GIG REVIEW – Burning Flag, All Consumed, Maines @ The Live Rooms, Chester

When you’ve been sitting at the proverbial Gig Bus Stop waiting for over a year, waiting impatiently to be taken on a tragical blistery tour, suddenly two turn up… Second outing to witness the phenomenon of live [original] music in as many days…

Tonight they’re in the flesh, alive and spitting and threatening to finish off my one good ear for good… Bring it on…

Long time link2wales reviewer Mark Watson-Jones is today celebrating the fact he has inexplicably made it to 50 years. Considering he keeps his liver in a jar of Absinthe, making it this far is none short of a miracle. Although still serving time for being an emissary of syn Mark’s band took the night off and allowed three great bands to don their guitars and wish him many happy returns.

Maines as ever, (once you’ve coaxed them into appearing) never fail to deliver, and this is the first opportunity to experience their wall of bliss in almost two years. Pulling from their two EPs with songs [well; compositions] like, My Cull Cain, the excellent Malkovich, finishing with Whales, it’s the intricacy of those compositions that leave your mouth agape and your mind mesmerised. The ebb and flow of their sound can be a trickle and it can be a tidal wave. I grabbed a Maines mug too…

All Consumed are a godless bunch from Preston, but don’t hold that against them (their location). More core than grind, their set was toe-tappingly, head-bangingly, back-stabbingly to the point. All Consumed will iterate that there is no world order and their suicidal tendencies will have you clamouring to join this shapeless existence. They blasted through ten, maybe eleven punches to the head in no time at all, and the diverse line-up made for an excellent evening of noise pollution.

The Rage is a contagion that spored in Halifax and has spread through the punk fraternity in the form of Burning Flag. Their eagerly awaited third album in its vinyl form has been subject to the usual delays of world pandemics, Tory Brexits, Suez Canal boating disasters and (worst of all) Record Store Day.

‘Matador’ (and tonight’s gig) brings with it the debut of Holly on screaming vocal duty. She / we have waited eighteen months for this, since her onscreen live appearance when bands took to streaming their material live on Facebook (it was almost a glimpse into a sterile could-be world where we watched our favourite noise merchants from the boring safety of our homes). Like the new album, Burning Flag opened with Thrown Out and bar a couple of tracks ‘Matador’ was unleashed upon our very souls. Toxic by design, they know what they’re doing [play no nonsense punk rock] and they certainly know how to do it… Check their gig schedule, they’re coming in thick n fast…

Burning Flag bandcamp.

[pics 2, 3 and 4 by lorraine peaker]

GIG REVIEW - Extreme Noise Terror in Newport and Birmingham

(by mark watson-jones)
Extreme Noise Terror, Black Skies Burn, Human Cull, Atomck @ Le Pub, Newport – 31/7/15

As me and Ell were reminiscing, we’ve always been about the road-trips for a bit of crust punk mayhem so what better way to spend a sultry summer weekend than in some seedy sweaty venues around the country. To be fair I was cajoled into it last minute but resistance is futile so after disposing of his mum and gaining a Ste in Stroud we paid into sunny South Wales and found Le Pub.

Maybe not as exotic as it sounds but straight off on this first visit I was impressed with the set up and atmosphere, it seemed to have a good independent vibe maybe taking up some of the slack since the loss of TJ’s, even if the stairways around the venue seemed to have been designed by Escher.

The action is go with Atomck, who may be from Swansea with some other ingredients but it was the first time I’d seen them despite being familiar with their name for some time from compilations etc. Three piece no bass grindcore, full of energy with a wandering vocalist ranging between shrieks and growls. Occasional, brief doomier breaks interspersing the blistering speed, driven along by a hard hitting machine of a drummer.

Another bonus for me personally next with Human Cull up from Exeter. My last attempt to see them had ended in my temporary death by rum while in the Czech Republic so was chuffed to catch them here while still able to see/hear. And great stuff, as expected given I’m often listening to their recent “Stillborn Nation” album, a harsh and punchy mix of distorted heavy grind with more punk aggression.

Black Skies Burn I only recall when they are onstage and I recognise guitarist Chris of great gurns, that I had seen them before at a Yorkshire Riffer all-dayer up in Leeds. Here I found it an even better performance of really tight and intense metal that mixed a whole lot of different styles, all heavy, into their short blasts of songs, some 15 in their half hour or so. Great amusement from the titles and banter too, fair play to them for landing the main support for the three gigs this weekend.

So to the headliner and as ever the uncertainty over what version of the band we are going to experience. ENT is Dean and Dean is ENT, as the legendary growler is the only original member, backed with the consummate professionals Desecration on instruments and with yet another new second vocalist, about the 4th since the loss of his old partner in crime Phil. Now it’s Ben, ex of The Rotted, and he’s got enough experience and balls to carry this off no worries, it’s an onslaught of howling, feral, chaotic hardcore that they are legendary for.

Our main man may be a bit confused as to where he is but Ben carries a lot of the banter, and they are certainly grateful for the response they receive. Personally I find a couple of the old tracks butchered into indecipherability but as they live around the country and this first gig is their first practice maybe that can be excused, when it does click together it’s devastating and enjoyable. We get a Raw Noise cover thrown in and are also treated to a new song from a forthcoming album, due to explode on November the 5th, easy to remember. They finish again with a cover of “Borstal Breakout” as they have been in recent years but this remains a weaker song to me. Still, great fun all round, let’s do this again sometime.

Extreme Noise Terror, Black Skies Burn, Gets Worse, Fetus Christ @ Asylum 2, Birmingham – 1/8/15

How about tomorrow? After a day of refreshments in Stroud we are transported up to Brum and more industrial grimness that the Asylum is a little oasis in /fits right into. The smaller upstairs part tonight, the only time I’d been here before was a few tears back on another roadtrip (via ENT in Bristol) for a Napalm Death album launch in the main room, strange how life repeats itself. Opener tonight is Fetus Christ over from Hereford, who had been recommended to me last night but I find the overall volume quite lacking which robs a bit of their thunder from their mix of power violence and doom laden grind, shame.

I worry the same for Leeds’ Gets Worse next, but things pick up well and they give one of their best sets I’ve seen so far, everything seems to hit the spot as they batter through their stop-start fast-slow anthems of hardcore fury, great stuff.

Black Skies Burn prove consistently good, the jokes remain funny and tunes battering. And the final battering is served up in the pit for the headliners, with probably a better performance (despite the drunken Ben that I might have contributed too) showing that last nights practice paid off! We even persuade them to do an encore and get another new song, these are sounding really solid and bodes well for the (semi-!) focused group in the future. They do exactly what it says on the tin.

We return via Cider Houses on the Sunday, with suntans and scars, these summer holidays are great!

Noctophyle, Stuntface, Global Parasite @ Dudley Arms, Rhyl

I guess you’d call this a low key gig. Low key as in it’s not a Punk in Drublic promotion and therefore lacks that power of the internet and flyposting medium. Let’s face it, if you don’t frequent The Dudley, you’re not gonna see the posters on display by the bar, and if you don’t read the link2wales forum, you would never have known tonight’s gig was on.

Take Instant Agony’s vocalist Hocky; he was on a daytrip to Rhyl from his native Birkenhead, perusing the record shops of the locale, thought he’d have a pint at his old stomping ground and found some of his old buddies setting up for a gig.

Low key, means low in numbers, probably half of the usual crowd – most will be saving their pennies for the forthcoming punk onslaught in Blackpool. The punk girls far outnumbered the punk boys tonight and it gave them the opportunity for a bit of pogo-moshing without fear of being crushed by some 14 stone tattooed beer monster!

They’ve played countless gigs in their short existence, picked up some very favourable reviews along the way and I’ve somehow managed to miss every performance so far. So I was well pleased when a text from Global Parasite came through this afternoon to announce they had been added to the bill. And I was pretty pissed off to arrive there as they were playing their penultimate song! What I did see and hear was fast churning punk rock being sweated out in a screaming frenzy not too disimilar to The Cox; there again two-thirds of GP were The Cox.

Stuntface (top pic) are a very busy band these days as Wayne attempts to continue the cause he holds so dear to him. The number of gigs they play is as relentless as the way they play them. With a new LP ‘Pain Is Only Temporary, Glory Lasts Forever’ in the offing (their 3rd), The Dudley’s intimate setting allowed them further opportunity to target the audience with outstanding and invigorating tunes such as ‘TV Told You So’ and ‘Every Dog Has His Day.’ And on the dog subject, when guitarist Harry Kari broke a string, his replacement guitar was the same colour as a dog’s dick!

With everyone chin wagging in the beer err… yard, it looked as if Holland’s Noctophyle (pic above) would be playing to me and Stuntface, which wouldn’t have been very nice on their 3rd visit to the UK, but the live room was nicely filled by the end of the opening song. This is hardcore psychobilly – and very fucking loud – imagine The Cramps but with 2 punk guitarists, no twiddly bits, with a Stray Cats singer and Sham 69 solos…! Hard to imagine eh..! But this is sleazy rock’n’roll that turns into speedcore then back into the Cosmo Jones Beat Machine.

Image wise, you’ve gone from the sweat, scum and shit that is Stuntface to the clean-cut smoothness of Noctophyle – but that’s as far as cleanliness goes – this is dirty knicker wetting spunk rock. Good enough to wish they were ours to keep as our own. In fact I might just convert the garage to house them.

Lead singer-bassist Freddel carries a great charisma on stage; this is not your typical run of the mill 3 chord same old same old bollocks – its a wall of guitars that’s tremendously exciting and makes you wanna rock and roll!

What a fucking superb band.

GIG REVIEW - Super Furry Animals @ Fuji Rock Festival, Japan

Hi:Fi South Live Arena

Arriving to the stage by golf buggy the Welsh techno wizards are dressed for tonight's Live Arena performance in what look like Blue Velor waterproof boiler suits. Ambling on stage lead singer Gruff Rhys is playing a paint tin maraca while the rest of the bands make lovely noises before the Golden Retriever backing visuals which spill orange over the heads of the throng. It really feels like we're watching the musical version of gold.

The band continue backed by mellow trailing visuals to play some very spacey rock and are quite possibly jamming no longer sticking to any known tune, which slightly confuses the crowd, magical and Hello Sunshine sneaks upon us, lovely. Their next song Receptacle Of The Respectable includes a nacho solo by Gruff, munching into the microphone before throwing nachos into the crowd who are mesmerised by the groovy cartoon and this tune is in 13 parts we are told.

A clash of the three guitars on stage like sword play brings much feedback and suddenly 'You've got to tolerate, Some of those people that you hate, I'm not in love with you, But I won't hold that against you.' spills form the speakers from the rather lovely Juxtaposed With U it's another magical moment. If I could see the sunset I'd wager it would be lovely, and looking at it would leave me feeling rather like I do after Super Furry Animals walk off stage, all glowing and ready for the night.

review by: Scott Williams

Zombina & The Skeletones, Jives Room, Delayed Promise @ Bar Blu, Rhyl

(narration and pix by Neil Crud)

‘Why does Steve Rastin look like he’s on a cruise, or an extra on Love Boat?’ Enquired Ste Sync as Rastin passed us in his summer attire. He had reason to feel colourful, he had booked the long awaited arrival of Zombina to our humble no horse town. But first we were warmed up by Delayed Promise from Manchester as Andy Fatman explains:

‘What language was she singing in? I say this cos the vocals were so muffled it was hard to work them out against a musically tight power-pop-rock background. And why does the drummer always feel the need to embellish any between-song banter / info with flourishes of cymbals…? Resulting in a nightmare for reviewers!

The guitarists vocals didn’t fare much better, proving that soundchecks are a pointless exercise. But amid the PA problems, promise was shown from a visually static performance that influenced the gathered few. This was always going to be an uphill struggle, going on before Jives Room (with their home support) & Zombina (striving for legendary status in these parts).’
Great third song; good riffage, great drumming, would love to hear them on CD.

There had been rumours that this was to be Jives Room’s final gig, which was news to them and as Natasha explains it was a top performance with some good new songs ending with that timeless ‘CAM’ with the words “Fuck fuck fuck Cymdeithas.”

’Jives Room made a welcome return to the live circuit with their rousing rock’n’roll anthems. Kyle “The Accusing Angel” shouts and sings with angst and style, he’s definitely one to watch for the future. Their first gig in over a month was admirable, well timed and on the pulse with a tighter set. It feels like they’ve never been away. We love ‘em!’

The arrival of Zombina and The Skeletones has been long overdue after a couple of aborted attempts at getting them to Rhyl, the beach boy Rastin finally got his claw hammer out to tug the last nail out of the coffin and release the bats on Blu. It was another sell out crowd and they were in for a treat.

With the theatrical blood flowing from every available orifice in wonderful contrast against the pan-stick make up Zombina delivered a horror-billy show. We were saying it would’ve been ace to have lived in the 1950s when all this kind of stuff was about, a sort of deep south demented rawk! But we weren’t sure if the original bands playing it were from the sixties parodying the fifties; does anyone know the answer to that? We can all turn around in our graves and yell The Cramps! But it was The Cramps who copied the sixties bands. Regardless, it was all ace and so are Zombina; and to my knowledge they’re the only ones doing this stuff right now.

Playing a selection of choice material including the excellent Counting On Your Suicide they too were dogged with the quiet vocal problem but the audience lapped it up for the 35 minutes, and for once I wanted more, but you don’t get an encore at Blu, and its good to be left wanting. More please.

GIG REVIEW - THE DAMNED @ Central Station, Wrexham

It all slotted into place really. Steve Sync accompanied me and I did my monthly stint on BBC Radio Wales with Adam Walton. We had to pre-record it because we were off to see The Damned, so we played Blind Justice and the Psycho Sexual Sex Terrestrials, had a quick coffee with Adam and Ben Soundhog and headed for Central Station.

Parking somewhere safe in Wrexham town centre and then having to run the gauntlet of Chavs through the streets is quite an experience! But we safely made it unscathed right on cue for The Damned to alight the stage.

I had earlier commented on air that I’ve seen these 15 times, a slight exaggeration I’m sure, but let’s try and recap anyway:

Colwyn Bay (1981), Chester Northgate Arena (1984), Manchester International (1985), Finsbury Park (1986), Llandudno Conference Centre (2003), Wrexham Central Station (2005) and again tonight! So that’s 7 times, err… not quite 15 but hey! I get excited!

I get even more excited when Captain Sensible announces they’re celebrating 30 years since the release of that seminal album ‘Machine Gun Etiquette.’ He then realises he should’ve said 25 years, and we could’ve corrected him for it’s 26 years!

Jesus! 26 years since first I pogoed around my bedroom to that LP, torn between which one I was gonna be in my bedroom mirror performance… Am I the cool slick Dave Vanian or the guitar god but circus clown that is Captain Sensible?

So The Damned kicked in, as that excellent LP does, with Love Song, and following the track listing to Second Time Around then I Just Can’t Be Happy Today. The sound was awesome, it was loud enough to raise the roof on this wet Sunday night and the power took your breath away. I did think we were going to be treated to the album in its running order and entirety but that stopped with the fourth track Street of Dreams, which was introduced by acid crazed keyboard player Monty as ‘Cunt’ !!!

The immense sounding History of The World preceded the lament to Michael Jackson, Neverland, which is off the latest Damned release ‘Grave Disorder’ (available and highly recommended on Nitro Recs). By now drummer Pinch was looking worse for wear and it was announced that he was suffering from a 3 day hangover all in one day after the Rock & Blues Festival. Anti-Pope followed and the excellent free form punk bits where the rhythm section chug along allowing the Captain to express himself and impress us with his guitar skills were smattered throughout this short set.

We even had a Monty solo before blasting into Melody Lee then Plan 9 Channel 7 and more of the free forming with Looking At You which just about covered ‘Machine Gun Etiqutte’ (for now). The Damned did teach the punk fraternity that there was more than three chords available and I was watching the bassist during Disco Man and lost count of the notes played in the riffs, astounding!

‘Chavs are a bucket of turds.’ Shouted the Captain having explained he’d noticed that Wrexham is full of them and they ripped into Would You Be So Hot (their tribute to John Lennon – not!) then still keeping to the latest album, the haunting Absinthe. With Eloise played like it should’ve been in the first place it left enough time to pay tribute to those that have gone before us and Neat Neat Neat was dedicated to John Peel, Joe Strummer and The Ramones.

The encore brought a great treat for Damned fans with Jet Boy Jet Girl, a track I’ve not heard live before, followed by New Rose and the ultimate Smash It Up where a net was thrown over the sprawling crowd, and a punter was invited up to play the last couple of riffs.

Great entertainment, great band!

FESTIVAL REVIEW - Pigstock 2005 – Denbigh

Something’s not quite right. It’s the day after Pigstock, its mid-afternoon and I don’t have a hangover. And yet I drank enough to sink a small ship; kept up with Andy Fatman pint for pint and picked him off the floor on numerous occasions! Funny old thing alcohol – you can have two pints and feel quite giddy or have thirteen and feel, well, yes pissed, but in control (almost!). I think the trick was to cart along the Crudlets and Fatman’s sprog for the afternoon, therefore instilling a sense of responsibility into the proceedings and not go hell for leather for the gutter before the evening!

Waking up at 11.20am meant there was no way we’d get there to see the opening set by Melaphobia and ‘the d word’ (Der Bomber) were obviously not on the bill and were replaced by some wedding band from Ruthin I think.

Someone from the band Jacknife Juggernauts asked me this morning what my thoughts on the day as a whole were. My reply was, ‘Great day, shit music.’

If you’re gonna spend £12 to see some bang up to date and up ‘n’ coming bands from the local area then your money would be better spent elsewhere. If you’re gonna spend £12 to chill out in a friendly atmosphere and have a great day out and catch the occasional snatch of brilliance from the stage then this the place for you.

The music (if you’ve been kept in a dark shed for two months and fed bullshit) has been a bone of contention since the line up was announced, and for some great entertainment pay my Message Board a visit and start at the thread titled ‘Absolute Fucking Travesty’ – it’s an excellent read that has spawned great publicity for both Pigstock and ‘the d word’.

Someone did mention that the bongo player in a blue shirt (who is actually Chris Godfrey) had been on stage three times in 3 different bands and wouldn’t it have been better to have put on some local talent instead mates and their jazzy jams. I agreed but did point out that this wasn’t a cutting edge festival, it was a cutting hedge one!

But let’s face some facts here and make a few points. If you’re the organiser of Pigstock you have to look at the point that this is in Denbigh and if you put on a load of bands making waves on the coast then they’re going to bring crowds with them. You have to weigh up the possibility that some could get drunk and will play up a bit. Denbigh people are all for having a bit of a laugh and a joke – amongst themselves. When some upstarts turn up and start laughing at them or treading on toes then things could turn ugly. Yes, it’d be a great day for music but it would probably be the last ever Pigstock! Although it would’ve been nice to have seen at least a couple of today’s performers replaced by the likes of Khagool, Gintis, Lantern, David Wrench, The Alarm, Crave or (god forbid!) Der Bomber.

The Holloh provided the afternoon’s first foray into what readers of this website would describe as good, with some fast driving indie rock with a punk edge – or so the NME would say. They played a great version of Johnny B Goode in a Sex Pistols stylee which introduced the first casualty of the day when a sole headbanger (with no hair) got up to rub his denim and play his air guitar.

The Giro Gypsies received the loudest cheer of the afternoon with their colourful animated line up and progged out sound – great guitar solo at the end by Stewart – check out their profile on the North section of my site.

We also had MK Ultra, Y Moniars, Sarah Davies, Cosmic Charlies, Geth & The Celebrities, Zoot Serious, Mid Life Crisis, who are all good at what they do. It was there to provide a background to a glorious day, obviously not my bag at all but they served the purpose of keeping the proles happy.

Duncan Black (main pic) provided my highlight of the day with a brief but exquisite display of guitar genius, and let’s face it, there was some stiff competition in the guitar hero category provided by Mid Life Crisis, Cosmic Charlies and the Giros. But Duncan took it to a different level up there on his own with an array of pedals and coming across like a mute Nick Harper crossed with Ed Alleyn-Johnson, two artists who you should most definitely make yourselves familiar with. Coming on just after 9pm he was backed by a light show, lots of smoke and the opportunity to perform in front of a big crowd. Duncan later explained to the organisers that he was used to playing in front of strange goths and headbangers who would throw things at him for not being metal enough!

Check out his album ‘Ubiquitous Guitar Mercenary’ out now.

We missed the fireworks display and the following bands as I had to save Andy Fatman’s liver.

Here’s to next year!