Going to music gigs with friends is one of life’s great joys. There can be a palpable sense of excitement beforehand and a shared joy by being surrounded by people all gathered in one place to experience the music artistry being dispensed from the stage. This happy place can unfortunately turn darker when females receive unwanted attention from blokes being horrible. Tonight’s gig has a running theme of not standing for any of that crap. Opening band Petrol Girls even finish their set with a song about this very thing, it’s called ‘touch me again and I’ll fucking kill you’ and yes, it really is as angry as it sounds, but then again, that kind of thing would make you very angry indeed. Musically they sound great and have boundless punky energy. Tonight has started very well indeed.
Next band to take to the stage is Milk Teeth who, like the previous band, I've never heard before, although I’m reliably informed by my friend that they have played the main stage at Reading Festival. It shows too as they confidently take to the stage and belt out grunge tinged pop punk songs of the highest order. The drummer has also taken it upon himself to beat the shit out of his drums and attacks them with gusto, we liked them a lot!
The crowd visibly swells for tonight’s head-liners La Dispute. Not many bands keep going as long as they have, even less bands still produce songs of such quality as the Michigan natives. Their newest album is a highly polished slab of post-hardcore resonating in emotional catharsis and has gained the band lots of new fans, as well as a slew of superb reviews.
The band kick things off with the one two combination of Fulton Street 1 and 2 from new album Panorama and they both sound much better live than on record, which is saying something as they sound bloody great on record! Between songs, lead singer Jordan Drayer is a softly spoken, almost apologetic presence but when the music starts, a switch is flicked, and he transforms into a howling banshee filled with energy which looks like it must be released otherwise it will consume him. Indeed, he makes reference to this during one of his softly spoken almost inaudible soliloquies between songs. During another one, he makes an impassioned plea regarding female assault, it’s quite moving and gets a loud cheer.
The tour was billed as a Panorama tour but the set is a continuous, powerful procession of captivating songs from the bands entire career and indeed the majority of songs played are from their back catalogue, much to the delight of the crowd. Mayor in Splitsville and I see everything towards the end sound majestic and are particularly triumphant. They also eschew the tradition of encores which I applaud as I’ve always seen them as superfluous and a bit unnecessary. The gig was a fantastic testament to the appeal of this band who looked like they were enjoying themselves just as much as we were. Still, no King Park though.
Simon
Next band to take to the stage is Milk Teeth who, like the previous band, I've never heard before, although I’m reliably informed by my friend that they have played the main stage at Reading Festival. It shows too as they confidently take to the stage and belt out grunge tinged pop punk songs of the highest order. The drummer has also taken it upon himself to beat the shit out of his drums and attacks them with gusto, we liked them a lot!
The crowd visibly swells for tonight’s head-liners La Dispute. Not many bands keep going as long as they have, even less bands still produce songs of such quality as the Michigan natives. Their newest album is a highly polished slab of post-hardcore resonating in emotional catharsis and has gained the band lots of new fans, as well as a slew of superb reviews.
The band kick things off with the one two combination of Fulton Street 1 and 2 from new album Panorama and they both sound much better live than on record, which is saying something as they sound bloody great on record! Between songs, lead singer Jordan Drayer is a softly spoken, almost apologetic presence but when the music starts, a switch is flicked, and he transforms into a howling banshee filled with energy which looks like it must be released otherwise it will consume him. Indeed, he makes reference to this during one of his softly spoken almost inaudible soliloquies between songs. During another one, he makes an impassioned plea regarding female assault, it’s quite moving and gets a loud cheer.
The tour was billed as a Panorama tour but the set is a continuous, powerful procession of captivating songs from the bands entire career and indeed the majority of songs played are from their back catalogue, much to the delight of the crowd. Mayor in Splitsville and I see everything towards the end sound majestic and are particularly triumphant. They also eschew the tradition of encores which I applaud as I’ve always seen them as superfluous and a bit unnecessary. The gig was a fantastic testament to the appeal of this band who looked like they were enjoying themselves just as much as we were. Still, no King Park though.
Simon
