Working a full day shift on a sun drenched Saturday is never
going to be fun, with the phantom smells of cider and BBQ smoke mere
hallucinations caused by boredom and a deficiency of vitamin D. Of course, this
can only be made worse by the presence of a punk rock all dayer in your local
pub; as such, this is a fairly incomplete review of the gig as a whole,
organised by Punks Against Prejudice and billed as an ‘All day punk rock
hootenanny’. Fortunately I still managed to finish work in time to catch some
sun and some bands, arriving at the Brudenell just as Jock Sparra took to the
stage and immediately bearing witness to a move from the singer which is known
amongst knowledgeable circles as the ‘reverse mangina’…in a kilt and all. As
beautiful a sight as this was, the gig room was still sweltering from the UV
onslaught outside, so after listening to a couple of Cock Sparrer covers played
by Scottish people, which seemed well executed and fun, we headed back out to
sit and drink in the car park. Heading back inside as the sun started to dip
behind the pubs façade I think we were all fairly hyped to see China Shop Bull,
whose schizophrenic musical blender is criminally underrated. Seriously, in
what other situation are you likely to hear a ska/punk/hip hop cover of the
Dead Kennedys’ ‘Holiday in Cambodia’? They were one of the few bands that I
actually saw get the crowd moving during what was a fairly subdued gig
crowd-wise, and definitely one of the high points of the evening. After a short
break during which I attempted to catch up with the others, who had around 24
hours extra drinking time on me, we saw West Yorkshire favourites Acid Drop.
This band get massive kudos in my book for stylistically emulating possibly one
of the most unfashionable music genres possible (90s Californian style skate
punk), not giving two flying shits, and playing well crafted, memorable tunes
in the bargain. Whatever your preconceptions might be, check them out.
Some last minute
line-up changes meant that the place of Leatherface was taken by H.D.Q., whose
80s melodic UKHC sounded tight and fresh. At least, it did from what I heard
from the other room – apparently my age is catching up with me, as my eardrums
needed a break from the Brudenell’s impressively heavy sound. I recovered in
time to head back in to see Neck, despite losing gig companions due to earlier
excess while I had been at work. I was still fairly excited to see Neck, a band
I hadn’t seen for years but whom I remember being pretty much the definition of
the craic, and I was not disappointed. They blasted through a set of select
cuts from their records interspersed with frenetic instrumental tracks which
had the by know sparse crowd jumping/stumbling around in a drunken
approximation of dancing…psycho-fucking-ceilidh indeed! It was impossible to be
too disappointed by the lack of Leatherface when they were replaced by a
headliner this good, but some people clearly had not considered this – the biggest
downside to this gig was the poor turn-out. I’ve always thought that the scene
in Leeds was oddly apathetic when it came to turning out to see bands, and
unfortunately last Saturday seemed to support my fears. Despite this, it was
still a top notch gig, the beer flowed, the sun shone, the music made my ears
bleed, it was almost a perfect punk rock fairytale. Here’s to the next
hootenanny, fingers crossed that people will pull their fingers out and get to
these events; it’s your scene, fucking do something with it!
No comments:
Post a Comment