Robyn Writes

Live: North Lincoln – Robbin’s Well Leamington Spa, 12/10/09

It turns out that my university has a little society called ‘Punksoc’, where people sit around, talk about punk and go to a lot of shows. The idea of this intrigued me, being a fan of such things, so I signed up right away. Monday was the first gig social, and we went to nearby town Leamington Spa to see North Lincoln at Robbin’s Well.

There were three awesome things about this particular gig. The first was that it was an actual basement show. Sort of. The Well has a downstairs area for gigs which is pretty much like a basement in that everyone crowds around the band who are playing on exactly the same level as you. This is probably the closest I’ll ever get to experiencing something like that, so it’s totally a basement show. The second was that it was North Lincoln’s last tour, and we got to see them in such a small and intimate environment. I will admit, I’d never heard of North Lincoln before (I really should follow record labels more considering they’re on No Idea) or any of the other four bands on the lineup, which brings me to the third awesome point – five bands for a mere £5. I am fed up of paying ridiculous prices for gigs. In January, I’m seeing Henry Rollins, and paying £22 a ticket for the privilege. It’s just not punk rock any more. So five for £5 is pretty damn good, even if the drinks were fairly expensive.

First band up were Caves, a fairly melodic punk band from Bristol. We came in late and missed about half of their set, but from what I could tell, they were pretty good. Nothing particularly original, except that their lead, female singer had an exceptionally gruff voice for a girl. Not a bad thing at all.

Second on were Big City Plan, hailing from Birmingham. It’s difficult to compare them to anything else, but I seemed to think that they were like a less hardcore No Trigger with rougher vocals, which is still pretty awesome. These guys were one of my favourite acts that night, with their tuneful, energetic songs receiving a great reception. Really good fun, and their song ‘Paint The Town Rad’ is a must listen. They’re also playing again soon, and I’ll definitely be seeing them again.

Next up was James Black, a folk punk artist from London. Now, I like folk punk, and I like it a lot, but every song here sounded exactly the same, both lyrically and musically, and not in a good way. I found him to be fairly bland and he didn’t really fit with the rest of the line up. Folk punk is tricky to get right, and you don’t need to shout all the time to do it. It also wasn’t too interesting to watch, even though I’ve found someone with nothing but a guitar to be compelling in the past. Personally, I’d give this guy a miss.

The Amistad, a relatively local band, were on next. The Amistad have this real charm about them, probably because they talk lots in between songs and are genuinely quite funny. The songs are good too. Very catchy, with the potential to become real anthems. They probably didn’t sound as good as they could, due to the vocalist having taken over bass duties and not really being able to play it. He managed pretty well though! Great energetic punk rock and one I’ll definitely be looking out for.

Finally, North Lincoln took the floor. I really have only one word to describe their set – amazing. They had a really laidback approach, and knew that they were having fun, which in turn meant we were having fun with some awesome music. Their gruff punk anthems filled the basement well, playing really old stuff as well as the last few songs they wrote. Everybody in the crowd was there for the same reason – to see North Lincoln – which sounds like a strange and obvious remark, but too often, I go to gigs and see people there because they were dragged there with friends, or because they wanted to see the support, or because it’s something to do, and it made for an incredible experience. All I can say is that it’s a shame North Lincoln won’t be touring again, because their wonderfully melodic punk needs to be heard live to be truly appreciated.

Live: Never Say Die! 2010 – O2 Academy Birmingham, 31/10/10

The minute I stepped through the door, I thought ‘I shouldn’t be here’. It was Halloween, Kitteh and I thought that we should do something because neither of us could do our usual respective Halloween activities and we chanced upon Parkway Drive and Comeback Kid touring together. “You wanna do it?” “Hell yeah I wanna do it!” and the tickets were booked. But stepping through the doors, into a barrage of scene mullets, fat girls with too much eyeliner and brightly coloured band t-shirts (seriously, what happened to black?), was almost too much to handle. I guess I forgot that hardcore is a bit ridiculous these days.

At the merch stand, Kitteh got major props from Bleeding Through’s super awesome keyboardist Marta (“That necklace is soooo cool, where did you get it?!” “To be honest, Claire’s… the Halloween stuff is surprisingly good.” “No way!!”), I picked up a bitchin’ Comeback Kid shirt and we kicked back, relaxed, paid far too much for a VK and a coke and waited for the next band to come on, having already missed We Came As Romans, who I’m sure were very good as they had dinosaurs on their t-shirts. Your Demise, who to my surprise were British, came on and we ventured on in. Despite being just the second band on, they had a lot of support from the audience who two-stepped and floor-punched their way into a frenzy. Your Demise are great hardcore – absolutely full of energy with enough melody to actually make a song while still being heavy as fuck. They’re not too serious, but it was clear that there was a lot more depth than just ‘mosh mosh mosh’ in their sound. War From A Harlot’s Mouth were up next, but they didn’t leave a lasting impression. They were vaguely akin to Caliban, so in other words, heavy German metalcore. You get the picture.

Emmure, however, were something incredible. Glorious deathcore hailing from various parts of the US, they shocked and awed the crowd with an amazing performance. Vocalist Frankie Palmeri has a voice that sounds like a bowel movement in his throat – deep, distressing and potentially cathartic. Emmure are an insanely intense band; every song is like a direct assault. There’s no bullshit either; the band’s there to play, not chat to the teenies on the front row. I wasn’t in the mosh, but I believed it to be brutal, much like the sound coming out of the speakers. It’s impressive stuff, so definitely check them out if they’re over again.

Bleeding Through are a band that Kitteh and I have been waiting to see for a while. And oh man, they were definitely the heaviest band of the night. Marta is just so impressive to behold – the headbanging whilst rocking the keyboards was so intense she probably got some kind of concussion. The songs from the latest release sound amazing and the band were on top form. They’re so typically American though – Brandon says thank you after every song, everything’s posi until they tell us they’re enemies of everything and I dunno, it gave the set a bit of a weird feel. However, it’s forgivable because Brandon is ridiculously beef. So so beef.

Comeback Kid are also in the same boat – they’re a band I’ve been wanting to see for absolutely ages. And they delivered, holy shit they delivered. They also played a lot from their latest release and the new songs sound great; that perfect mix of crushing yet melodic hardcore that Comeback Kid are renowned for. I got a bit too excited when they played Broadcasting. The sound wasn’t as good for Comeback Kid as it should have been – the levels were a bit off, but nevertheless, it was an exciting set. While they may not be quite as fun to watch as bands like Your Demise and headliners Parkway Drive (who to be fair, are just mental), they’re certainly captivating. Not the best set of the evening but pretty damn close.

The best set of the evening, truly, must be reserved for Parkway Drive. It may have been their first time in Birmingham, but they owned the venue entirely. The set was divided into two halves – they played songs from Deep Blue, the new album first, and then a mix from Horizons and Killing With A Smile. When I say two halves, I literally mean that – a quick break in the set to change the back drop, put out some palm trees and to try and make it feel a bit more like Byron Bay. Dinghies and beach balls all inclusive too. The sound was sorted out entirely and every note in Winston’s growl was audible all the way to the back. Parkway Drive are excellent showmen – there was a mini circle pit on stage, they got the crowd going insane over an Australian football and you felt like you were part of something grander. The inclusion of older songs in the set was pretty impressive, especially Romance Is Dead and Guns For Show, Knives For A Pro, which sounded amazing. As a devotee to Killing With A Smile, I was happy. When I say I’ve never seen anything quite like it, that’s not hyperbole, that’s fact – Parkway Drive are just insane live, and insanely good at that. The new giants of hardcore are here.

Live: Motion City Soundtrack – O2 Academy Birmingham 2, 28/3/10

This show almost never happened for me. As a planned birthday present for my father (because he is rad), I asked him whether he would like to go, seeing as he’d have to drive there. He initially said no, but about a week later, he popped his head around my door in the middle of a busy FF session and said ‘let’s do it’. So, being in the middle of FFXIII, I decided to wait until the morning to book tickets where I found, much to my chagrin, they were all sold out. Bummer. However, my dad is an absolute hero and got us tickets anyway, and I bought him some Jason Statham DVDs for his birthday instead. Everyone’s a winner.

I had a much less arduous journey on my hands this time, but we still ended up late, as is my family’s tradition whenever we attend anything. However, in the case of Jenny Owen Youngs, this wasn’t exactly a bad thing. Indie rock with a touch of country and the most irritating vocals I’ve heard in a long time. Even more irritating than the guy from Kyoto Drive the day before. The rest of the music wasn’t too bad – a little cliché, but on the whole, it sounded pretty okay. Just… bleh, those vocals! Something was dying up there. She had bitchin’ hair though. Do want.

With that out of the way, next band up, Free Energy were pretty sweet. Now, they had the most awful lyrics I’ve heard in possibly forever (“bang bang, pop pop”? What the, what the fuck?) but on the whole, they were good! An odd choice to support a band like Motion City Soundtrack due to their general hippie rock feel – doubly defined by the hair on show – but they had some seriously feel good songs. There’s too much negativity in rock music these days and we need bands like Free Energy to shake it up a bit. Lots of finger tapping, cowbell and an extremely skinny singer strutting across the stage. Possibly a throwback to the 80s, but let’s face it… they were the best decade.

I was pretty excited for Motion City Soundtrack to be coming out. Having listened to My Dinosaur Life a couple of times before the show, I knew that in the studio, they hadn’t changed at all. In fact, it was even an improvement on Even If It Kills Me, despite that being a brilliant album. It turns out that I was entirely right to be excited as Motion City Soundtrack are just great performers. My one lament is that Jesse didn’t have his bendy keyboard stand, but on a stage that small, I can see how that might not have worked so well. Asides from that notion, they were so good. They played one of the best sets I’ve seen any band play, with a shit ton of stuff from I Am The Movie (my favourite), including “The Red Dress”, which I never imagined would happen, and the rest of the songs came from across the board – in fact, here’s the setlist. The new material sounds great live, except the keyboard is a little lacking live, but I think that’s a problem to do with levels and seems to be consistent whenever anybody with a synth is playing anywhere. Justin still has crazy hair and is the perfect gentleman, and I wish to steal his Keyboard Cat shirt. One thing I really appreciate about Motion City Soundtrack is that they actually look like they want to be there – there were smiles all around the band and the crowd! It’d been four years since I’d seen Motion City Soundtrack, all the way back when Give It A Name was still being done in Birmingham, and in fact, four years since the band had toured over here. At the end of the night, Justin told us “it’s been far too long and I promise it’ll never be this long again”. Let’s hope not, because the UK needs Motion City Soundtrack.

Less Than Jake – O2 Academy Birmingham, 9/11/08 (a review by Ripper)

Now, I’m a Less Than Jake virgin. Wait, make that a ska virgin. It’s true! Of all the shows I have ever been to, I have never experienced a major band ska show. I’ve been to local ska shows, but around my area, that just means that the band’s attempting to be [spunge] and nobody’s skanking.

So, when I turned up to the Academy, in the pouring down rain, I didn’t quite know what to expect.

Also, I should mention here that fightclubsandwich was also at the show, and in between every band, me and my boyfriend searched in vain for her, believing that she still had pink hair. She didn’t tell us she’d dyed it back to black. So, we gave up in the end, until she came dancing over during LTJ’s set. We TBO girls really need to co-ordinate ourselves better.

For one of the first times in my life, I didn’t miss the support bands. First up were Imperial Leisure, a British band with a unique mix of ska and hip-hop. There were literally a sea of people skanking, and it was good to see a support band with so much… support! They were a lot of fun, but they’re potentially controversial in the way that ska fans will either love them or hate them. It’s definitely not traditional ska that Imperial Leisure are playing, but it works.

Beat Union were up next, and to begin with, I wasn’t enamoured. The type of bands they’ve supported in past put me off, the main one of these being Good Charlotte. I actually like GC, but they have a habit of playing with notoriously bad support bands (I think the main exception to that is Millencolin, who I actually preferred to GC when I saw them a few years ago). However, after a couple of songs, I was pleasantly surprised. Pop-punk with more emphasis on the punk, they played loud and energetically. Obviously influenced by the Police, they incorporated a more laidback style into some of their songs which worked well. They were my boyfriend’s favourite band of the night, and what pleased him even more was that they were local lads. Nevertheless, they played well and got the crowd going.

The third band on the bill was Pepper, a ska band hailing from Florida. Pepper are very much influenced by Sublime, and you can tell. Not that that’s a bad thing, though. Their laidback ska grooves were great, and it amused me greatly how every member of the band was wearing shorts in Birmingham, of all places. Their onset jokes were funny though crude. I found a lot of it funny, but when they started joking about weed, I wasn’t impressed. It doesn’t take much to stereotype ska fans, unfortunately, and they did it with ease. However, the songs were good and the brief cover of Bro Hymn by Pennywise went down well.

Finally, the band in question. Less Than Jake. fightclubsandwich and I disagreed on a few aspects of this show, but LTJ was one where we couldn’t help but to agree. They were awesome. It’s actually impossible to go to a Less Than Jake gig and come out with a frown on your face. I haven’t heard a lot of the new album, but the songs from GNV FLA came across as some of the strongest, as well as tons of classics from Hello Rockview, Borders And Boundaries, Anthem and even a couple of songs from even earlier were played. I was very pleased by the amount of Anthem material, because that was the album of 2003 for me, and songs where I actually knew the words! I’m abysmal when it comes to song lyrics. It was an extremely entertaining set. Bad jokes from the brass section! Heavy metal scream contests! Making fun of security guards! It felt good to laugh at a show again. LTJ’s sound was also incredible, making up for the bad levels in previous sets. Everyone was dancing, everyone was singing, everyone was having a good time. And that’s what a show should be like.

The truth is, whether you’re a Less Than Jake fan or not, it’s hard to deny that cheeky grin creeping up on your face when they’re playing. This band is essential for everyone, especially in a scene now dominated by depressing haircuts and suicidal lyrics. And hey, who doesn’t like trombones?

Less Than Jake – O2 Academy Birmingham, 9/11/08 (a review by fightclubsandwich)

I went through a lot of pain for this Less Than Jake concert. I had menstrual queasiness pretty badly for most of the day of the show, and consequently only ate a piece of toast and a packet of crisps instead of, um, actual meals. The weather that evening was positively nightmarish; I genuinely thought that I might get frostbite in my feet since I couldn’t feel them at all, my shoes were just filled with numbness and a weird, pins-and-needles sort of feeling. Then, once I took the train into the city, I had to walk to the venue through puddles that were deep enough to qualify – technically – as lakes, wearing two vests, a sweater, two jackets, a hat, a scarf, and my hood up too.

That I went through this much to see the concert should maybe give you a hint at the sort of partiality that you can expect of my “review”.

I am a pretty big Less Than Jake fan, and this night was the third time that I had seen them. The first time I ever saw them, I took a train from Cardiff to Bristol, just for the show. I am afraid that this review would fail so spectacularly at any attempt at objectivity that I may as well just discard any attempt at such pretences of neutrality and just admit that there will be fangirlish gushing.

The support bands, I can, however, review fairly. The first two bands were Imperial Leisure and Beat Union, in that order, and both made really great support acts. Imperial Leisure in particular, got the crowd skanking so enthusiastically that I can’t say I’ve ever seen such a reaction from the first band at any show. I suspect that a good portion of the crowd did come for this band, rather than the headliners. I can certainly see why they would. Imperial Leisure were the sort of band that you see once, and then think “yeah, if I heard that they were playing another show somewhere near me, I would definitely go, it’d clearly be a fun time”.

Beat Union were also pretty good, but let down by poor sound. I couldn’t make out a word that the lead singer said, and very few words that he sang. On the other hand, they were the best dressed band of the night, no doubt about it. Their sound seemed to be more influenced by second wave ska than Imperial Leisure, and, I guess, The Police, since they played a lot of chunks of popular songs by The Police. They totally laid to rest all the misgivings we had after finding out that they had played previously as a support act to Good Charlotte, though unlike the band that came before them, I would suspect that they sound better on recordings than as a live act.

Next came Pepper. Now, I had heard of think this band before the night of the tenth, so their popularity may have earned them a longer slot than the others, or perhaps I just found their set so utterly miserable that it just seemed to stretch on and on forever, but this was just an illusion. Musically, these guys were pretty easy to sum up. Do you like Sublime? If you said yes, then you’ll like this band, most likely. I, personally, went through such a massive ska phase between the ages of sixteen to eighteen, consuming so very much of the genre, that frankly, I’m almost completely desensitised to ska. More accurately, I’ve become desensitised to mediocre and unoriginal ska, so frankly, Pepper’s set bored me half to death. I danced a little, but was mostly just because it was more fun to dance than to not dance. I kept my faith in Less Than Jake, and that’s what got me through.

It wasn’t just the music that irritated me about Pepper’s set, but whether or not to judge them on other factors may be seen as unfair practice by some. I mean, it was mentioned that the band was from Hawaii, but to appear shirtless onstage in Birmingham in November? It just felt a bit contrived and a bit like posturing, though the room was admittedly, very warm from all the moving bodies. Also, the band constantly referred to “pussy” and even had some sort of gross hand gesture that supposedly signified a vagina. This was lame for so many reasons, not only it crude, (hey guys, guess what? Vaginas are attached to people! People standing in your audience right now, who don’t appreciate being objectified!) and slutty, (can you imagine a female artist coming onstage and saying “I love cock”? The uproar would be unimaginable) but also, I was just crabby about being reminded that I was on my period every five minutes, and that just took away from my enjoyment of the whole time.

And eventually, we had Less Than Jake. Just typing their name feels like the keyboard is massaging my fingers, after being forced to relive Pepper’s set in memory. Less Than Jake’s first song was All My Best Friends Are Metalheads, during which you could not hear Roger’s voice at all because everyone was singing along so. Damn. Loudly. It was amazing. Incidentally, they came on during the spoken introduction to the song that comes before the track on Hello Rockview (and later on played the “Harry Reynolds” bit before playing the song Automatic.) The next song was Does The Lion Still Roar? which was very exciting because it’s a song I’d never heard them play before. The new album’s superiority to In With the Out Crowd has been mentioned many times, and the new songs sounded really terrific live, even Summon Monsters, which is one of my least favourite off GNV FLA. It is a pretty excellent song to dance to, I think that’s its main strength and it just doesn’t come across on the CD. Incidentally, they did not play any songs at all off In With The Out Crowd.

Some of the other songs they played included The Mixology Of Tom Collins, The Ghosts Of You And Me and The Science Of Selling Yourself Short, – the latter being one of my favourite songs ever written, and the song that got me into Less Than Jake in the first place, back when I was thirteen, so that’s always a high point of any Less Than Jake show I attend. The band is also very funny and self-aware when they’re onstage; with the horns section telling purposely awful jokes, or dancing and mugging at the audience when they’re not required for certain songs; and Chris admitting, after having bad-mouthed the crowd at Nottingham, where they’d played the previous night, “I am going to talk so much shit about you guys tomorrow”. The best stage banter of the night was probably towards the end, when he announced the next song, which was almost entirely a description of the song Pete Jackson Is Getting Married (“this song is about my uncle’s wedding, and drinking until you actually like your family”) and then they played Plastic Cup Politics. I may have actually laughed aloud, but I can’t remember, and I doubt I’d have heard myself anyway over the sound of the customary screams of joy that came at the start of every song.

I caught up with Ripper and Thom about three quarters of the way through the show, near the barrier at the front. I stuck with them for such songs as Gainsville Rock City, Dopeman and the aforementioned Plastic Cup Politics. I demanded from Ripper a promise that she would not judge me by my enthusiastic, but generally horrible dancing, – which generally resembles an epileptic fit – and she agreed to exchange a small chunk of my student loan for a t-shirt, due to my irrational but crippling phobia of merch stands. While she did so, I asked Thom for his opinion of the evening, who tactfully replied that he didn’t like ska.

I have for a while now held the belief that such thing as a bad Less Than Jake show is impossible, and tonight did nothing to disprove me of such beliefs. This was the first time I’d ever seen any band for the third time, and so I got to see them in a new way, through the lens of familiarity. I may not be able to assess them fairly and objectively, but I think even without the passion for the band that I have, it was a fun evening. The band practically bleeds fun, and they bring an energy and humour to the stage that is just a wonderful example of the way that a band should behave, the things they should have learned after over fifteen years of playing shows. Some day Less Than Jake will slow down, I’m sure, they will no longer be interesting or fun, or maybe they’ll just stop caring. On that day, you and I will have a big loud fight about whether they are an awful band, and I will end up crying, and admitting that I’m just deluded, but for now, even with an awareness of all my partiality, – my huge bias towards a band that will likely never stop being one of my favourites – I still believe that Less Than Jake are one of the best live bands around.

No matter what bozos they may be on tour with.