’t bad at all, to be honest. In between the frontman’s wanker-esque banter they played some pretty excellent punk rock. The sort of stuff that hits you while its on but fades fast shortly after. The songs were basic, a couple of chords and one or two drum fills, add shouting to taste and Bobs your song. This is a band I can happily listen to all day long, but not one who instill with any mad rush to grab as many 7″ as I can and bolt for the nearest turntable.
Off With Their Heads are great, like really really great. They can spin a punk rock anthem like no other band around, every songs is full to bursting with tongue in cheek observations about life, love and anything else that matters spat onto chuggy guitars and 4/4 drums. The buzz from the tightly squeezed in crowd was excellent, fists in the air and coughing out lyrics word for word in that voice I mentioned up there in the Cop Out bit. They were funny and self effacing in the quiet sections, playing loads of requests and the cream of their crop of releases in the not so quiet bits. They played a pretty long and excellent set and I am pretty sure they left safe in the knowledge that they rocked everyone’s shirts off.

The show was followed by a club night which I didn’t stick around for.

Speaking of club nights though, Refuse To Lose is on this coming Saturday at Retro Bar in Manchester. I trust I shall see you all there.

Also coming up are these:



Are you as excited as I am?

There is more good stuff happening, and I will add it as I remember.

Also my band should be having a show soon too, I’ll make sure you all know about it so you can watch me sweat/play bass badly.