Oh. (Russ L going to and fro in the Earth)

It’s nearly Christmas! Obviously most of your time will be spent shopping and wrapping, but should there be any left over then you could do worse than having a look at this little lot. Standard disclaimers (with a new one added): I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. Please do not contact me to ask for your event to be included. That’s not the way it works.

Wednesday the 29th of November to Saturday the 30th of December – “Alice In Wonderland – A Musical” @ The Rep, Birmingham - I absolutely adore Alice. It manages to be so sweet and pretty yet so nightmarishly Kafka-esque at the same time. I’m assuming this is will be a particularly kiddie-leaning version, but I’m certain it’s going to be great. They also invite people to go dressed up as their favourite character. Where can I get a flamingo-polo-mallet costume?

Friday the 1st of December - These Arms Are Snakes / Rolo Tomassi @ The Flapper & Firkin, Birmingham - I’ve never listened to These Arms Are Snakes. They’re one of those bands who manage to become hugely popular amongst underground sorts (it’s not oxymoronic really) before I’ve heard of them and thus end up feeling like they have nothing to do with my life. I don’t think I can define that any more clearly, which is a shame since it’s been the bane of many-a-group in my eyes, but never mind. They have ex-members of someone-or-other, anyway, and I’m sure they’re just super. More important (and the reason why I’m recommending this gig) is the presence of South Yorkshire streamofmusicalconsciouscore-istas Rolo Tomassi, surely one of the finest noisy bands going in this country at the moment.

Friday the 1st of December - Ringside Promotions’ “The Battle Of Birmingham” (boxing) @ The Aston Events Centre, Aston, Birmingham - Brum’s proudest son Wayne Elcock intends to bring home the English title. Hopefully a bunch of silly beggars won’t decide to attempt to re-enact The Charge Of The Heavy Brigade like they did at the last Aston card. The current bill can be seen here.

Saturday the 2nd to Saturday the 9th – “Aston Hall By Candlelight” @ Aston Hall, Aston, Birmingham - I recall this being lovely a few years ago. You get to drink mead from the Jacobean fair outside, too.

Saturday the 2nd – The Courtesy Group @ The Flapper & Firkin, Birmingham - Absolutely stonkingly good post-punk jazzyproggy poetry reciting types, who manage to be entirely insane and ludicrous without being the least bit wacky. This is to be applauded. Fantastic band.

Sunday the 3rd – “The Thomas Vale Pantomime Horse Grand National” @ Victoria Square, Birmingham - Last year Jon Bounds of Birmingham: It’s Not Shit gloriously came last.

Tuesday the 5th - Basement Jaxx @ The NIA, Birmingham - Listen to me. No, shut up and listen to me. You have to go to this. You will be missing out if you don’t. Their gig at The Academy last year was by far the best gig of 2005, as proclaimed by anyone and everyone who can tell their arse from their elbow. Never mind Dragonforce or whoever else is playing on the same night. No other gig is important in comparison.

Tuesday the 5th – Boxing (PJ Promotions) @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton - The card looks good and I wish Martin Gethin every bit of luck in his title match (he deserves a belt), but it’s the same night as Basement Jaxx. Bah.

Wednesday the 6th - David Benson’s “Think No Evil Of Us” @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton - His original stageshow, I believe. I’ve written about David Benson a few times in the past, and his shows are always funny and likeable entertainment.

Thursday the 7th to Saturday the 9th – “Alice In Wonderland” @ The MAC, Edgbaston, Birmingham - Another version of Alice. I’ve only just spotted this one. I may have to go to both.

Saturday the 9th to Wednesday the 20th – Hungarian Christmas market @ Queen Square, Wolverhampton - Everyone knows about the Frankfurt Christmas market in Brum, but less seem to be aware of the Hungarian equivalent in Wolves. I didn’t, last year, until I happened to go up there in the daytime for unrelated reasons and actually saw it. I can just imagine the scene, though – a council bigwig on the phone:
“We need to compete with Birmingham’s German xmas market. How much would it cost for a French or Italian one?

*Pause*

Really, that much? Ok… erm… how about Hungary?”

Sunday the 10th – Broad Street Canal Boat Light Parade @ The stretch of canal between the NIA and The Mailbox, Birmingham - This looks like it might be pretty.

Tuesday the 12th to December the 14th – Mark Thomas’ “As Used On The Famous Nelson Mandela” @ The MAC, Edgbaston, Birmingham - Tickets have all long-since gone, but I know some of you out there have your means and methods.

Wednesday the 13th – Billy Bragg @ The Academy, Birmingham - I love Braggy, on both ‘national treasure’ and ‘really really good’ levels. This is the second leg of the “Hope Not Hate” tour, ‘in support of’ (I’m never sure precisely what that means) various anti-fascist organisations.

Wednesday the 13th to Saturday the 17th – “Eight Pantos In Eighty Minutes” @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton - “The Most Untraditional Christmas Show You’ll See This Year!” it proclaims. Looks like it’ll be a laugh, anyway.

Thursday the 14th – The Roots @ The Academy, Birmingham - Many hold The Roots to be the best live hip-hop act going. Are they? We’ll see. Or I hope we will, anyway. I’ve managed to miss them for one reason or another every time they’ve been around before now.

Monday the 17th – Decimate @ The Flapper & Firkin, Birmingham - Decimate are a great headbangy metallic hardcore band, who practise the nifty trick of ‘having actual good songs.’ Many people seem to be of the idea that this is the last gig at The Flapper before it shuts down. I am 99.9% certain that this is not in fact true (Zoot, for example, seem to think they have until the end of the year at least. I imagine they’d know, y’know). EDIT: It’s cancelled, this one. The Flapper lingers on, for a while at least.

Wednesday the 20th – “The Family Tree Tour” @ The Boiler Room, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham - Featuring Moorish Delta 7, Fire Camp, Baby J and a bunch of others. It’s always good to see lesser-known hip-hop acts touring, mainly because it just doesn’t happen so much.

Saturday the 23rd – Grandscope @ The Jug Of Ale, Moseley, Birmingham - Fantastic but bizarrely unsung electronic-influenced indie band. Indonic, if you will. There are very, very distant hints of Radiohead’s “Kid A” about them, but their sound is all their own.

Monday the 25th – Christmas @ all of our hearts and minds - Enjoy yourselves.

~ Russ L, wondering if anyone else knows of a nice version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ appearing onstage anytime soon anywhere nearby? I don’t particularly want to go and see Barrymore at The Grand.

…to be a true cockney you have to be born within the sound of Bow Bells. To be a true Brummie you have to be born within the sound of someone moaning.” - Laurence Inman

I’m well behind the entire rest of the internet with this, I realise, but I’ve just watched The Complaints Choir Of Birmingham’s video and it made me feel warm inside.

(Via… well, everywhere really).

~ Russ L, who is thirsty.

I’ve been to London only five times in my life, and two of those have been to go and see the band Neurosis. I’m not, overall, too keen on the idea of commuting too far a-field for gigs (the idea of a touring rock band is usually that they travel to me, rather than vice versa. This feels altogether too much like the mountain going to Mohammed), but Neurosis are a special case. Once upon a time they were one of the most frequently/widely touring bands going, playing over three hundred gigs per year all over the world. All of a sudden, they stopped. Now they hardly play at all, and I suppose this country is lucky to get even one gig in the capital. Your correspondent accordingly made arrangements for passage to the southlands, on Saturday the 18th of November.

I was tired (I hadn’t slept too tough over the previous few nights) but happily anticipating what was to come as I set out. The train journey from Birmingham New Street to London Euston proceeded without the slightest problem, arriving slightly ahead of time. That was about the last bit of travel-related luck I had.

With a while before I could check into the ol’ Travelodge, I had a look at The British Library’s gallery. Some interesting stuff indeed was to be seen – from the most ancient of sacred texts to modern manuscripts. The Codex Sinaiticus was, in an odd but real way, slightly humbling to be in the presence of. I was thoroughly chuffed to see the original ‘Alice In Wonderland’ (open on “Eat Me.” I love ‘Alice.’ More on that next month…), and amused to find that the manuscript of Joyce’s “Finnegan’s Wake” looked like one of those letters from a mad person that we occasionally get at work. Elsewhere there were fragments of original copies of the Magna Carta, the only surviving medieval ‘Beowulf,’ some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks, and all manner of other fascinating things. The non-permanent exhibition galleries were closed, though, and it really is a shame this little jaunt didn’t happen a week later - London: A Life In Maps sounds fantastic.

So, anyway, off to Travelodge’s Kings Cross Scottish House establishment. I’ve stayed in the main Kings Cross Travelodge (around the corner) before, and had no problem with it. I wasn’t too impressed with this one. The modernist architecture is something I get enough of at home in the West Midlands, but that’s by the by - this was by far the shabbiest Travelodge I’ve ever been to. It wasn’t dirty or unhygienic, but there were patches of wallpaper ripped off the walls, a grill falling off the radiator (which made a row when you turned it on) etc. You can complain about how these places don’t have any character of their own, but normally they are at least immaculately kept. I honestly would not recommend that particular one. You can get somewhere for considerably cheaper if you want it a bit grotty around the edges.

A bit of a nap (after watching a bit of Domino Day on the room’s telly. That was fantastic!) later and I was off to brave Trial By London’s Often-Feted Mass Transit System. With there being engineering works on some of the tube lines in the area that weekend, the 214 bus route from Kings Cross to Kentish Town was a tiny bit on the busy side. I managed to manoeuvre myself amongst the select few that managed to get on by the third one that turned up. Stranger pressed against stranger; the bus driver cursed and muttered as his breaking distances were doubled by the sheer weight he was carrying.

Arriving at The Forum in Kentish Town, I was unbelievably gratified to see that the queue to get in only stretched around one corner this time. I still have flashbacks about the scene outside last time Neurosis played here.

I’d already missed Capricorns’ opening set, though, it seems. Ah well. The main supporting act were Made Out Of Babies, whose ‘Trophy’ album I have and find perfectly alright-ish (even if I have hardly listened to it since I first got it). They’re generally described as noise-rock, and on record I can just about see that, but in a live setting their combination of bom-bo-bom-bom rhythms and the singer’s handwringing angst (little-girl-lost/Elektra-complex-gone-wrong stylee) came across as very nu-metal. That’s not an insult, it’s an observation. The fact that I was fairly nonplussed by them is co-incidental.

And so to Neurosis. We’ll get this out of the way first - having now seen them three times, I’m slightly concerned that they’re turning into an ordinary band for me, rather than the Mighty Heralds Of Making A Row that I’ve always previously viewed them as. Familiarity isn’t breeding anything even remotely close to contempt, but I do feel like I’m beginning to get ever so slightly… well, used to them. It’s not a big problem, but it’s not ideal.

They were still absolutely and monumentally titanic. The setlist given here seems more-or-less right to me (I’ve never seen them as a ‘song’ band, so I do find it difficult to be precise with this sort of thing), and this is where the fans who didn’t go start swearing about them actually playing ‘Eye’ and so forth.

The bass tone underpinning everything was close to frightening, adding a physical element to the proceedings wherever in the venue you stood, but it’s really indicative of them all over – they’re capable of sounding that much bigger than every other band, existing in some sort of limbo between popular music and an orchestra despite there only being five of them onstage. When this forms up into One Of Those Moments you really know about it – I don’t think I’ll forget the sensation of being plunged into the centre of the earth prompted by the kicking in of the slow riff in ‘The Doorway.’

I don’t think I’ll ever repeat my first live experience with them (J.B.’s in Dudley in 1999), when they created an addendum to the general theory of relativity and dilated time, but… well, gigs as good as this’ll do.

So, following a resting-of-my-weary-head back at the hotel, the following day saw a trip over to Camden Markets. I was hoping to get some Christmas presents, but nothing really leapt out as being perfect for anyone in particular. I love Camden Lock Market/The Stables Market nonetheless, though – I could just wander around for hours. I did, in fact.

A couple of pints in The Worlds End and it was time to begin the long trip home, which ended up being the sort of irritating pain-in-the-arse you probably expect. It had worked out cheaper for me to get a train there and a coach back, and so off I set. The bus that was meant to go to Victoria stopped at Trafalgar (it did say ‘Trafalgar’ on the front, to be fair, but I didn’t know that was nearer than Victoria), and then the following one couldn’t go through Whitehall for reasons I’m still not clear about. Further confusion about the coach stations in Victoria (‘Victoria Coach Station’ is not the one you want for Greenline/Megabus – you need to go to the little undercover depot thing over the road) meant I would have been right down to the wire in terms of catching it on time, but it was late anyway. Arriving back in Birmingham few hours later, the train from Snow Hill to Rowley was delayed by nearly an hour.

There’s probably a moral in all of that somewhere, but I’m damned if I can figure it out.

~ Russ L, lavvin a dack me old china. Or whatever they say.

P’Ashton has Brum Blog, ‘an experiment to see if a weblog devoted to Birmingham is a viable thing.’ I see no reason not when written by one person like this (he has previously discussed the problems inherent in turning it into a group effort), but whichever way up it’ll feature a lot of interesting upcoming events, listings, news and photography. He seems to be shying away from any sort of extensive comment on any of it, which is a shame (Pete generally has very interesting things to say) although I can see why. Nevertheless, I consider this an essential thing to follow for anyone local.

Throughsilver is now writing his Top 50 albums Of 2005, under the very sensible premise that scrambling to do it at the end of any given year doesn’t give sufficient time to reflect. I can sympathise with that, since about ten minutes after my own best bits of 2005 appeared on the web I was already slapping my head and calling myself foolish. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with, anyway, and it should develop into a very interesting read.

~ Russ L, suggesting you stop reading this and look at those links instead.

The evening out (on Tuesday the 14th, with the ol’ parentals) began at The Big Wok, which was as much fun as it always is. Food! And lots of it (and I mean lots of it)! For £8.99! They’ve added a teriyaki section, too, which was lovely but bare in mind that you have to wait forever and a day while the chef fries the food of everyone in the queue.

Just around the corner after that to The Hippodrome, for Slava’s Snowshow. There are honestly very few (to nil) events I’ve ever attended that have been quite so much fun as this. No, don’t be so cynical, it’s true.

Clowning, basically, with a vague snowy/wintery theme to bits of it (not all). I pretty much loved it from start to finish, absolutely adoring both whole sketches (the giant cobweb being stretched across the audience, for example) and individual little bits (the one clown being unable to figure out how to fold his arms, or the one sliding onto the stage with a shark’s fin on his back while the others played pretending a bed was a ship).
I acknowledge that I’m probably not going to be able to sell it to anyone who is thinking “Clowns? Eh?”, but it really was one of the best things (if not the best thing) that I’ve been to all year. More fun than you can possibly imagine. And I know some of you can imagine a lot of fun.

Should you ever go to see it, incidentally (and really, you should), don’t leave the room during the intermission. You’ll miss some great stuff.

~ Russ L, who wants one of their hats with the bits sticking out the side.

GDFAF was over but I wasn’t finished with going out, not just then. On Friday the 10th of November it was off to The Rep with myself and the parentals, for their production of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird.’

Good stuff. We all know the story, of course (although I have to confess that I haven’t read the novel, only seen the film. While I’m admitting to ignorance, I’ll also own up to the fact that it was only while reading the programme for this that I realised for the first time that Harper Lee is a woman. These crazy American names…), and while this wasn’t exactly the most subtle interpretation you might ever see it was very nicely done with some great performances. The show was stolen by Bettry Jones as a hyperactive and feisty Scout and Sally Tatum as a bitter and baleful Mayella Ewell, but really good turns were also to be found from Duncan Preston (‘Stan From Dinnerladies’ to me) as a stately but weary Atticus Finch, and Richard Heap in his part as bullying lawyer Mr Gilmer.

It’s on at The Rep for the rest of the week and then off on tour.

~ Russ L, saying what he’s said a thousand times before – ‘I really must go and see more plays.’

(If you’ve ended up here via the ‘Going Deaf For A Fortnight 2006′ tag and are wondering what this is all about, it might be sensible to read this post first).

Going Deaf For A Fortnight 2006 is over. Fifteen days, fifteen gigs (and a stageshow type thing), comprising 43 sets by 43 acts in eleven venues (see here for blah about the specific gigs). A list of those who were better than OK-to-not-bad-ish would run thusly: Sourvein, Church Of Misery, Moorish Delta 7, The Photophonic Experiment, Chinook, Mills And Boon, The Courtesy Group, Haxan, Baroness, Bedouin Soundclash, Gogol Bordello, Enablers, Entombed, Dementia, Exodus, GBH, Rancid, Clutch, and Motorhead (with a top five comprising in reverse order of Baroness, Gogol Bordello, Clutch, The Courtesy Group and Enablers). Maybe Stanley’s Choice just about squeak in too.

Lots of good bands, then, some of whom I already liked and some of whom were new to me. Was the whole blast of silliness a success overall, though? I’m not sure. I can’t really figure out what seems like a fair set of criteria. I saw some good bands, but in all likelihood I would’ve gone to see a fair few of those anyway, and even for those I wouldn’t – seeing some good bands is just something that happens in my everyday life. Not necessarily those specific bands, but I’m sure you see what I’m saying.

There’s not really any specific reason for me to think it all went badly, but I still have a vague feeling in the back of my mind that it could have been better. I’m probably just disappointed that I didn’t end up having a nervous breakdown and thus something juicier to write about. It didn’t particularly inspire me to any great feats of writing, though, and while that was never very likely (it is me, after all) it seems a shame.

Ah well, never mind this nonsense. The big question looms before us: who is going to do it next year?

~ Russ L, fully expecting everyone in the rank to take a simultaneous step back.

And so the time came for the final gig of Going Deaf For A Fortnight 2006. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself from now on.

Original Goodfaffer (Godfafther?) Pete Ashton was amused to hear that I was finishing with a Motorhead gig but noted that it did seem right somehow, given the ‘endurance test’ aspects of all this. We’ll come back to that. For me, doing it this way seemed apt for another reason – if there’s another band who embody ‘live popular music’ to quite the same degree, I can’t think of who it might be. This fortnight has been a salute to the form, and I can’t think of a better act to end it all.

It was The Academy, though, and so it was a case of just watching the bands rather than finishing with a big drunken hurrah. That much genuinely is a shame.

Swedish band Crucified Barbara were the unadvertised openers, and that has to be either the single best or single worst band name I’ve ever heard. I honestly cannot decide which. Yet another ‘OK melodic rock band,’ anyway, and despite such groups having become the bane of my existence over the last fortnight I couldn’t muster up any degree of unjustified hatred for one of ‘em on the last night. Nothing particularly interesting about their music, though, and having all your band members be edible Swedish ladies doesn’t really change that.

Clutch were the main support, and in all honesty are a band I like a lot more than Motorhead (or most bands, really. I’ve been known to refer to them as The Best Rock Band Currently Operating, and there isn’t really a lot of hyperbole there). They’re certainly my most-seen foreign band – this was my seventh time with them. Their groooooving rock has the vocals mixed right up this time around, which I’ve never seen before but made for a good sound (although – as always with this sort of thing – I’ve no idea whether that was the plan or just what the soundman managed to conjure up for them), and opening your set with ‘Escape From The Prison Planet’ is a genius plan. They jam a lot, admittedly, and I’m not normally an avid supporter of that kind of behaviour, but they always manage to keep it on the right side of interesting – the swirly, shimmery bit (technical terms) which built up and coalesced into the riffs of ‘Big News’ was fantastic, for example. Amazing band. The music dying away to just leave vocalist Neil Fallon on his own roaring “…IN THE BACK OF A JACKED UP FORD…” was as great an ending to a set as “We are Motorhead and we play rock ‘n’ roll” is a beginning to one.

So yes, they are Motorhead and they play rock ‘n’ roll. There’s rarely a lot you can say about a Motorhead set, really – they’re pretty much the definition of ‘consistency.’ I can’t even discuss what songs they chose to play or not play, as apparently Lemmy doesn’t like people doing that. He’s a funny ‘un, that boy. I’d better shut up though, ‘cos I think I just saw him walk past our house.

What I might address is the still-widely held polite fiction (as referred to above) that Motorhead are the loudest band in the world. They may well be on a purely scientific level of decibels (although isn’t that Ted Nugent? I know Manowar have made similar claims, too, but I suspect that’s just a load of foolishness), but they don’t really play in spaces that are enclosed enough to make you actually feel it on your eardrums anymore. The additional racks of speakers either side of the stage might well look like two upended stretches of the Maginot Line, but The Academy is a huge, huge room. There was no way this was going to deafen me in the way that the Baroness gig did at The Medicine Bar the previous week, and indeed it didn’t. The heat at this gig made for more of an endurance test than the volume.

I don’t think that matters, of course. It was well loud enough, and we still have the high-energy metallic boogie we came for. They do have an elemental sort of power about them, do Motorhead, capable of both the precise attack of any metal band and frenetic shred of any punk band as and when each suit them. A fitting end to the whole thing.

So, ladies and gents, that was Going Deaf For A Fortnight 2006. I can’t believe it’s over.

~ Russ L, lost for words.

A slight degree of enthusiasm returned for the last-but-one Goodfaff gig, mainly due to the fact that it was the first sensibly-sized venue for quite a few days. I was greatly tempted by Doro Pesch at JB’s, but in the end took the (probably sensible) decision of going to the hardcore gig at The Market Tavern, as promoted by that celebrated gentleman-about-town Paul Illstone.

In contrast to most of my recent exploits, I thought I’d be missing a few groups here but in the event didn’t. Five bands and time getting a bit ahead of you might generally seem like a bad thing, but I didn’t miss anyone.

I like The Market Tavern, anyway. Nice proper pub feel to it, with reasonably priced and decent quality beer. It’s hidden away a bit, out in the sideroads of Digbeth, and once upon a time the only gigs that ever seemed to be able to get a decent crowd there were streetpunk/trad punk type affairs. Nowadays there are a lot of hardcore type gigs that do well, too. It’s a start.

The majority of people attending this sort of do will generally be a genre purist type, into hardcore, the whole hardcore and nothing but the hardcore. As with some of the other gigs I’ve been to this fortnight, the cognoscenti of any given style of music will probably ring their hands and pull their hair at my suggestions that the more average bands sound samey. I can’t pretend to care, though. There’s a commonly held theory that these people’s opinions about the things that fall into their area of expertise are more helpful than that of the layman, and I don’t agree at all. I’d more or less always rather listen to someone who has shown themself to have a sense of perspective.

With all that in mind, my descriptive ability is for this is not going to extend as far as specific accurate comparisons to other bands, but I don’t really think it’s important. Remains To Be Seen opened, playing the type of non-metallic hardcore that has a slower bit followed by really, really fast bits, with the ‘bop-ba-dop-ba-bop’ drums and the ‘Roh roh roh, ruh, ruh ruh ruh’ vocals. Owning Up, Affirmation, and More Hate Than Fear all played the type of non-metallic hardcore that has a slower bit followed by a merely really fast bit. Vultures played that sort of thing with a vaguely crustier slant to it.

And there we are. Affirmation and Vultures stood out a little bit as having the slightly more memorable songs, but I didn’t like anyone to any notable degree. Didn’t especially dislike anyone, either, and given the reactions I’ve had to some of the ‘an OK example of their type’ bands I’d seen in previous days that’s about the most I could have hoped for.

~ Russ L, going to the last one tonight. I’m not going to know what to do with myself after it’s all over.

Bah, Academy. By which I mean ‘expression of disgust, this gig is in the main room of The Academy’ rather than ‘pseudo-phonetic transcription of The Bar Academy.’ That’s a different venue.

This time it was only a three band bill and I still missed the first act despite arriving at a reasonable time. I’m considering writing an addendum to the General Theory of Relativity in which time is dilated by frequency of gigs attended.

I didn’t find out that GBH were playing until earlier on in the day. I’d bought my ticket for this gig a long time before, so that was a very nice ‘free gift,’ so to speak. I’m not a huge GBH fan, of course, but I do like the odds and ends I’ve heard (jut the more famous bits, really) and looked forward to seeing them. Live they were pretty much as you’d expect them to be – simple, anthemic, heads-down-and-charge punk fun with a few bits of squiggly lead guitar added for no obvious reason. I don’t think I’d enjoy going to see them every week, but they were enjoyable there and then.

Anyone who doesn’t already know/have an opinion on Rancid by this point in time probably isn’t likely to get around to getting one, no matter who says what about them (not that this presents a problem in any way, I’m not the sort of person who would fall out with someone because they don’t like/haven’t heard of this or that band). As far as I’m concerned, they have a great enough cannon of songs to say that to make it a good gig they only really need to turn up and start/stop playing at roughly the same times. Add the energy and enthusiasm that they bring to it all and you’re onto a clear winner.

With this in mind, aside from really enjoying the tuneage on offer the mind begins to wander. The extent to which ‘place’ plays a part in their music is something that really stuck out this time, mainly through the introductions – “This song is about a street in Berkley, California…” “This song is about a place in Los Angeles…” etc etc etc. Even the cover of Braggy’s ‘To Have And To Have Not’ (acoustic, rather than punked up, which seems a bit pointless. The real thing is playing at this venue next month, why would we need Rancid to do a faithful version?) was introduced as being a song about “Being a working class kid in a working class neighbourhood.” I’d never really considered it that way – I’d always thought it was a song about Thatcherism, not any specific geographical division (although I can see what they’re saying). I suspect a serious analysis of their lyrics wouldn’t turn up anything too interesting, but it’s an interesting look into how they view it all themselves.

Anyway, yes. ‘Radio,’ ‘Timebomb,’ ‘Nihilism,’ ‘Ruby Soho,’ ‘Journey To The End Of East Bay,’ ‘Bloodclot,’ – loads of the songs that you want to hear. A few more from ‘Life Won’t Wait’ than the last time they did a proper tour over here, too, which gets the hurrah from me.

The background projections also intrigued me, not least because I didn’t actually realise there were any to begin with (I couldn’t see the back wall from where I was standing at the beginning). Footage of military helicopters, fair enough, Frankenstein, fair enough, some horse racing…. Eh?

~ Russ L, also about to buy Donna Tartt’s ‘The Secret History’ as a result of this gig. I’ll leave that cryptic.