Robyn Writes

Refused – Riffs and Revolutions

There are several reasons why Refused are one of the greatest hardcore bands ever. They’re certainly one of the most underrated hardcore bands of all time. If you have friends insanely into punk rock, you might have experienced this before. During an impromptu music rec session in which they list all their favourite and highly influential hardcore bands that you absolutely have to listen to or else, Refused are barely mentioned, and if they are, they’re never regarded as highly as say, Minor Threat or Black Flag. Hailing from one of Sweden’s biggest cities, Refused were a big band with even bigger ideas, and they weren’t afraid to scream about it.

First of all, Refused have never been a band to play by the rules. Their definitive full length, The Shape Of Punk To Come redefined the boundaries of hardcore, as they incorporated jazz and electronica into their songs; the same songs that stretched to over ten minutes. Bear in mind that the standard hardcore song usually only lasts for two minutes, and often even less than that. Despite the length of songs, Refused still managed to grab you by the throat at every second, from Lyxzen’s frenzied screams to Steen’s brutal guitars. Refused were never subtle, but, that was never the intent in the first place.

Secondly, Refused took the average hardcore left-wing lyrics to the extreme with a firm stance in Marxism, highly evident in several of their lyrics. “We want transmission for the people (by the people) is pretty tame, but what about “Capitalism is organised crime and we are all the victims”? They even wrote MANIFESTOS.
Does this make Refused cool? Hell yes it does. Why? It’s not violent, it’s not promoting oppression, like many neo-Nazi oi bands are. If anything, many Refused songs are about equality (see Racial Liberation, Hate Breeds Hate, I Wish… there’s plenty more). Refused are just one of those bands that want to start a revolution. And I love it.

Thirdly, and this is probably just me and fightclubsandwich who think this, but Denis Lyxzen is foxy. Seriously. He got voted Sexiest Man In Sweden by the Swedish Cosmopolitan magazine. We’ll show you why.



Fourthly, Refused are far more influential than you might think. You know those kind of pop-punk and post-hardcore bands that the kids are into these days? Quite a lot of those take cues from Refused. The Used stole the riff from New Noise in their song Maybe Memories, and Paramore reference lyrics from Liberation Transmission in their song Born For This. United Nations, a band containing members of Thursday, Glassjaw and Converge have an entire song devoted to Refused entitled The Shape Of Punk That Never Came. There are countless other bands that have referenced Refused in one way or another and there’ll probably be even more in future, because Refused are timeless. Their messages and music are becoming more and more appropriate in a music scene which has become stagnant. Refused were great innovators; it’s just a shame that nobody else in the hardcore scene really is.

Most importantly, I love Refused because they keep me excited. Still. I first discovered The Shape Of Punk To Come when I was thirteen and at the beginning of my punk rock education. It was a beginning and a half, as I became obsessed with Refused’s individuality and that edge that was missing from all the other punk bands I was into at the time. No matter how my music tastes have changed throughout the years, Refused have stayed at the core of my listening habits. To me, Refused are the perfect hardcore band. Not to mention, Refused have taught me one of the most valuable lessons in my life – CAN I SCREAM?!

Reading Festival 2010

Because I’m not a pussy sellout, this is the entire weekend. If you don’t like walls of text and want it in nice little chunks, click links for each day:
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

Reading Festival 2010. After the excessive ease of getting the tickets in the first place, I knew that shit was going to go down a lot closer to the event and oh boy, I was right. Two of my friends who were campsite assistants ended up going home early due to illness, prompting my ride to turn round and say ‘oh, I’m not going’ – mostly because he was too hungover. If it weren’t for my amazing hero of a father, I wouldn’t even have been at Reading Festival. And then I had to spend most of the weekend with my sister’s shitty ass friends, who complained about everything, despite staying in a nice warm apartment because their tent flooded on the first night. I missed a lot of the bands I wanted to see. I didn’t get to mosh. You might think that I had a bit of a wasted weekend. The phrase ‘fuck you very much’ might spring to mind. However, as years of listening to posicore have taught me, never give up. So I didn’t; I spent most of the weekend on my own, but I watched bands, I danced, I sang, I lost my voice and Tom Gabel smiled right at me.

FRIDAY
I cried Friday morning. I was stressed, tired, fed up already. The first band I checked out were Crazy Arm, and even then, I missed half their set after having to wait around for my sister’s friends. Crazy Arm have fast become one of my favourite bands for this year, with album ‘Born To Ruin’ being a fine example of folk punk badassery. Despite only catching them halfway through, I could see the passion and the fervour that these guys put into their live show. They played to a half empty tent and I felt so bad for everyone who was sat at the main stage for missing what was an inspiring effort. One of the songs I managed to catch was Broken By The Wheel, which runs shivers down my spine on CD, but live makes me feel like I can fight anything. If you get the chance to see Crazy Arm this year, go do so! They’re touring with Against Me! and will be one of the best things you’ll see all year. Following Crazy Arm were The Skints, London based ska-punk band. The Skints have a real reggae base to their music, making it perfect for a warm summer’s day. The Lock Up was absolutely packed with people dancing and singing to their edgy ska tunes. Marcia Richards is insanely talented, picking up a flute, a sax and more as well as playing keyboard and singing and generally keeping the crowd entertained. The Skints have an electric stage presence and were definitely one of the more interesting bands I witnessed in the Lock Up this weekend.

Instead of sticking around the Lock Up, I decided to go towards the Alternative stage in search of people I knew. I couldn’t get in to see Stephen K Amos, despite him going on early, so instead, milled around trying to look for people. The festival site isn’t that big, but somehow, it’s impossible to find anyone. Phones just don’t work. And I lost the back of my phone earlier that day, making me extremely conscious of my battery falling out. But after waiting forever, I eventually grabbed my sister and dragged her back to the Alternative stage for The Midnight Beast, Youtube phenomenon turned up and coming comedy band. They may not be The Lonely Island, but they’re all we have and they brought it. I have never seen a tent so packed full of screaming teenage girls. Their ‘cover’ of Tik Tok went down especially well and new single ‘Booty Call’ sounded huge. Very much looking forwards to seeing what goes down for these guys next.

Next, it was to the main stage to check out NOFX. NOFX are a band I’ve always wanted to catch, purely just to see what they would be like. I wasn’t at all disappointed. There was more banter than there were songs, and the band enjoyed messing with their position on the main stage. I absolutely love watching punk bands on the main stage because they are either unsure of why they’re there or indulge in milking it as much as they can. Fat Mike looked wonderful in his tweed jacket and cut off shorts, sipping from a straw – every inch the awkward rock star. They played classics like Leave It Alone and Stickin’ In My Eye, as well as newer songs like Franco Un-American, all to an excellent standard for the self proclaimed ‘worst band of the weekend’. The sound was better for NOFX than it was for Guns ‘N’ Roses. Seriously. We stuck around for Lostprophets and Biffy Clyro, neither of which really interest me. Lostprophets are always fun live, and I’ve seen them several times before, but until they do an anniversary tour for ‘The Fake Sound Of Progress’, I kind of don’t care. Ian was wearing an awesome Street Fighter shirt though. Biffy Clyro were far more interesting. Despite playing virtually all new material and no inclusion of Saturday Superhouse, their set was a great display of the different sounds Biffy are capable of and just why they’re still good. My sister complained that there was “not enough talking and displaying their beautiful accents, too much music!” but that’s what makes them great to watch – they get straight into it and show how capable they are with their music. The light show would have been fantastic if they’d actually played in dark too. Simon Neil’s new blonde hair may have been a controversial decision, but putting them so high up on the main stage was not. In fact, Biffy would have been a much better headliner than Guns ‘N’ Roses were. Fact.

I debated between sticking around for Queens Of The Stone Age, but a creepy ginger drunk guy made me disappear in search of pastures punk, leaving me to return to the Lock Up stage for Against Me!. I really can’t say enough about these guys, I really can’t. I’ve said it many times before, but Against Me! are potentially the greatest live band you will ever see. I’ve never seen a band that cares more about their performance and that was completely true at Reading. They played a great set, including a variety of songs across their albums. Although it was more heavily weighted towards White Crosses, a few gems from Reinventing Axl Rose slipped in, including a finish on Baby, I’m An Anarchist, resulting in maybe not a lot of anarchy but a fair amount of screaming. This is when the vocal issues and my descent into nothing more than black metal screams began. Nevertheless, Against Me! were on top form and have comfortably settled into their new lineup.

At this point, a nice man let me into the front because I was too short to see much, and Sick Of It All took the stage. I was also in great pain at this point due to wearing wellies that were really too small for me and standing on a metal barrier does not make things better. So thank you, nice man, but it really was detrimental to my health. Sick Of It All are a fantastic band to actually watch, because Pete Koller just goes mental. I’ve not seen someone throw a guitar around so violently and actually witnessed the thing survive. Not to mention this is all while he’s about three feet in the air. Festival set was, of course, composed of the classics, and it was clear that Sick Of It All should have been headlining that tent, not Alkaline Trio. Also, a wall of death that extended to the back of the tent was pretty cool.

As you can probably gather, Alkaline Trio were just not as fascinating as Sick Of It All were. By this point, I was on the verge of collapse, so I ended up sitting at the side, watching them from the screen. The levels were completely messed up and you could barely hear Matt or Dan singing. They played too much from This Addiction. Sure, all the singles were there, and at least nobody threw a hissy fit like in the Academy a few months ago, but they just didn’t measure up to what had preceded them. A real shame. And I know that Alkaline Trio can do better! Nevertheless, the crowd favourites they threw in went down well and hopefully, their next headline tour will be as good as their last.

Friday night was absolutely freezing. If I had balls, they’d have dropped off and formed into little spheres of ice. Not even a cup of scalding tea from the donut stand helped. This trend continued through the night, giving my sister paranoia when the tent collected a bit of condensation and when it poured down with rain early morning, leading her to believe our tent would flood too. It didn’t, it was fine, but it got me in a somewhat grumpy mood. After a morning Tesco trip for something green (I cannot live off of festival food alone), we sat around and waited for her idiot friends, who know nothing of good timekeeping, leaving my mood even worse. Good job there was decent music on that day, right?

SATURDAY
After missing about three bands I actually wanted to see, I finally got into the arena in time for Off With Their Heads, a band I’ve been repping for a while now. Like Crazy Arm, they played to less than half a tent, which was a real shame! Although their performance was not quite as intoxicating as Crazy Arm’s, Off With Their Heads still did a pretty good job. My one complaint was that Ryan Young’s voice is far gruffer on record than it actually is live, but let’s face it… that’s nothing. Off With Their Heads are great for punk rock singalongs and that was no different here, with everyone who had actually heard of them before. Great start to a nice summery day. I stuck around for a bit of Paint It Black’s set, purely just to see Dan Yemin on stage more than anything. I’m not massively familiar with their material, always having been more of a Lifetime kind of girl, but they were playing good, honest hardcore, and it sucks that it was so early in the day because there would have been much more people involved later on. I was torn away from them by my sister (if nothing else so that I could find out if she was alive) and we went to go get food and wait for Frank Turner to come on.

The unfortunate thing about waiting for Frank Turner to come on meant having to sit through Kids In Glass Houses. The more unfortunate thing about this was that I had to do it alone as my sister went to go grab her phone out of the lockers, complete with entourage. I ended up phoning my mum and whining about my fate. She called all my friends bellends. She was right. As for Kids In Glass Houses… I saw them back in 2006, back when they had their first EP out and they were still reasonably experimental. Synths were involved. They sounded interesting. Then, in order to get famous, they presumably sold whatever souls they had and began churning out bland, vacuous pop rock. That much rang true in the NME tent. I didn’t see a more boring set all weekend. The worst thing? The fact that the entire tent erupted with teenage girls screaming. I guess that could happen to me too if I decided to do a song with The Saturdays. Of course, everything sounded clean and polished, well rehearsed and everyone was perfectly dressed, but that isn’t what rock music is about. I’ve already witnessed all of my favourite genres become fashion statements, and next time, I don’t want to watch the bands that have enabled it to happen.

But anyway, fuck Kids In Glass Houses, because Frank Turner blew the tent the fuck away. The man knows how to play to a crowd, and you couldn’t get a crowd much bigger – the entire tent was packed to capacity. The new song that Frank played sounded much like it should have done; a bit of a progression from Poetry Of The Deed, but with that same folk punk soul that I’ve come to love Frank for. The highlight of the set for me was Sons Of Liberty, one of my favourite Frank songs and one of the best politically charged anthems around. Frank’s transposition of the fiddle solo was absolutely stellar and everyone had their fists raised high. Of course, pretty everything was great – inclusions of Reasons Not To Be An Idiot, The Road, Long Live The Queen, I Knew Prufrock and more worked out really well and finishing on Photosynthesis was an excellent call. Sadly, the jig pit from last year wasn’t present and instead, replaced by a weird sitting experiment. Frank himself is an absolute charmer and had us all in the palm of his hand. Next year, I want to see Frank on the main stage, because that’s where he deserves to be.

After that, I went back to the Lock Up with my sister to check out The Get Up Kids, this year’s token 90s emo band. Her annoying friends tagged along so that they could brag to a Canadian kid they only know online that they’d seen them. Oh please. One thing that impressed me from the start was that TGUK did all their own set up and soundchecking. I appreciate the need for a road crew, but that’s when you know a band is down to earth and really care about their music, especially when they’re as big as TGUK. Having not seen them before, it was kind of an epic moment when they first started, knowing that this was one of the bands that forged the way for many of my favourites. For a start, fucking James Dewees was on stage, and we all know how much I love that guy! Again, being only a little familiar with their material (I only own Something To Write Home About), I wasn’t entirely sure which song was which, but I did know that each and every note sounded sublime. It’s hard to classify TGUK, and their set jumped from more emo-sounding material to slightly poppier stuff and extending towards more low-key songs that sounded a little more like Pryor’s New Amsterdams stuff. I slapped myself for leaving early due to desperate need for toilet break (and believe me, at a festival, you take them where you can). I thoroughly regret missing their headline tour earlier this year and feel compelled to check out more of their back catalogue as they’re just enchanting live. And no other band can cover The Cure quite so well.

On the programme, there was a massive gap between The Get Up Kids and Bad Religion. Not entirely unusual, but a little suspect. But instead of there just being a whole lot of nothing, NOFX decided to come on and actually play songs! This is a READING EXCLUSIVE, MOTHERFUCKERS! It was great to see the ever so slightly more serious side of NOFX (if that’s even possible in the first place) and to see them just shut up and play awesome songs. And Frank Turner even took to the stage during The Decline! I will never get sick of seeing that ‘The Dream Lives Here’ banner. The truth is, you had to be there. I can’t convey in words how awesome this set was. To be honest, I’m shite at live reviews anyway, so it’s not a hard thing to say. One thing, though – DON’T CALL ME WHITE.

It was a hard act to follow, but Bad Religion were, without a doubt, the best band of the Lock Up. It’s easy to see how they’ve continued for 30 years. Greg Graffin may now look a bit like my dad, but he was still rocking harder than all those young whippersnappers on the other stages. They had an impressive set, ranging from Fuck Armageddon, This Is Hell all the way up to Sinister Rouge. It was a set for everyone who considered Bad Religion their introduction to punk rock – particular highlight for me was ‘You’, well known from being on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (which was pretty much the only game I played from the age of 10 to 11 and purely for the soundtrack). The levels were sorted out and the sound of Bad Religion rang throughout the tent, completely dominating Arcade Fire by miles. They even tried to amp up the light show to compete with everyone else. But Bad Religion need no gimmicks, no tricks; straight up punk rock is all they play and all they need to offer. Ending on Sorrow, I knew that I had witnessed something incredible. Bad Religion have always held a very special place in my heart and always will, and it was amazing to finally cross them off the list.

I was absolutely exhausted by the end of Saturday, and this is when my voice properly started to disintegrate into nothing more than screeches. I got back to my tent, collapsed and ended up with about eight hours sleep, which is a miracle for one of these things. Why? Because I needed to be on top form for Sunday! To fulfil the dreams of my thirteen year old self!

SUNDAY
I was positively hyper with excitement. The truth is, I’d been waiting seven years to see Blink 182. My father dangled the possibility of seeing them on their last UK tour over me when I was thirteen, only to be shot down by my mother who thought that they swore too much. As my friend Jimmy said, surely having heard it means your brain’s damaged goods already? Not according to my overprotective mother. Nevertheless, it wasn’t like I lost out on the chance of ever seeing them due to their recent reformation, so I spent most of the day in complete anticipation.

It was main stage all day today, and my sister’s friends could fuck off because Motion City Soundtrack were on first. I caught these guys earlier in the year and loved every second of it, and their Reading set was very much on par. Justin Pierre (“he looks like he should be on The Big Bang Theory!”) is a simply adorable frontman, nervously telling us the band’s name every other song. Surprisingly, for the first band of the day, the sound quality was superb and you could hear every little bit of synth. Although, Jesse, where’s the wobbly Moog stand these days? Anyway, great set despite the overcast clouds – I always think that MCS should play on a sunny day, considering their music is generally so cheerful. I pretty much love this band with all my heart and you should too.

The King Blues came up afterwards, and to be honest, they should have been in the Lock Up. Despite their music now having a wider appeal since punk came back into fashion, their energy just kind of fizzled out after the first two rows. This is a band that deserves an entire tent going mental over them and they just didn’t get it. I’ve never really listened to The King Blues before, only the occasional song on Lava, but I was impressed by their set. Poppy ska punk infused with politics. However, the politics part was mostly lost on the crowd that day, hence why they should have still played the Lock Up and been higher up the rankings in there.

Thrice played next but I couldn’t be bothered to pay attention. I’ve seen Thrice about three times, they’re alright but I’ve never been a huge fan. All Time Low followed – a band I hate with every ounce of my soul, but that’s an article for another day – and luckily, fate intervened and it started pouring down with rain. So Jimmy and I ran over to the Alternative tent where we caught Charlie Baker, a charming comedian from Devon. And he was a very funny man! I’m generally a bit wary of the Alternative stage – it’s really hit or miss, but Charlie was indeed hilarious! His attempt at a cattle market sadly went over the heads of the audience though. Probably one to watch – and he can sing really well too. A man of many talents. Instead of going back to the main stage, we went for coffee and waited for You Me At Six to disappear. I am sadly going to see this band in December, because Set Your Goals are supporting. Oh, the things I would do for Set Your Goals.

However, Limp Bizkit were on afterwards and let’s face it – no matter how much you hate them, you have got to respect the fact that they have not changed one iota since the late 90s. Fred Durst is still rocking the polo shirts and baseball caps. Limp Bizkit have always been a guilty pleasure of sorts for me – never massively into them but I’ve always left the telly on if Rollin’ was on. And oh my, the amount of people in the crowd who still remembered all the moves. If nothing else, they were worth checking out for nostalgia – and they can clearly still bring it as well as they did back in the day. Break Stuff was particularly entertaining, and Fred’s pleas to look out for each other in the moshpit were an interesting contrast.

I went to fetch pizza and waited for Cypress Hill to finish – a bit of an odd choice for a pretty rock based day. So that we’d be in a good place for Blink, I dragged everyone with me into the thick of it to watch Weezer. Now, if I wasn’t so biased, I’d have called Weezer the best band of the weekend. Rivers Cuomo is actually MENTAL. He climbed up all the adverts, wore a kitty hat someone gave him for most of the set, had his own mini trampoline to pogo up and down on as well as rolling around in mud and wearing a blonde wig whilst singing Poker Face. All that in about 45 minutes. Weezer clearly knew what kind of audience they were playing to and included an MGMT cover as well as one of Teenage Dirtbag, and played a massive amount of stuff. Lots of Blue Album and Pinkerton stuff, as well as all the singles worth shouting about. It’s easy to see why Weezer have been putting out stuff forever (even if some of the in between material has… well, sucked) because they still seem tight as ever as a band and are clearly still good friends. This set destroyed any semblance I had of a voice. Weezer rock. Totally buying Hurley and hey – I LIKE THE COVER.

Paramore were up next. Oh boy, I dislike Paramore these days. I appreciate that they can perform well live – everything was in time, perfectly executed and Hayley Williams has finally found that balance between singer and performer. However, all of their music has lost its heart. You can argue that their performance has too – I miss the days when I saw Paramore in a tiny club room where everyone sang with Hayley and Josh to Franklin. It all seems so artificial and far less intimate these days, but I suppose that’s the price you pay when you play arenas. I spent most of their set bored. They played one song off of All We Know Is Falling and instead, opted for their newer, more mediocre songs. And the crowd lapped it up like mad. I fear for the state of the music industry.

The half hour or so wait in between sets was killing me. In my attempt to get further forwards, I’d been kicked, shoved and punched by a lesbian as she aimed at a bloke next to me. People were trying to push past me, I told them to fuck off. I yelled at a girl who tried to get onto a man’s shoulders directly in my view. Nothing was going to stop me from watching Blink 182, nothing at all. And when they came on… everything just went crazy. I couldn’t sing, my throat was gone. I could just about see Tom and Mark from behind a row of screaming overgrown boys. I was dazzled by the light show and the various different bunny rabbits. It was everything I’d expected and more. It got pretty intense where I was stood so I moved out. Blink 182 were on the fucking stage and I was right there. They did the greatest hits and more. They did all the singles off the self-titled. They finished the set on Family Reunion. I couldn’t ask for more.

The hiatus was always something of a grey area – did they fall out? Did they really just need a break? Did they only get back together because Travis almost died? None of these questions mattered at all once you saw them up on stage together. It’s clear that whatever animosity was potentially there has died as Tom and Mark messed about just like back on the Mark, Tom And Travis Show. Homo erotica by the ton and yeah, a couple of fart jokes. Everything I thought I’d miss out on was there because underneath it all, Blink haven’t really changed – they’ve just grown up a little bit. And despite his forays into Angels And Airwaves, Tom still can’t play keyboard. Sorry, dude. Travis’ drum solo, despite being a bit of a Joey Jordison ripoff, was still really impressive, and revolving drumkits are always a plus!

Best songs of the set? I honestly can’t decide. Everything just brought back so many memories. I guess it was cool to see Reckless Abandon, as it seemed to fit well with the festival vibe, and Stockholm Syndrome, right down to the spoken word at the start of the song, ran shivers down my spine. They haven’t lost it at all. There was Josie, Carousel, Man Overboard, What’s My Age Again… all these songs that I’ve known since I was 13 years old and still haven’t stopped listening to. And that finish? It’s clear that Blink have not lost their roots, not one bit.

I honestly find it impossible to convey how amazing that set was. And I’m glad that the festival finished on Blink, because it first of all gave me something to look forward to and finally validated my reason for going, despite all the shit that went down. So thanks, Blink 182. Thanks for getting back together, thanks for being awesome and thanks for making my £180 worth it. You rule.

Reading Festival 2009

Reading and Leeds is some kind of British institution these days. If you are a) 18-25 and b) listen to music, then it’s sort of a prerequisite that you go. This year was my first time for the whole weekend, so I wasn’t exactly a Reading virgin and was instead someone who got to second base with Reading, and it was an interesting experience. A lot of people go for the booze and to have a few bands playing in the background, but being the good little straight edge girl I am, it was time to bombard myself with live music and of course, review it for you fine people. Armed with two TBO shirts, my boyfriend to supply me with hand gel and warmth when it got freeze-your-tits-off cold during the last few acts, my sister to generally irritate me and drag me off to bands I didn’t want to see, and my sister’s two Scottish internet friends to attempt to stop the previous item from happening, I was ready to go.

First, there are a few things I found out rather quickly. Number one, camping sucks; number two, toilets there are vile; number three, nobody stays clean; and finally, number four, you will never ever get to see every band you want. All of these facts are rather irritating and not very fun, but are solid tenets of the festival. The food also sucks, and people will keep you awake throughout the night with loud, but admittedly wonderful gems such as “get out of my fucking tent and take a shit!”. As much as people like to bullshit, the vast majority of them aren’t there for the same reason as you – they’re there to get shitfaced in a field. Whilst that’s all well and good, your hair will smell like beer due to the sheer amount of cups thrown amongst the crowd. And all of this is probably making the festival sound awful, but trust me, it’s not! No matter how many small things irritated me, the underlying feeling of “I’m actually here” and seeing a ton of your favourite bands in one weekend (which I was fortunate enough to do) is definitely worth it. And without further ado, onto the bands!

Friday

We started Friday off fairly chilled. We got into the arena early and hung out in the NME/Radio One tent for a bit, catching Glasgow’s Dananananaykroyd first thing. For the first band of the day, they’re a rather odd choice. They sound a bit like a British version of Blood Brothers, which is perfectly fine by me, even if the vocals are pretty unintelligible. They were quite energetic, and rather fun, so I’d definitely check them again. Then, after a brief disappearance to fetch coats before the heavens opened, we came back to watch Manchester Orchestra. Even as a Brand New fan, I had never cared enough to listen to these guys before and that was a big mistake because they were great! Really nice indie rock for early in the afternoon. They also had fantastic beards, and if you’re a regular TBO reader, you’ll appreciate the fact that I am a great beard appreciator. But anyway, they had a great sound.

It was onto the main stage for a while then, and we saw Alexisonfire first there. Almost all the bands today suffered from poor sound on the main stage, but Alexisonfire struggled bravely through it, putting on a rather good show regardless. They played a lot of Crisis material, making the fans extremely happy and serving as a good warm up for their set in the Lock Up tent later. New Found Glory followed them, and were fantastic as always, despite the poor sound. I’ve seen NFG at least five times now and they’ve been awesome every time. They had a great range of new and old songs, playing a couple from new album Not Without A Fight, as well as some classics like Sincerely Me and favourite single, Kiss Me. They were the best received band so far that day, and it was also their first time playing the main stage, as opposed to the Lock Up, so they managed very well.

We then ended up back and forth between stages for a while, hitting up the NME/Radio One tent for Little Boots, who was also really good. Despite a few little hiccups, like almost missing a cue and tripping to reach the mic and the tenori-on losing its output, she performed very well. She did both singles and a few of the other songs from debut album Hands, which has been my favourite album this summer, as well as a cover of Freddie Mercury’s ‘Love Kills’, with a superb reaction from the crowd. And her cape/dress combo was epic. Next came Fall Out Boy on the main stage, and they were awful. I’ve seen FOB about five times, and they’ve never performed so badly as they had that day. The poor sound didn’t even provide an excuse. The set list was the same as ever, with a few songs from the last album replaced with some from the new album, and yes, they finished on Saturday. Pete Wentz tried to be funny and failed, as per usual, he jumped into the crowd screaming like an idiot, as per usual, and they just didn’t meet the standard. Their cover of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ was quite good though, to their credit. It certainly made a change from hearing ‘Beat It’, yet again. It was off to the Lock Up for the only time that day to check out Bouncing Souls, who entertained the crowd with their sunny pop-punk anthems. Admittedly, it sounded a bit samey, but pop-punk has a tendency to do so every now and again. It was these guys who did the standard Misfits cover this time, performing an acoustic version of ‘Hybrid Moments’ which can only be described as epic. All in all, it was a good, bouncy set. And I like that.

For the rest of the evening, we trudged on over to the main stage, situated ourselves near a screen and bought some donuts and tea to keep ourselves warm. Kaiser Chiefs were back again this year, and they keep getting better and better! The shining star of that band, vocalist Ricky (who’s lost loads of weight, go Ricky!), kept us all entertained with his stage climbing antics and running around like a mad man. The sound had been fixed by this point so they sounded sublime, playing a ton of fan favourites and making everyone move their feet! Well, that could have been the cold too, but I like to think it was the Kaisers. Even my boyfriend thought they were the best band of the day and he can’t stand their songs, so there’s proof of how awesome they were. They were definitely one of my favourite acts of the weekend.

And then it began… Kings Of Leon, the bone of much contention this weekend. Unfortunately, their songs aren’t too lively and they aren’t well known over here except for the singles from their latest album, so they weren’t as well received as the Kaisers were. The sound was fantastic, and I rather enjoyed the set, even if I wasn’t so familiar with it. The band themselves started off fine too, until frontman Caleb turned into a pissy bitch because people weren’t reacting as he had expected and started going ‘if you’re sick of Kings Of Leon, then fuck you!’ which was entirely unnecessary and started trashing things. Trashing your set hasn’t been rock and roll since 1994 and Nirvana, so Kings Of Leon really did themselves no favours, and I found that their behaviour soured the entire evening for me. It’s a good job there were plenty of other bands without that kind of attitude to redeem the rest of the weekend.

Saturday

I spent the entire day here in the Lock Up tent, which I feel was an excellent decision. In order to go charge phones, we ended up missing The Computers, but apparently they were rather good, so that was a shame. However, we did get to see Polar Bear Club, which was badass, because they were just as good if not better than when they supported The Gaslight Anthem in February. For those not in the know, Polar Bear Club play awesome melodic hardcore, and they totally sounded their best that day. They played some new material from their upcoming album which sounded great, and really got us all moving! They were also extremely polite young gentlemen, in stark contrast to a certain headliner, and this was a theme that ran throughout the rest of the bands on today. Great set from a great band, and I’m glad I got to see them again. Chuck Ragan was up next, and his blend of folk-punk-country is something beautiful to behold. With a full band of bassist, pedal steel guitarist, keyboardist, violinist, drummer and himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica, he created a really rich sound that provided a fantastic change of pace in the Lock Up with all the passion of his days in Hot Water Music. Gold Country will definitely be an album to look forwards to, and his collaboration with Tim McIllrath from Rise Against at the end of the set was incredible; two great vocalists with totally different styles, but it worked so well. All in all, very impressed. There were also fantastic beards in this one too.

After a bit of a break, we headed back for Set Your Goals, who I found to be very repetitive. Unfortunately, this is a risk you run when you’re either a pop-punk band or a hardcore band, which SYG are a strange hybrid of. The fans loved it though, and there were circle pits ahoy! The vocalist from Polar Bear Club made an appearance and showed up both SYG vocalists (and I have never understood the need for two vocalists) with his hyperactive self and awesomely gruff voice for such a skinny man. Anyway, their best effort was a ‘heavier’ song from their new album, which did actually sound more like hardcore and more like my kind of thing. They weren’t terrible, but they didn’t deliver like I thought they would. However, Rival Schools were completely the opposite. Having got into them after they broke up, I didn’t think I’d have any opportunity to see them live, so I definitely wasn’t going to miss this set, and I was right to stick to my guns, as they were fantastic! Their set again showed the diversity on the Lock Up stage this year, with their unique brand of post-hardcore sailing out of the speakers at full force. Plus, the announcement of new material got everyone excited, and both the band and crowd were full of energy. And now, I can say I’ve seen SOMEONE from Gorilla Biscuits on stage, so that’s a personal achievement.

We took a break for some not-so-delicious festival food (the idea of a giant filled Yorkshire Pudding would be wonderful at home, made by Mummy, but with instant mash and cheap ingredients, not so much) and I separated from my sister and took my boyfriend for an evening of straight up awesome as we caught Thursday and Rise Against. I’ve seen Thursday more times than I realised previously, and every time, they always sound exactly the same. Geoff Rickley’s got fantastic hips, but his vocals leave a lot to be desired live. They were also a bit TOO pleasant, dedicating every other song to some cause or another. It soon became our little in-joke of the weekend, dedicating fake songs to puppies and people who take their recycling to the right bin and so on. Well, it amused us, that’s for sure. I’m not a big Thursday fan, to be honest, so I couldn’t really recognise half of their songs, but there was a pretty wide range of old and new. Apart from Geoff’s vocals, they sounded pretty good. And then Rise Against came on and totally owned everything that day. Rise Against are a band best seen live, and even if I couldn’t technically ‘see’ anything due to my tiny stature and aptitude for getting lost in pits, there was complete validation of that fact that night. The band’s melodic hardcore works great in a festival environment, and the set was filled with fan favourites and a few classics from Revolutions Per Minute – they played Red, White And Blue, despite my heart’s desperate plea for Black Masks and Gasoline. It was their first time headlining the Lock Up, despite playing it for several years and they certainly stood up to the challenge. Tim McIllrath is also probably one of the loveliest men on the planet, and shows that you don’t have to be a dick to be a successful frontman. One of his statements about the crowd all being ‘family’ is one thing I love about the punk scene – there’s such a great sense of community and you’re all there for the same reason. But I digress. Rise Against were amazing, as per usual, and I heartily recommend you see them some time soon.

Sunday
First thing Sunday morning, I decided to take a different approach and headed over to a lecture on Watchmen by Jeffrey Lewis (Alternative Stage), a singer/songwriter who also happened to do his university thesis on Watchmen, which is extremely badass. He went through a variety of themes and theories, such as discussing the notion of obscured vision and denial (the right eye of many characters/objects is obscured throughout the comic in reference to this), the allusions early on to Adrian’s plan, the symbolism in Edward’s visit to Moloch and other such things that if you don’t know Watchmen, you have no chance in hell of understanding. But for a fan like myself, it was very interesting! It made a great change from music, and provided a wonderful slice of geekery into the weekend. If you like Watchmen, you’ll find Mr Lewis’ ideas very intriguing. Oh, did I mention there was a slide show as well? BADASS.

Frank Turner (NME/Radio One) was the first musician of the day for me, and I can’t say it enough, but it is always a pleasure to see him. Always. He played an absolutely fantastic set, including new songs from ‘Poetry Of The Deed’ (I’ve got it pre-ordered, how about you?) and new single ‘The Road’ which went down great. I was surprised to see such a big crowd, as I didn’t realise he was that well known, but it truly is testament to Frank’s genius and charm. As my sister said, “aww, what an absolute babe!” He sounded great, performed fantastically and even went and did a little mini set on the BBC Introducing stage featuring an epic cover of Dancing Queen! What a lovely man.

Okay, seeing Brand New (Main Stage) is always a fairly intense experience, and not one which is particularly suited to a festival, I feel. It was rather overwhelming if you weren’t a Brand New fan, and my sister being of that variety stood there rather bored going “…what the hell are they doing?” for half the set. This, of course, in reference to all the improvisation included in all the songs, which Brand New now have a tendency for doing. Okay, I like that when Brand New are headlining, but a festival set needs to be snappy and it needs to grab your attention in all the right ways, which the boys just didn’t manage this time. I think it’s because Jesse wasn’t wearing a cardigan. They played a few new songs from ‘Daisy’, due out 21st September, and this was probably the highlight of the set for a lot of people, because new Brand New is always a good thing.

I have only a few things to say about The Gaslight Anthem (NME/Radio One)in general. Firstly, Brian Fallon has the most wonderful voice in music right now. Secondly, he’s crazy – he kind of lectured the crowd on an inflatable hand. Thirdly, they play awesome folk punk. That’s pretty much all you need to know and that’s exactly what went down. They played a mix of songs from Sink Or Swim and The ’59 Sound and much like Frank Turner, they had a lot more fans than I expected! Great folk punk and great people.

Before AFI, we managed to catch a little bit of Bloc Party (Main Stage). The singer has some of the biggest arm muscles in music right now, but that’s besides the point. They had some very impressive lighting and sound effects, as well as playing a ton of awesome songs. I’m not a Bloc Party aficionado, but I at least recognised three out of the six or seven songs we got to see. Also, did I mention the arm muscles? Seriously, you needed two tickets to the gun show for those!

Oh, AFI (NME/Radio One). It really has been too long. Three years, in fact, since you last graced our soils. I’m a total AFI fangirl and I don’t care, they were absolutely incredible. The standard Sing The Sorrow and Decemberunderground set was in place, as well as new single Medicate, with Days Of The Phoenix cropping in as expected and they did A Single Second without Nick 13 and Love Is A Many Splendored Thing!! That was only on vinyl!! It was great to see AFI doing some old material, because since they changed to Interscope, it hasn’t been featuring in their sets at all, and as an AFI fan for almost eight years, it was a bit upsetting last time I saw them to find only Phoenix and God Called In Sick Today representing the Nitro days. Anyway, AFI are really great live. Davey really gets into it, Jade and Hunter do much better spinkicks than Joe Trohman and Pete Wentz and Adam… Well, Adam is Adam! My only criticism is that the levels weren’t great on Davey’s vocals, as he sings fairly quietly anyway and he was almost drowned out in several instances. Otherwise, fantastic set, and my best of the weekend.

The last band we saw was Radiohead (Main Stage), and if I’m being honest, they’re pretty boring to watch. They sound amazing, but they’re boring to watch. They had a cool camera setup going on, where it essentially zoomed in on Thom Yorke’s nose hair whilst displaying all of the other band members in little squares and then Thom Yorke in another one, but it was interesting nonetheless. The set was heavy with In Rainbows material, as Radiohead haven’t brought out anything new since. It was an extremely long set though – almost two and a half hours – comprised of some of Radiohead’s best material. A personal highlight for me was Paranoid Android, as well as Idioteque. So, Radiohead. A bit overrated, I felt, but they sounded good and the fans were pleased.

So, that’s Reading. Leeds coverage is coming from ninthandash soon. Presale is on now at the same price as this year’s tickets for a limited time only, so if you’re interested, head on over to the official site. It was a great weekend for me and hopefully, TBO will be representing again next year!

Live: Reel Big Fish – O2 Academy Birmingham, 25/1/10

Monday night’s alright for skanking, or so they say, so I headed on down to Birmingham to catch me some Reel Big Fish and ditch those January blues. I must admit, I was pretty damn excited about going to this show. First of all, the mere prospect of Reel Big Fish gets me more excited than fat Twihards watching Robert Pattinson documentaries. Despite Matt Wong’s departure last year, I knew that I was most likely in for some fun. Secondly, it was in the new Academy, which I had never visited before; this particularly reveals a lot about my current taste in music, I believe, as well as my favourite bands’ sucky touring schedules. Thirdly, it was my first ‘big’ gig of the year. And finally, it meant getting off campus, which believe me, can be a real joy.

I think it’s important that I start with my views on the new Academy building. It’s just as close to the train station, if not closer, and brings me past the comic book shop on the way. That’s pretty awesome. We didn’t encounter priority entrance as such, but having our tickets already got us in there pretty swiftly and up until this point, I was pretty psyched. However, upon stepping inside, I was disappointed. It’s bigger, it’s cleaner, it’s brighter, but those aren’t necessarily good things. Perhaps I’m just lost in the memories I have of the old Academy building – I went to my first show there, I’ve seen all my favourite bands there, I’ve generally spent some of the best nights of my life there – and I’m old and bitter and therefore unable to adapt to the new. No matter what though, the drinks are still way too fucking expensive. One thing I can’t fathom about the venue though is that the balcony is now all seated. I suppose it lets them get more people in there, but personally, it seems utterly pointless when many gigs only have the stalls open. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I’ll learn to love the new building, but right now… not feeling it.

So, bands! Sonic Boom Six opened up and I arrived about a third of the way through their set. I’ve never really been a massive SBS fan, but then again, I’ve never listened to many of their songs. I was reasonably impressed. Admittedly, their best songs were the ones where they brought in the horn section from Big D And The Kids Table to come and help out, and I found it really quite strange that they didn’t have a horn section. However, this wasn’t entirely a problem. Their sound has echoes of second wave ska (they even partly covered Ghost Town) and was a little bit more punk than the rest of the offerings that evening. The dual guy/girl vocals were pretty interesting (and she had killer hair!) and overall, they were quite good to watch.

However, SBS could not compare to Big D And The Kids Table at all. Big D are one of those bands that I really like, but I don’t have any of their material and end up listening to the same three or four songs that happen to be on their Myspace at the time. But there are two things I know about Big D. First of all, their saxophone player is hot. Secondly, they are awesome. Live, they’re pretty impressive. No bands suffered from sound problems at all that night, but Big D just sounded so much better than SBS. They have backing singers who dance by the screen, which is the epitome of cool, especially in their matching hounds tooth dresses. And you do not need the words to have a good time. Big D have some real easy going songs and then some pretty upbeat ones that are hella easy to skank to. They played a very varied set, accommodating the best from all of their albums (as far as I could tell), and promoted the new one well. If these guys roll into your town, go and check them out because you’ll have a hell of a lot of fun.

And holy shit, Reel Big Fish were so good! My expectations were fully realised that night. As soon as they opened with Sell Out, I knew that it was going to be a killer set. Everyone was dancing, everyone was having fun and quite rightfully! The little bromance between Aaron and Scott is always amusing, and they were on fine form. They played all the classics – Beer, Take On Me, Where Have You Been?, Don’t Start A Band, She Has A Girlfriend Now, etc etc – and absolutely owned the venue. It’s true, it was kind of lame that Matt wasn’t there, and as fightclubsandwich has said, “No Wong, no deal!” but to be honest, Reel Big Fish have always been just as energetic, just as fun, just as great no matter what the lineup. The encore was potentially one of the best I’ve ever witnessed in my life as they rattled through various different musical styles whilst playing S.R. (even death metal!) and whilst RBF might not be “MASTERS!” of all the musical styles in the world, they certainly are masters of their craft. Which is hella awesome ska.

Rant by Chuck Palahniuk (a review by fightclubsandwich)

Disclaimer: the pseudonym “Fight Club Sandwich” under which I write for this website is merely an expression of my love of stupid puns, not the work of this particular author. In fact, I’ve never read Fight Club, though I do have the film on DVD, and really strongly hated the only other work of Mr Palahniuk’s that I had ever read. Appearances can be deceiving.

If Chuck Palahniuk ever decides to start his own militia for whatever reason, he will have no trouble accomplishing this. Palahniuk fans are a strange breed. I’d hate to call them “rabid” – not only because it would be a really terrible pun in context, considering the subject matter of this book, but it would also be inaccurate and misleading. They are a devoted bunch, though, for sure, basking in the quirky and grotesque worlds that Palahniuk builds, seemingly by picking on the most disenfranchised, skewed or obsessive perspectives he can find, working out characters who think that way, and placing these characters at the eye of the tornadoes that are brewing up around them.

In Rant the misfits at the heart of the story are the “Party Crashers” – a subculture of nocturnal kids who crash their cars into one another on purpose. It’s a sort-of-biography of Buster “Rant” Casey, an individual who is heavily involved in the Party Crashing scene, told by those who knew him best, from after his death. This format is a really great choice, allowing Palahniuk to stay true to his very controlled, technical narrative style, to peel back elements of the real world and immerse us slowly into the one he has created, which grows further and further from reality as it goes, but at the same time, a lot of the story is left ambiguous, and for the reader to interpret however they want.

The story’s events are very strange, to the extent that some readers might be put off by the sheer leaps and swirls and crashes and other words with connotations of movement that the narrative takes. There’s a plague of rabies, very old, very valuable coins, potential time travel, it’s a very busy plot, but arranged in a way that is obviously designed in reflection of real life – a lot of strange stuff happens, often in random and unconnected ways, that’s just how it goes. But events and characters are linked to one another, and you’d never guess how. It gets eerie and is done very cleverly. If you like strange plot elements, you will like this book, Palahniuk manages to pass off a shocking amount of supermarket-tabloid-weirdness, on the strength of the way the story is told.

Weirdly, the world constructed within the book somehow comes off as completely believable. This is aided by characters who feel utterly real – one of the most satisfying feelings that accompany the finishing of a novel is the feeling that the characters are not fictional creations but people you’ve just met, and many of the figures in Rant feel this way. These include many of the titular character’s team of Party Crashers, and his mother Irene, and the fact that many of the strongest characters – the characters who get the strongest writing and ideas attributed to them, not necessarily the strongest personalities – are female is particularly refreshing. The women in this novel are not treated as “female characters”, as a defining trait, and it doesn’t feel as if Palahniuk has stopped and tried to force himself to consider “how women think” at any point. The believability of the characters is also important since many of the weirder elements of the story are introduced in their words. The character of Christopher “Shot” Dunyun introduces the reader to the concept of “boosting peaks” – a sort of virtual reality industry involving plus in the backs of many characters’ necks – in one of the strongest written chapters in the book.

There are of course exceptions to this, which is pretty inevitable considering the way the book is put together, there are so many characters and a good deal of them play very small roles and don’t get to say much. Galton Nye, for example, is a right wing Christian minister whose daughter rebels against her parents. His character is an entirely two dimensional straw man type, and feels like a bunch of the most negative, unpleasant traits propped up into a paper-thin excuse for a character. This is the complete opposite of Irene Casey, the mother of the titular character, who is written in a way that constantly evades falling into the pit of cliché, despite how easy it would be to turn her into a caricature of a red-neck-ish mother and wife who only bounces like a tennis ball between those two roles.

Conversely, the believability of the world Palahniuk has built may be one of the novel’s greatest strengths but also exposes a weakness – his attempts to reconnect his fiction with the real world can be problematic. The attempts at academic writing that crop up from time to time – due to the myriad “contributors” who write paragraphs in the novel – are, for the most part, just unbelievable, whether they’re too stylised or just over-simplified and clumsy. But the most grating part, for myself at least, is the way Palahnuik delivers his observations or speculations on humanity. I just have never been convinced by his philosophies, and perhaps this is a position that I’ve arrived at only because of outside sources twisting his words and adopting very crude and basic forms of nilhism that makes the interesting, complex versions boring. Or perhaps Palahniuk’s observations are just too simplistic to begin with.

This may just be a personal thing – when I read Haunted, the only other novel of his that I have read, I found the unrealism of the scenario grating – and it was a scenario that revolved around human nature and inner darkness. Rant has a far less believable plot in terms of the events that actually happen – or do they? – but the characters are much stronger than the earlier book. On the whole, Rant is a book that has strong enough foundations to be a really enjoyable read, and is satisfying enough as a whole for the few flaws to fade from your mind. It’s sufficiently strange to be off-putting to some, changing stylistically throughout, but the wacky events are handled solidly. Palahnuik has really proven himself imaginative enough to shame the likes of me, who might be only too willing to write him off as an unfavourite. That’s hard to do when one single book has the most vivid ADHD about its subject matter, there’s so much going on that this is a book it can’t hurt to try.