Bloody hell, I think I should stay away from gigs more often if this is the outcome when I finally can be arsed to go to one again. First time I think I've seen the placed packed for a gig. Rammed. Bloody hot. Sweating just breathing. I hope this is an indicator of things to come and that things are picking up a little bit. Very nice to see.
Anyway, due to having completely lost track of anything that was happening, I missed the first band. So first for me were Out For The Count, who as it happens were playing their final gig with bassist Tom before he leaves, so Gez promises that they will all pile on top of him at the end. Their old school melodic hardcore seemed to go down well with the crowd, best track for me was and still is Father (which I still reckon sounds a little like the Cowboy Killers in the vocal chant stakes). They suffer some technical difficulties which results in snippets of Run to the Hills and Master of Puppets being played, before ending, I think with the words of "we promised to do this" and er, slaughtering Maidens Wasted Years. It was kind of funny, though I'm still trying to work out whether is was serious or a pisstake. Still, they seemed to have fun, and I must admit it put a grin on my miserable old face.
And having completely lost track of things, I didn't realise that Yeast were playing next, so managed to miss half of them. Which I then kicked myself far too hard in the shins about because the half I did see was really good. Kind of sounded like a band that would be on the Elm Tree Records thing, melodic post hardcore sort of thing, studious rather than freeflowing, but they had some really nice stuff going on in there. A name certainly worth checking out.
Names, so many names. Boysetsfire are one of those names for hardcore bands to check out that have been bandied around so many times yet I've never really taken much notice of (save the split CD with Snapcase). It's like on of the reasons why I'm taking very much a backseat now with YAZ, there's soooooo much stuff out there for all the different subgenres that I like, that I can't begin to keep up. So I'm trying to exert quality control, which really only comes from making the decision to buy something. So that's trying to say, I'd not checked them out before, had some preconceptions, and proceeded to have them completely and utterly blown out of the water. I think this, along with the H2O gig, was the best hardcore gig I've seen this year. They were astounding. A mix of hard stuff but also with a big big grasp on melody and songs. Where I sometimes feel hardcore can be very limiting in its musical output, BSF were there to prove me completey wrong.
The band were also great fun. Despite their admission to being perceived as a serious and political band, they enjoy a great rapport with the crowd. Throughout everything, there are shouts of wasssssupppppppppppppp, and "get some". "For you guys its knew, for us it's been going to 2 years. Get some is better. But hey, its still cool" says the vocalist whose name I don't know. It may have been fun for one gig, but I'm afraid it's going to get very old very quickly and then I'm going to have to reach for the machine gun. (Sarcasm alert : Lawyers beware, that was sarcasm, I do not (publically) endorse the massacre of people shouting wassssssssupppppppp all the time). But there are the serious moments, as songs are explained about having a group of friends who suddenly one day aren't there for you any more, and the way that some zines, the hardcore and punk scene can concern itself only with it's own regulation without realising that there are more problems out there and actually going out and doing something about it. Of course it's a criticism that applies to any scene, not just hardcore or punk, and is one of the reasons why scenes are a stupid concept anyway. It leads into an absolutely glorious song, I really am going to have to go out and get a couple of their CDs having seen this. And they encore with Dead Kennedys' Holiday In Cambodia. Packed gig, great sets, and a DK song to end. What more could you possibly want out of a gig?