I SHOOK THE ROYAL THRONE

Edit (May 2008). I laughed and then had a little cry when I re-read this article. I guess it’s been a happy twelve months full of riffs and Henry Rollins shouting at me for hours and hours, the old curmudgeon. Let’s just hope that nobody sees this or surely my reputation will be CIRCLING THE DRAIN

I’m not very hardcore.

Granted, it’s a good genre. I mean, it’s a good genre live. On record, a lot of hardcore punk does sound exactly the same to the point where it becomes repetitive and dare I say it boring after just a few minutes. It’s a shame, because when it’s being produced in front of you there is little choice but to flail yr limbs in a slightly paralytic fashion in the direction of the guy who’s shouting into the microphone. Well, I would if I wasn’t such a complete wuss; I tend to take pictures and hope my camera doesn’t get broken.

With this in mind, sometimes there are bands who take these conceptions and blow them away by being innovative or melodic or even just being legible. Fucked Up fit this bill very nicely. Possibly because they can combine some fist-punching riffs with befuddling lyrics and then present it in a truly exciting fashion that has managed to catch the attention of indie wankers such as myself. In particular, Vice (who aren’t wankers, just hipsters) and the NME (the reverse is true) have been paying attention, although this may have something to do with them playing with the distressingly awful Gallows. Their debut LP Hidden World hits home the difference between these and others in that it’s bloody addictive listening and deviates from the beaten path to another place entirely, resulting in a record that’s intricate and yet can still make you want to break things with your head.

With this I change the setting to the Cricketers pub in Sheffield, where funnily enough they played last riday (18th May). Being two days later I’ve probably already forgotten the major details of the other bands, so here goes. After all the attention that FU were attracting it was surprising to think that they were playing somewhere like this, but hey, they take the DIY side rather seriously and I can’t see them being on daytime rotation on MTV2 anytime soon. As I always do I feel like I’m stood out like a sore thumb, like everyone knows that I liked The Libertines in 2003 and therefore think ill of me. I think like this because I’m rubbish. Besides, least I’m here, clutching a massive camera loaned from college, having little idea who’s playing. Just an open mind, despite what you’ve just read…

First band were Cold Ones, whose central aim in life is to drink cheap booze and run around for a bit. They only played for about fifteen minutes, but left us with a fleeting sense of satisfaction, except with lots of shouting. Presumably about Strongbow. Bastard took my camera as well, hence the photo of me looking lost up there. Colour me ‘yeah, they’re all right’.

Tenement Kids followed. They came from Holland and they came for yr heart. If yr heart was looking for Fugazi-esque anthemic shenanigans and a new guitarist that resembles David Cross. Even better, they seemed to know that melodies make punk rock sound interesting and put them to good use! They were probably the mellowest band on the bill, but in the way that a punch in the face is mellower than a tazer gun up the backside. I also thought that I was going to be smacked in the face by frontman Gijs Wilbrink’s guitar, but that boils down to my own failings. Seek them out, you might like.

The next two bands had enthusiastic audience reactions! Nothing Done are also Dutch and had just arrived from driving from Belgium just to come here with intentions to play very fast and very dangerous. Probably played the longest out of all the bands, although even then they can’t have played for more than half an hour. Many tight bursts of loud noisy greatness that I’ll probably never want to listen to again. Big Difference were a bit more comedy punk and/or from the house of ‘Oi!’. They’re from Sheffield and basically it became a chore to watch them and avoid any flailing limbs, even with songs such as ‘Deal Or No Deal’ and ‘Richard and Judy’ which prove that there’s plenty of inspiration from Channel 4’s daytime schedule. I hasten to add that I needed a piss but didn’t want to brave going downstairs.

Of course FU were the best band on the bill. Despite what I’ve said about the four preceding bands they were rendered utterly pointless by the coolest people in the fucking room. Fine, I only knew two songs thanks to my non-knowledge of their many, many EPs and seven-inchers but I’m willing to learn! ‘Baiting The Public’ was especially ferocious, even if the lens on my camera decided to break off midsong. It was loose anyway, as you can tell from my photos of their set having a third missing from the left. I suppose it teaches me to wield a camera in the middle of a gig like this. It was also a shame that they were only on for about twenty minutes at most. Thank you pub-goers for deciding to have a fucking fight downstairs. Lucky I didn’t go for that piss…

So yeah, the gig was good! Reminded me of the gigs I went to in Year 11, except that these bands weren’t terminally dreadful. Need to be more careful with electronics and gigs in future, however…

View more photos of this gig

 Tagged as errors in judgement, gig, hardcore, pre-everything, review, sheffield 
 Categorized as Blog, Reviews