Friday: No I didnt fucking DJ, I sent a text to Hayley before lunch and didnt get a reply again. Went to the show at Bar M (Let Our Enemies Beware and November Coming Fire were good, Rise And Fall were a bit boring) then went into the Manor to meet Chris and sort out when Im DJing next (two weeks), we left and tried to get into the Tap but they wouldnt let us in because one of the bouncers said I looked like Id had too much (oooooooKay, havent drank in nearly four years but we probably wouldnt have got in anyway with Chris being as pissed as he was) went back to the Manor for an hour then fucked off home.
Saturday: Stayed in and read a Henry Rollins biography.
Sunday: Went up to London to see Send More Paramedics, which was great apart from watching a couple of drunk Pikeys harass the people in the queue near me, one of them tried talking to me, but he could probably tell by the tone of my voice that I didnt like being fucked with and left me alone. Amazingly I managed to come home with just over seventy pounds, I was a good boy and only bought one CD (Swans) and didnt bother getting an SMP t-shirt because they all looked crap.
Getting my sleeve tattoo started tomorrow, yayness.
I wrote a couple of reviews for my friends website (www.pulltohearnoise.co.uk) but it hasnt been updated in a while, and the likelihood of these going up on it are very small, so Ill just most them here for the moment.
November Coming Fire/Rise And Fall/Let Our Enemies Beware, Bar M, Chatham, 12/08/05
You have to feel embarrassed when this happens to bands, they agree to play these tiny venues then hardly anyone shows up.
When I first heard Army Of Juan was an Indie band I was a bit put off (Medway isnt a good breeding ground for original Indie bands), but seeing them here (renaming themselves Let our Enemies Beware) Ive been swayed. Their music may be rooted in Indie but it also owes much to Doom and more listenable elements of bands like Botch. A fitting complement to the Goth tinged Hardcore of the headliners.
Rise And Fall have traveled all the way from Belgium only to struggle with the tinny PA system of Bar M. You can hardly hear the vocals, which have been turned up as far as they can go. Despite the sound problems the boys treat this like any other gig, the singer raising his fist in the air and affirmatively nodding only to be rewarded by polite clapping and people lightly bobbing their heads to his bands generic Metalcore.
Despite the mics being changed over by trusty soundman, Manny, November Coming Fire have the same problem with inaudible vocals as Rise And Fall. Even though Gareth cant hear himself, you can tell hes really into this gig, bouncing around the floor in front of the few people in Bar M. Both the new songs and the new lineup sound really tight (its a bit bizarre to see Thom the old bass player standing the other side of the band after seeing the so many times with him). They dont play many of their old songs (well its hard to tell when the vocals are all but missing), they just end their set by saying thank you and goodbye before putting their instruments down, what no Transgression? Ah well, you cant expect them to keep the same set list forever.
Send More Paramedics/P>S>P/The Nothing, Barfly, Camden, 14/08/05
When theres no more room in hellHardcore kids will dress up as Zombies and go see Send More Paramedics. It is amazing to see how dedicated their fans are, I see more people dressed as Zombies every time I go to their gigs, there is even one guy dressed as a Zombie Chav, fake blood splattered over specially bought Burberry.
Although they are billed as the main support on the tour posters, The Nothing are actually opening tonights bill (probably because they feature two members of SMP and to save them playing two sets in a row). As soon as they start playing their tour manager (a big fat bastard) goes out into the crowd and starts shoving people out of the way to make room for a pit, what happens next is hilarious, four young men with Toni & Guy hair cuts, wearing clothes that are a few sizes too same for them start synchronized Slam dancing in the now empty floor space like some kind of Hardcore dance crew, Im torn between watching the band and laughing at these guys. Anyway, aside from this distraction The Nothing rock especially hard playing such instant classics as What Do you Expect Us To Do Rob A Graveyard, Coffin Sex and Dracula Would Mosh To The Nothing.
The singer of P>S>P goes through an interesting transformation before he plays. You see him looking geeky in his glasses and track suit top while he sets up his guitar, then the glasses come off as does the track suit top to reveal a cut off t-shirt with a sleeve tattoo going up the whole of his right arm. Its interesting to hear how the songs on their EP translate live, you notice the singer abandons the melodic parts for more harsh screaming. Amazing musicians, you see them batter their instruments for the whole of their set, the second guitarist plays so hard that one of this strings snaps, he just removes it and keeps playing (something I havent seen since Guillaume Seam).
After a long wait while the Medics set up their equipment then go off stage to put on their Zombie make up, the music from Lucio Fulcis classic Zombie Flesh Eaters comes on, we see the medics have had some changes to their image, the drummer isnt wearing his leather waist coat, so we can now see the tattoos on his chest (Dude, we have the same Black Flag tattoo!) and the singer now has a Mohawk. Standing at the front and singing along is fun if you dont mind getting flecks of Zombie make up all over you as the singer and the people around you sweat it off, getting elbowed in the face by other people trying to sing on the mic and the occasionally shoe in the face from stages divers (if you move out of the way when you see running in your direction, they just go straight into the floor). They play a good mix of the songs on both their albums and three off the new split with Zombie Apocalypse. When they play Burning The Body Jamie Farrell of The Nothing appears on stage in Zombie make up to sing (well, scream) the intro. As a standard they finish with Zombie Crew and get a mass stage invasion to sing along on the chorus, then play the classic ten second Brains (duh-der-duh-derBRAINSduh-der-duh-derBRAINSduh-der-duh-derBRAINSder-duh-der-duhBRAAAAAAAAAINS), so worth getting kicked in the face by that stage diver.
Saturday: Stayed in and read a Henry Rollins biography.
Sunday: Went up to London to see Send More Paramedics, which was great apart from watching a couple of drunk Pikeys harass the people in the queue near me, one of them tried talking to me, but he could probably tell by the tone of my voice that I didnt like being fucked with and left me alone. Amazingly I managed to come home with just over seventy pounds, I was a good boy and only bought one CD (Swans) and didnt bother getting an SMP t-shirt because they all looked crap.
Getting my sleeve tattoo started tomorrow, yayness.
I wrote a couple of reviews for my friends website (www.pulltohearnoise.co.uk) but it hasnt been updated in a while, and the likelihood of these going up on it are very small, so Ill just most them here for the moment.
November Coming Fire/Rise And Fall/Let Our Enemies Beware, Bar M, Chatham, 12/08/05
You have to feel embarrassed when this happens to bands, they agree to play these tiny venues then hardly anyone shows up.
When I first heard Army Of Juan was an Indie band I was a bit put off (Medway isnt a good breeding ground for original Indie bands), but seeing them here (renaming themselves Let our Enemies Beware) Ive been swayed. Their music may be rooted in Indie but it also owes much to Doom and more listenable elements of bands like Botch. A fitting complement to the Goth tinged Hardcore of the headliners.
Rise And Fall have traveled all the way from Belgium only to struggle with the tinny PA system of Bar M. You can hardly hear the vocals, which have been turned up as far as they can go. Despite the sound problems the boys treat this like any other gig, the singer raising his fist in the air and affirmatively nodding only to be rewarded by polite clapping and people lightly bobbing their heads to his bands generic Metalcore.
Despite the mics being changed over by trusty soundman, Manny, November Coming Fire have the same problem with inaudible vocals as Rise And Fall. Even though Gareth cant hear himself, you can tell hes really into this gig, bouncing around the floor in front of the few people in Bar M. Both the new songs and the new lineup sound really tight (its a bit bizarre to see Thom the old bass player standing the other side of the band after seeing the so many times with him). They dont play many of their old songs (well its hard to tell when the vocals are all but missing), they just end their set by saying thank you and goodbye before putting their instruments down, what no Transgression? Ah well, you cant expect them to keep the same set list forever.
Send More Paramedics/P>S>P/The Nothing, Barfly, Camden, 14/08/05
When theres no more room in hellHardcore kids will dress up as Zombies and go see Send More Paramedics. It is amazing to see how dedicated their fans are, I see more people dressed as Zombies every time I go to their gigs, there is even one guy dressed as a Zombie Chav, fake blood splattered over specially bought Burberry.
Although they are billed as the main support on the tour posters, The Nothing are actually opening tonights bill (probably because they feature two members of SMP and to save them playing two sets in a row). As soon as they start playing their tour manager (a big fat bastard) goes out into the crowd and starts shoving people out of the way to make room for a pit, what happens next is hilarious, four young men with Toni & Guy hair cuts, wearing clothes that are a few sizes too same for them start synchronized Slam dancing in the now empty floor space like some kind of Hardcore dance crew, Im torn between watching the band and laughing at these guys. Anyway, aside from this distraction The Nothing rock especially hard playing such instant classics as What Do you Expect Us To Do Rob A Graveyard, Coffin Sex and Dracula Would Mosh To The Nothing.
The singer of P>S>P goes through an interesting transformation before he plays. You see him looking geeky in his glasses and track suit top while he sets up his guitar, then the glasses come off as does the track suit top to reveal a cut off t-shirt with a sleeve tattoo going up the whole of his right arm. Its interesting to hear how the songs on their EP translate live, you notice the singer abandons the melodic parts for more harsh screaming. Amazing musicians, you see them batter their instruments for the whole of their set, the second guitarist plays so hard that one of this strings snaps, he just removes it and keeps playing (something I havent seen since Guillaume Seam).
After a long wait while the Medics set up their equipment then go off stage to put on their Zombie make up, the music from Lucio Fulcis classic Zombie Flesh Eaters comes on, we see the medics have had some changes to their image, the drummer isnt wearing his leather waist coat, so we can now see the tattoos on his chest (Dude, we have the same Black Flag tattoo!) and the singer now has a Mohawk. Standing at the front and singing along is fun if you dont mind getting flecks of Zombie make up all over you as the singer and the people around you sweat it off, getting elbowed in the face by other people trying to sing on the mic and the occasionally shoe in the face from stages divers (if you move out of the way when you see running in your direction, they just go straight into the floor). They play a good mix of the songs on both their albums and three off the new split with Zombie Apocalypse. When they play Burning The Body Jamie Farrell of The Nothing appears on stage in Zombie make up to sing (well, scream) the intro. As a standard they finish with Zombie Crew and get a mass stage invasion to sing along on the chorus, then play the classic ten second Brains (duh-der-duh-derBRAINSduh-der-duh-derBRAINSduh-der-duh-derBRAINSder-duh-der-duhBRAAAAAAAAAINS), so worth getting kicked in the face by that stage diver.
Good review, however, I hope our paths never cross at a show, seems you have something against hardcore dancers...
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