endless bummer

Been a few days, I am more prolific than normal. I’m pretty sure that will wear off soon. Just don’t expect too much, eh?

Last night I hit a rad gig at the Retro Bar, I’d never been there before. The upstairs was horrible, a ratty little pub with dirty seats and wet beer. The downstairs wasn’t much better, cramped and whiffy. The acoustics were all a bit wrong too, none of that was going to put me off sticking around to watch the four bands put on by The Real Collective which cost but £5.

First band on were Hammers, and the main reason I was there to be honest (along with grabbing that Hammer Attack demo!). They played fast and nasty crusty hardcore fast. The overall sound was a soul rattlingly loud, but the buzz from the band were awesome. From looking at their myspace page, I was lead to believe they sing about Norse mythology amongst other things, you wouldn’t get this from watching the show, but still it was awesome. This is just the kind of fast, d-beat type stuff you can get your teeth into, I look forward to seeing them again soon. I just wish they would just fucking release something I could buy, take heed boys!
Next up was Hail Brethren, containing at least two of the members from Hammers. While I applaud the ability to play two sets in a row, I couldn’t get into Hail Brethren at all. The fast and frenetic style of emo-core just didn’t hit me in that sweet spot (you know the one), maybe if I had heard them a few years back this would be an all together different write up. They played tight and loud, and the vocalist was certainly going for it so it was easy to see why the majority dug it. The poster likened them to Cursive, where as I would say they had more in common with Thursday with those searing riffs, chuggy breakdowns and nicey nicey versus shouty vocal style. The bass was too loud, louder than most of the other instruments which irked me slightly, but overall they played with the sort of enthusiasm and vigour that makes it impossible not to smile, nod your head and wish you had a fringe.
The Down And Outs are great street punk band from Liverpool, if you haven’t heard of them by now you probably don’t deserve to. Their particular brand of pop fuelled, choral singalong numbers never fail to engage the crowd, and this show was no exception. Infinitely better than the Hull show the previous night, according to the band themselves, this was the first time I had seen them in a year or so, they sounded overall more poppy than I remember from previous shows and on cd, but my head was nodding and I was joining in on every woah. There isn’t really a lot I can say about this band that hasn’t been said a thousand times before, they are tight and sloppy where it counts, they work the crowd as good as any other band I’ve seen and they play good wholesome punk rock. What more do you really need.
Having never seen or even heard Death Is Not Glamorous before this evening (yeah yeah, I know. Under a stone, right?), I approached this band with trepidation. I was aware they had done a split with tour mates The Down And Outs, but the write up on the poster filled me with the sort of dread you get when you are going to see a cover act. How much like Lifetime are they going to be? Will this be too poppy and clean for my tastes? Will they sound like the reformed Lifetime that let me down so hard? The answer to all of these questions was a resounding no. DING almost exploded onto the stage with absolute buckets of energy, simply just rocking hardcore jams like there was no tomorrow. They powered through a 40 minute set, stopping for a chat only after some mic issues. The vocalist breathed heavily between tracks, recalling a dirty phone call I once received, he also surfed the crowd without missing a note. I only caught one song name, and I have forgotten that overnight, but I picked up a few 7″ that I can guarantee will get a lot of spin time. They did sound a bit like Lifetime, but in the best possible way. Unfortunately I had to nip out before the encore so probably missed the maddest and best part of the set, but I had a fantastic time all round.

What a fucking good do.

Other decent stuff that happened include:
Got the new Iron Lung album, and it is fucking excellent.
Got that Hammer Attack demo, and it is fucking excellent.
Picked up some Nuclear Assault stuff that was missing from collection, guess what? Yeah, it is fucking excellent.

Some shit that wasn’t awesome:
Got a 2 day ban on the forum I post on for making a thread that wasn’t down with the kids.
Haven’t got rid of my fucking flat in the manchester yet.
Haven’t seen the Hannah all week.
Ate a bad pizza and got the shits.

These are eventful days to be a Jamie.

Also, I really start a fucking band, so if you or anyone you know is in the North West and wants to play some fast thrash punk awesome shit, get the fuck in touch, yeah?