The Chuckle Brothers, March 5 2011

You probably remember Chucklevision, maybe even To Me, To You - even if you don't you probably know the Chuckle Brothers. When i saw they were coming to play at my University, i joked with some friends about going. It wasn't until i was at the counter paying for tickets, i realised i was actually going to go. It still wasn't until i was sat in my seat waiting for the show to come on that it registered what i was actually watching. And i couldn't have been more excited. I grew up with the Chuckle Brothers, and never thought i'd actually be seeing them. The show was a Harry Potter rip off, the full title being "Barry Potter and his Full Blood Brother Paul in the Ghostly Shadows". I desperately wanted it to be good, but i wasn't expecting much. What i actually got was so SO much more.

Bits of the show were amazing, some bits got a bit old, and some bits were completely mind blowing. Call it a kids show if you want, literally anyone can enjoy this show. Some of the jokes could be seen coming from a mile away, others seemed completely improvised while they were going along. Most of the show was scripted, but that didn't stop them breaking away form the script, and even after playing the shows so many times, they still struggled to contain their laughter during some parts.

What i wasn't expecting from the show, was a musical. I was expecting jokes, i was expecting catch phrases, and i was expecting something to happen to the audience. All of this happened, we got blasted with water, we got rice thrown at us, we got every catch phrase we could possibly want but we also got a whole lot more.

What annoyed me about the show, though, was the magic. I'm not usually one to fall for slight of hand tricks and clever card games, but the magic tricks in the show were mind blowing. I still can't understand how they did some of them, and it's slightly annoying. Some of it, you could tell. Wands shooting out of sleeves, flowers coming out of the shirts, but a champagne bottle disappearing into a hollow tube? Mind. Blown.

While there did appear to be a little bit of filler in this show, they managed to bring it back and link it up to the story nicely for it to make sense. They also did a short bit using UV. I was so impressed with how they made it work, it was unbelievable. So easy to do, but so well executed. If you looked hard enough, you could just make out the people running around holding them, but you really had to try.

A group of 5 of us went to the show, but only 3 of us really got into the spirit of it. We joined in with the shouts, we pretended we had magic wands, and it was such a great show.

The further in the show got, the more musical it appeared. The highlight of the show, by far, for me was when they covered 'Everybody Needs Somebody to Love' by The Blues Brothers. Despite Chucklevision starting in 1987, nearly 25 years ago, they still pull off the voices, still seem really excited to be there and seem to enjoy every minute of it. After the show, we wandered over to the stage door, and waited. After about 10 minutes, we see Barry leaving. We waited, and not long after, Paul came out too. We walked over, really nervous, as we'd all grown up watching these guys and loved them to bits, and were totally lost on what to say to them. I eventually plucked up the courage and asked for a photo. They were more than happy to have a photo with us, and even got one of their crew to take the photo for us. Best. Night. Ever. If they ever come near me again, i'm going. I'm definitely going.

Reel Big Fish 4th March 2011

I saw Reel Big Fish a while ago at the Junction and reviewed it already on here, so i'll keep thi one short. When i heard they were playing again, i decided i'd go. Ska music is such a happy genre, no matter how you're feeling it cheers you up. Unfortunately, due to some unforseen circumstances, i arrived late and missed the first support act. What i did manage to see, however, was a band called The Skints. I'm not sure what genre you would call them, but they're wiki page says "Reggae/Punk/Dub/Rock/Fusion". I have never seen a crowd of people more unsure of how to dance at a concert before. Turns out, they were really good. The music was such a bizarre mix, it was hard not to enjoy some part of it.

After that came Suburban Legends. They were with RBF last time i saw them, so i was really excited to see them again. Once again, they put on a very good show and the music was fantastic, but i think they were better first time around. The excitement was there, the music was brilliant, but something seemed to be missing. I'm not sure if it was because it was very near the end of a long tour and they were getting tired of doing the same routine every night, or i just remember last time being amazing. They had even started to synchronise some dances for them abdn to do whilst their instruments were not needed (which meant they were all very short dances). About halfway through the show, they threw a curveball into their set playing 'The Bed Intruder Song'.

They played several songs i'd already heard, and a lot of songs from their new album, which they claimed to have "Only printed 50 copies of". When they said this, i assumed it was a joke to get us to buy the album, i bought it anyway, but when i got home i checked it out and there is no record of the album i own. Weird. It's brilliant. By this point in the show, everyone was going kind of crazy and having a great time, unfortunately for a lot of people, a massively fat guy happened to be trying to start mosh pits throughout the whole set. I have no problem with mosh pits at shows, i do, however, have problems with a 400lb whale diving at me when i have expressed no interest in entering a mosh pit.

The great thing about music like this, is it's just so happy, that when people get into it, they REALLY get into it. They played 'high fives' to which everyone who knew the song exploded into dancing and high fiving everyone they could see. At some point, someone dressed as a tiger ran on stage and dived off into the crowd. Having missed the first support act, i couldn't tell you if he was from there, or if he was just someone they had to run out on stage at some point, but it was certainly a strange event.

After their set, we waited around and Reel Big Fish came on. Starting out with Sell Out, the whole crowd screaming, dancing, jumping around, it was crazy. Once again, whale boy barges his way into the crowd and starts ruining peoples fun by crushing them, but by this point people have just started pushing him back. Unfortunately, after a few songs, i was starting to feel a bit ill. I'd had hardly any liquid all day and eaten just before the show, which is never a good combo. Thankfully, the Junction is quite a small venue, and even right at the back you still have a really good view of the show. As i was expecting, RBF played a wonderful show, blasting out a mixture of their own songs, some covers and throwing in a little bit of crowd banter here and there.

One of the moments that really stuck out, was when they played on of their songs in different styles. They played the same bit of it as a country song, a dance song, a heavy metal song, and it was absolutely brilliant. If playing venues the size of the Junction for their 20th anniversary tour gets to the band, they don't show it. They come on stage with such joy that you'd think it was their first show. If they tour again, i'll go, and i strongly recommend everyone else do the same.

The Blanks Feb 17th 2011

If you've ever watched the show Scrubs, you're probably familiar with Ted Buckland, and his band 'The Worthless Peons'. What you may not be aware of, is that they are a real a cappella band called 'The Blanks'. When i saw they were playing so close to me, i decided i should definitely go, but had absolutely no idea what to expect. There are no instruments, i'm not really sure what the music is like and i'm not sure what to do while i'm there. Do you dance? Do you sing? I thought these questions alone were enough to allow myself the evening out.

We got there and, for the first time ever there was no barrier to the stage, we were asked to stay a foot or so back, but really we could go wherever. Almost everyone at the show was there to see 'Ted' from Scrubs, and when i young, skinny guy came out a mumbled his name, nobody really got excited. His opening was awkward, during his first song, nobody was really sure if he was a joke, and everyone was just talking amongst themselves. It was a small show, and you could hear people just laughing at him. I felt sorry for the guy, his music was like nothing i'd heard before, half of his lyrics weren't even words, just sounds, like scat singing. I'm still not sure what genre it would be, but i've never seen someone turn a crowd so fast. He was only on for about 35 minutes, and when he came on, nobody cared, people were laughing at him and i'm surprised he continued. I loved it. It was weird, it was different and to go on, alone, and play this music, the guy had some stones.

After his first song, i was clapping like a madman surrounded by people clapping because they felt they should. I was in the front row, making more noise than anyone else, i was loving every minute. Nobody else seemed to understand what was happening, this was different, there was no set genre and nobody was really sure what to make of it. After 3 songs, however, everyone in the crowd was cheering, singing along to the choruses and realised that different music can be good. Unfortunately, i still didn't know what his name actually was, and was really hoping he'd mention it again. As his time ended, he walked off and said "So i'm Gideon Conn. If i do another tour, should i book a show in Lincoln?" to which the crowd, who, not half an hour ago were mocking this weird new guy suddenly erupted in applause and cheering. It was miraculous. He left, and came back for an encore. I'd never seen a support act do an encore before, i'd never heard any crowd cheer enough to warrant one, it was almost surreal. He played a few more songs, and said he'd be selling stuff in the lobby afterwards, and by this time i'd already decided i needed to buy his CD.

At around 9 o'clock, the lights went down and on walked The Blanks. Their album, 'Riding the Wave' has been out for a while, and they played almost all of it. I'd heard this CD a while ago, and they were amazing. It was definitely a 'show' and not a 'concert'. Amongst the songs they produced comedy sketches, had a little back and forth with the audience, and were generally very entertaining.

There were a few things that surprised me about their show, though. Firstly, i know much of the audience was there because it was 'Ted from Scrubs', however i would've assumed they would want to bury that link a little bit and push the band as themselves, especially as only one of them is a regular cast member. However, they kept throwing in references, and somewhat milked it for all they could. Second, Sam Lloyd, AKA 'Ted from Scrubs' never once said "By the way guys, i'm not actually called Ted", which i definitely would've done if had a role on a TV show and then had people screaming "I love you [character name]" whenever they saw me.

The majority of their show was the music they had performed either on the show, or on their CD, which i suppose is because as their first UK tour, they probably realised people probably were only really going to hear the songs they already know. These were good, and it's wonderful to see a band playing songs with no instruments, using only their voices and their bodies.




However, in my opinion, the best part of the show by far was when they played different songs. They played a montage of songs including 'Forget/F*** you', 'Barbra Streisand', and 'Dynamite'. It's also wonderful to see a group of four middle aged men singing 'Teenage Dreams' a song by a young, good looking 20-something. After playing a series of these and some unrelated holiday songs, they decided to finish up with an a cappella rendition of 'Hey Ya' by Outkast, which was surprisingly good.

After the show, however, they were having a meet and greet with the fans. So, thankfully was the wonderful fellow from the start of the show. I don't buy many CD's, but i was so taken with this guys music that i gladly bought his CD, got it signed and thanked him for coming to us. I felt a little bad that there was such a massive queue to meet The Blanks, and he was just stood around waiting for people to buy his stuff, but people kept trickling over and he seemed to be doing alright. After queueing for a while and waiting for autographs and photos, someone came out and told us the The Blanks "would not be signing autographs this evening" as they had a very early start the next day. This caused a slight stir, until he continued with "so it's photos only today guys, sorry". I'm not sure how much longer signing a couple of pictures would take, but they sat around and had photos and a quick chat with everyone who came down and were all really friendly.

Steel Panther 19th March 2010.

When i first heard about Steel Panther, it was because i saw the single 'Death to all but Metal' on Kerrang! Now this song, really, isn't their strongest on the album by a long shot. I have no idea why they released it as their debut single when they have so many better choices but luckily i decided to look into them further anyway. After finally downloading the album, i listened to it and wasn't convinced, but i liked it enough to keep it. I read several reviews of their shows saying they were one of the best live bands around, which in itself was enough to convince me to check it out. I have to say, it was certainly an experience. The ticket clearly states anyone under 14 must be accompanied by an adult, but any adult who takes a 14 year old child to this show has serious parenting issues. It was great fun, a fantastic experience and well worth the money, but totally unsuitable for the younger audience.

I was told the support act for Steel Panther was a band called 'The Sirens'. So, as normal i looked them up, listened to them on MySpace and honestly they didn't hit me as anything spectacular. When we got into the venue, i looked onstage and couldn't decide wether to be intrigued or concerned about the appearance of chain-rail things. When the lights go down, i pushed to the front of the crowd, knocking some guys beer out of his hand, and got ready to take some photos. As it turned out, the 'Sirens' were not so much a pop-punk band from Detroit, more some strippers. Now i'm not sure, but i would have thought that anything like this, should it be included in the show, would have been mentioned when buying tickets, though it seemed somewhat fitting, really, considering Steel Panthers whole 'thing' is just 'Sex, Drugs and Heavy Metal'.

The did their 'thang' and we kicked around a bit waiting for Steel Panther to come on. I wasn't sure what to hope for, I was unsure how they were going to make a 45 minute album go on for 2 hours, and we found out. Filler. They came onstage and blasted through 'Eyes of a Panther' with all the effort and charisma you wouldn't think a band with a combined age of about 170 (between 4 members) could manage. They then played another song, and everything seemed to go fine. Unfortunately, after that they decided to just sort of... Talk... For the next 45 minutes or so. Granted, it was pretty funny, loads of audience participation, getting us to join in, chanting, and all that, but ultimately, if you're in a gig for an hour and you've only heard 4 songs you aren't really getting your moneys worth.

They picked up the pace in the second half, however and stormed through many of the other songs they have, one of the highlights being Community Property. Their take at a love song, you can see the thought that's gone into it, but play it to your girlfriend and you'll get a slap. After playing through this, leaving many of the words to the audience, they finished and decided to play it again. The entire crowd cheered as they started, but they stopped and were 'apparently' told they weren't allowed. I think they could have done, but didn't because of the DVD, so they played it at about 20 times the speed it would normally do. This could easily have been done by a couple of people just screaming the words fast and strumming a guitar, but the music and vocals synced almost perfectly, speeding up and slowing down at the right times. It was almost frightening to image they had been practising playing that song so ridiculously fast, and somewhat mesmerising watching it form.

They calmed it down a bit for 'Girl from Oklahoma'. Personally, I don't really like this song, i realize that most of their songs are about sex, but this one is just crude. It does, however, sound wonderful when played live. The same can be said about 'Death to all but Metal'. Not a good song, if i'm honest, however with a few thousand people all screaming 'F*** the Goo Goo Dolls, they can suck my balls', you can totally see the humour coming through in the song.

They came back with a bang, definately, though still stopping occasionally to unmercilessly mock the bass player. All in all it was a very good show and they are definately showmen. Try to take them seriously, you'll hate them. Try to see them as a joke, they aren't funny. The band are alright, but one of the few bands that are only really good when you see them live. The songs are catchy, and i've been singing the same line from one of the songs for several days, it just sticks, but you are never going to appreciate them as a band until you've seen the effort they put into their live performance. They were filming for a live DVD, and Michael Starr was totally in control of his stage presence. While strutting from one side of the stage to the other, he'd see a camera guy and just wander around right at him, basically controlling the camera simply by pushing the lens were he wanted it to be. I thought this was good, because it showed that the DVD meant a lot to him, and he made a big deal about it, however it also meant he paid less attention to those who had paid to come see them. He managed to find a good balance however, and it was interesting just seeing how the band reacted to the cameras being there.

The amount of thought that has gone into their show, potentially just because it was for the DVD, perhaps not, is just staggering. The amount of money spend on props and costumes and extras just to emphasise the songs was incredible. Songs like 'Asian Hooker' Starr was wheeled onstage in a weird chinese (?) wooden cart thing by two asian women, and he hopped off wearing a Kimono thing. For 'Stripper Girl' they called out a load of - you guessed it - strippers. Granted these ones were there for effect and just danced around a bit, they didn't actually strip, but they had all been 'hand picked' by the band from a strip joint they went to apparently. For a song titled 'The Shocker', the strippers, accompanied by a load of stage hands, came back onstage to throw a bunch of giant foam hands into the crowd. Difficult to describe, if you feel the urge, google it. During Turn out the Lights, they decided to hurl a load of blow up dolls into the audience, which quickly got ripped the shreds. Also, they had 7 foot flames coming out of the stage, and cannons at the side firing more confetti into the air that i would have thought posible.

It's things like this that really separate this band from any other bands i've seen live. Many bigger bands that have the budget to put on a massive stage show don't bother. If they're that big, people will go see them. They just need to turn up, play and leave. These guys, however, have clearly noticed that they're very much a show band. The CD is good, but not even close to the experience of seeing them live. Granted if you cut out every use of the word 'F***' the DVD will only be about 45 minutes long, as that was basically every other word that came from any of them. These guys are all about having fun, partying and not really caring about what happens next. They arent a huge band, i'm not convinced they have a massive budget, and even though they only have about 45 minutes of material, the thought they put into their stage show made it more than worth going to see them. If you can get past the homophobia, sexism, racism, sizeism and whatever else they can find to ridicule, you'll see their show as what it should be. Pure unadulterated fun. I totally recommend seeing these guys live, but be cautious who you take as some of it seemed wonderfully inappropriate for some of the kids i saw running around in the crowd.

Bowling for Soup - 20/10/09

The minute i heard that Bowling for Soup were doing another tour i instantly decided i was going. When i found out they were playing a show in Cambridge so i didn't have to pay more than the ticket's worth to get to the show, i was over the moon.

When we got into the show, we got a drink and went to stand near the front. We were only there for about 10 minutes before the first band, The Leftovers, came on. When you ordered tickets for the tour, you were given a free download album, featuring songs from each of the bands on the tour. I listened to this, and decided the Leftovers were pretty good, so i listened to their entire album. They came on stage with so much energy, and were one of the few support acts i'd seen that could get the crowd inerested in the show so much earlier than the actual band come on. They played some fantastic songs, starting with Untouchable, following it with Can't Stop. They then had a little chat and dedicated the next song, Telephone Operator, to "Everyone out there with a phone". They even managed to get the crowd to join in, in a sing and repeat moment with their final song, Party 'til we Die.

Up next, came MC Lars. I first saw him supporting BFS back in 2005, so was happy he was touring with them again. I wasn't entirely sure people would like it that much, as it is very different to the music they came to hear, especially as he favoured his older tracks to his newest slightly more mainstream releases. Anyone who can get away with telling the crowd to "Give it up for Herman Melville" before rapping about Moby Dick, has got something special and should run with it. Then on wanders Jaret for a quick song about music downloading, happily titled "Download This Song". He then played Hot Topic (is not punk rock), Space Game and finished with iGeneration. I was really surprised he didn't play a single track from his newer albums, but i think it is brilliant that he still plays his old stuff to crowds.

After a short wait, Zebrahead came on. I saw these supporting BFS in 2007, but didn't pay any attention. I then listened to some of their music and really like it so was quite looking forward to their set. Unfortunately i was really dissappointed. Before they came on, they played some music that really built up atmosphere and everyone was waiting for something amazing to heppen, then they casually walked on the stage - somewhat dissappointing. The singer spent an awful lot of time with his back to the audience, singing towards the drummer, and for some reason decided it would be a great idea to get everyone in the crowd to sit down. When the venue is full, you can barely stand up, let alone sit down so was this not only uncomfortable, but also stupid as he expected us to sit down, then jump up. It was more inconvenient than fun. They played a lot of songs, but i couldn't really make out when one ended and the next started, apart from the times when they talked. They did, however cover Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" and while this song was significantly better than the original, it seems like they are struggling for ideas as their new album is entirely covers of female pop stars. They are amazingly energetic, onstage, however and i don't think any of them stopped moving for more than a few seconds at a time, but on one of their last songs, they decided it would be great to try and persuade everyone to shout 'Minge' at certain parts of the song. This is a band that would probably be fun if you were drunk, but sober are just annoying and immature, and seemed out of place for an otherwise almost family friendly concert. I will stick to listening to the CD, rather than going to see them, i think.

After a longer wait, a video come up projected onto the screen, and it Showed Jaret and Erik sitting on a sofa explaining about this contest that you could enter. You vasically had to sign up to the mailing list and you would be entered into a competition written specifically about you. They then gave a short example for Ian, that consisted of "Your name is Ian... You really like beeein' outsiide!" Not gold perhaps, but you get the idea of what they were thinking. They then played the most amazing song i have ever heard, introducing the band and the show, then they came on straight into the brilliant "I'm Gay". This was a great song to start with as it got everyone into the spirit of what they were in for and is generally a fun song. Then the Bitch Song comes on, and everyone goes nuts. For the first time, Bowling for Soup played with the aid of a projector, and it played clips of some of their videos, and showed pictures and stuff while they were playing, which was a good idea as it was somethign else to look at while enjoying them, but it meant that they actually used a set list for a change, or the video would all be in the wrong place. They then played Almost and My Wena, with a video in the background depicting a 7 foot penis trying different things and generally failing. They then played No Habo Ingles, which was brilliant, i was so happy they played such a variety of material. Their new album is probably inching it's way to my favourite every time i listen to it, but i would have been dissappointed if it was all they playe,d luckily they threw in some older songs too, for good measure. They then played Ohio (Come Back to Texas) got halfway through, and in traditional BFS style, walked off. The Leftovers came on and finished the song off, when BFS came back on to power their way through High School Never Ends. They then spiced it up a bit by covering Hot Or Cold by Katy Perry, and Punk Rock 101 Halfway through they stopped for an official Bowling for Soup photo break, and all got together to pose for photos. They then wandered back and started talking. After a while Jaret said "Suppose we shoudl finish the song?" to which Chris replied "I suppose.." and they went straight back into it exactly where they had left earlier. They then went into the amazingly popular Hooray for Beer, much to everyone's enjoyment as they all got more beer. If Only, was followed soon after, aided by a video, as parts of the song is recorded answer-phone messages, the video showed these, and the band played along to the other bits. They then calmed it down a bit by playing When we Die, it seemed slightly out of place in amongst the happy jump around style of the show, but it's a brilliant song and worked well. Just before they left, they played the one song i had been waiting for all night. Really Cool Dance Song. As soon as this started playing the crowd went nuts, I really hope it gets released as a single, because it is such a good song, it would just rocket up the charts. They played that and i was so happy. But they stopped halfway through the song as the keyboard bit dropped out, but they finsihed their wonderful set with Jaret saying "If you don't know this song, the guy next to you is going to kick you in the nuts" before going into 1985. Everyone sang along, especially when we were pitted against Ireland to sing it in our best mexican accents. We won. Obviously. Bowling for Soup are simply amazing live and i can't wait for the next tour.

The Brink - WatStock '09.

When i was first told about WatStock, i didn't think it would work. Watlington is a small village, in between Kings Lynn and Cambridge, and i didn't think it would be a good places to hold a music festival. When it started out, it was a half day thing, an the organisers had to pay the bands with alcohol because they couldn't afford to pay them with money. This year was the second attempt, and it was extended to two full days. The main difference being instead of having to beg bands to play the festival, they had to turn down many of them. Over 70 bands applied to play the free music festival and had to be turned down due to lack of set time. I was only there for the second half of the second day of the festival, but what i saw was amazing. The bands were all local, and not all great, but everyone seemed to be having a nice time. It wasn't hot, but it wasn't freezing so everyone was quite chilled an happy to just sit around listening to the music. As i went only on the sunday i missed the 2thousand strong crowd that turned up the day before for the festival. I sat around for a while listening to a few bands, until one came on that particularly caught my attention. Ed Butt, i'm sorry, Edwin Butler, as he is now known, came on and was incredibly brave. He walked out all on his own and seemed to be trying as hard as he could to get the crowd going. Some of his songs were ok, but some justmade you wince, possibly the work of him, possibly the soundman, i can't decide. He went off and a band called the PunkyNuts came on. These guys basically covered Punk songs. Most of them were good, however some were quite bizarre, and i have never heard such a heavy rendition of a Blink 182 song in my life. They continued playing a variety of songs including +44, Green Day and Kings of Leon. These guys got a bit of a reaction and i think are quite good. It was quite unfair that it started to rain halfway through their set so a lot of people decided they were better off indoors, so thewy could still hear everything but the band was essentially playing to a field, which, even if you're getting paid can't be the most rewarding gig in the world.

The headliners of the festival, however were simply fantastic. They first caught real mainstream attention on Britains Got Talent, where they got 3 yes' from the judges. Their seconds EP, One Night Only was recently released and they agreed to play WatStock as Sundays Headliners. These guys already had a group of fans ready at the front of the barriers before they were even announced onstage, and they went nuts when they came up.

Now, i've been to a lot of gigs, i i can honestly say these guys were brilliant. I struggle to say they were better than any big bands i've seen, but they were far better than practically every support band i have seen at a show, even betetr than some bigger ones. Firstly, when they were playing they seemed to be enjoying themselves. They were moving around and having fun, a lot of bands i've seen playing small shows seem to have realised they're playing small shows and don't put much effoert in. These guys came out, knew what they were up against and even in the rain managed to get a large crowd and a massive reaction.

Another good thing about this band, is that they are complete posers. Not in a sense that they aren't a real band and are just pretending, but in a sense that they seem to have watched rock videos, realised people are going to be taking photos of them and try to make the photos as visually interesting to ensure you have a good memory, and a great photo to remember them by. This is great, as i photo of a band doing something cool is uch more impressive than of a guy standing still behind a mike, which i've seen several bands do.

When these guys first started playing, i was only interested because i had to take picture of them. I had never heard of the band before and i wasn't that bothered about hearing them, but i wandered over and took some photos and, naturally, listened to the music. It was brilliant. They started playing through some of their songs, which were kinda catchy if you weren't really paying attention, but when you stop and actually listen you just can't get the songs out of your head.

About halfway throught the set, the singer, Matt, stopped and decided that during their albums title track "One Night Only" the merch stand would be half price. This was a good idea on every level. They managed to attract the attention of people who like the music, but not enough to pay £7 for it to go buy it half price, so they still sold copies, but they also got the fans who like them enough to wait for their set to end and pay full price. After playing a few more songs, the festival organisers decided they would open the barriers and allow the fans right up to the stage. This was great, as while the band were good on their own, Matt seemed so much happier when the crowd were allowed up close and he could associate himself with them. They played a few more songs and then walked off the stage.

The fans clearly were unhappy with this, and thus started chanting "One more song! One more song!". I was backstage taking photos, so they walked off and started talking amongst themselves, debaiting wether or not to go back up and play some more, in the end, they decided they would play "One Night Only" again. Now i think that if you were in a band playing the same songs day in day out would get really boring, and each time you played a song you would lose a certain amount of enthusiasm, so i couldn't imagine how bored the band would be playing the same song twice in a show. I was totally wrong, the band ran back onstage and put just as much, if not more enthusiasm into the song second time around than they had first. By this time, the crowd had grown from a few previous fans and a couple of people who wanted to know what all the noise was about, to a good strong crowd all swaying and jumping and singing along to the bits they had picked out already.

The fontman had already started wandering up and down the front of the stage where fans were screaming and stretcyhing their arms as high as they could in a hope that the man would hold their hands or high five them. He did. In fact, i was surprised the guy didn't start crowd surfing, if he had done it wouldn't have seemed at all out of place. After the song, they again, wandered offstage to decide what was going on, and again decided to go back on. This time, they decided to cover "I believe in a thin called love" by The Darkness. I have to admit i think i liked it more with them singing than the original. Once again, offstage talk, then back onstage, only this time with a slightly drunk singer from Birkenhead. The previous nights headliners. They did a bit of a sing-song and had a little dance, but then it was time for them to leave. As soon as they got off stage, the were flcoked by fans begging for autographs and pictures, that they seemed more than happy to give away.

These guys definately have what it takes to become a successful band and i strongly recommend going to see them and giving them support if they do a show near you. I would definately recommend checking out their website and listening to their music. Www.thebrinkband.net.

TYR & Alestorm

Once again i apologise for the quality of my pictures, they aren't my best but i do what i can with limited resources :)

When i heard Alestorm were touring again, i decided it was one of those gigs i just needed to go to. I'd seen them twice before, once at the Metal Hammer Awards and once in Peterborough. So we all decided we were going to go, but when it actually got around to it, only two of us actually went... So we had to go on the train and then figure out how to get to the Park, a small club that holds perhaps a couple hundred people, maybe less.. So we are walking around Peterborough and see some kids in Alestorm shirts wandering about so decide to follow them. They'll know where to go, right? Well we followed them, then see the former bassist (now guitarist) Dani, walking along the road. So instead of following him, we kept following these people and got lost. When we finally got in we looked at the merch stand and managed to get a shirt for £9 and a twirl instead of the £10 they were asking. Result.

So the first band come on (Above), and they were awful. This is completely my opinion but i simply can't stand the kind of "music" they were doing. Their set was pretty much people playing instruments, and a fat guy growling at a microphone. The rest of the band seemed pretty out of place if you ask me, they seemed to be in the wrong genre but i thought it was awful... The singer decided to inform the crowd we could buy their t-shirts, yet didn't other to say who they actually were..

The next band wasn't any better, these were at least older (the first band seemed to have a combined age of 30) but it was still mindless screaming and growling which i really don't like.

After a short wait, the third support act came on. After the first two i honestly wasn't expecting much. I'd heard these guys (TYR, Right) were sort of viking metal so wasn't hopeful. When they came onstage in their chainmail and battle armour, the first thing that i notice was that the singer held a remarkable resemblance to James Hetfield (Metallica), and i was sat their going "Please be singing, please be singing etc etc) and they started to play. My god. They were amazing. Before each song, the singer introduced it by explaining what the song was abut (a specific piece of folklore, some mythological thing or whatever) and then they played it. Now normally i only really listen to music in English, because i like to know what is being said, but they way these guys had written and sung these songs was just mesmerising. I couldn't take my eyes off them. They seemed to be having a great time, and were clearly well known amongst the crowd. Halfway through the set, the singer finished his drink (from a horn type thing) and simply said "So who has alcohol for me? No beer!", and passed his drinking horn into the crowd. When someone complained it was empty he laughed at said "haha i know, that is my problem!!" When he got himself some drink, the songs returned.

They played a mixture of old a newer songs, such as Hold the Heathen Hammer High, and Hail to the Hammer, and many more, but as i am not familiar with the band, i don't know the names. Also, many of them were in different languages, which just made the whole scenario more amazing. Slightly later on, the singer took off his armour, and someone in the crowd shouted "Strip" to which the response "Oh no, you first" was given, which the crowd thought was hilarious. They played for about 45 minutes, then left. This, however, was the first time i had seen a support act do an encore before. They ran back on and said "Do you guys mind if we play another song?" everyone cheered. Now, remember i said the guy reminded me of James Hetfield, the song they chose for the encore was "Whiskey in the Jar" by Metallica. Conicidence? I think not!

After waiting about 15 minutes, Alestorm came onstage. When i saw these guys first 2 times i thought it was brialliant, they seemed to be having a really great time, and so did the fans. I'm not sure why, but this gig was slightly dissappointing. It may have simply been because the crowd was much more violent then the previous 2 times i had seen them, and i ended up being crushed into one corner. Luckily, i'm tall enough to see pretty much wherever i am in gigs, so my view was still pretty good. Unfortunately, Chris, the singer seems to have taken to swearing much more than normal, which really ruined to whole atmosphere. Instead of being like the last time filled with piratey childish jokes, this time the show was just filled with as many profanities as he seemed to be able to fit in. They seem to have cut the piratey jokes out of the show altogether, which sucks, they've kept the voices and seemed to be trying to make it funny by doing a song about swine flu, but in my opinion they couldn't recreate the effect their last show had on me. Halfway through the show, some genius decided crowd surfing would be a good idea, and as there is no security at this venue, there is no gap between the stage and the crowd so this guy got thrown forwards and crashed into Dani and Chris, Dani almost falling over and looking incredibly uncomfortable for the rest of the show. Some guy did run onstage and throw the guy back into the crowd though, but it's people like that that make security a necessary precaution at most gigs, which i think just ruins it for the other people there.

They played a very mixed selection of songs from all their albums, including Captains Morgans Revenge, Nancy the Tavern Wench, Wenches and Mead, Huntsmasters, Leviathan, Keelhauled, Pirate Song and That Famous old Spice. For the end of their set, however, TYR joined them onstage and altoghether they sang Wolves of the Sea, which was awesome. There were about 5 people playing Chris' keytar and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. It was a very entertaining evening, but not as good as previous times i'd seen them. I was surprised they didn't even mention that Gavin (Former Guitarist) had left, they just walked on and it seemed they didn't really care, which i thought was quite bad. I would gladly go see them again, i just hope they haven;'t started to take themselves too seriously as that will be their downfall.

MC Lars & The Aquabats

Firstly, i want to apologise about the quality of the photos, the lighting was horrible for pictures :)

When i first saw MC Lars supporting Bowling for Soup in 2005, honestly, i didn't think it was

that good. A few months later, i decided to listen to some again and realised it was actually very good. So i went and bought some CD's. I then went to see him live at the Met Lounge in

Peterborough and thought it was great. Since then, i have been waiting for his new CD and hopefully a tour. A year or so later, i sent him an e-mail asking about a tour, and he promised one in 2009. So i waited. Out comes the new album, so i download it straight away. While different to previous albums, it has the same vibe as the old ones and is fantastic to listen to. When i checked up on his tour dates, the only one i could see locally was in London with some group called 'The Aquabats'. I had never heard of these guys before, so i checked out their Myspace and decided i was going

to like it before i had even heard anything. I listened to one song, 'Look at Me (I'm a Winner)' and decided i needed to go to this gig. I went off to London and bought a couple of tickets, and couldn't wait.

When i got there, i had a questionable burger from a kebab shop nearby, and waited outside. When it comes to going in, the merch stand is significantly better than the previous gig i went to, so i bought the CD and went on inside. I wandered in as some band called 'All Bright' were playing. It was alright. Nothing spectacular, i thought, but the frontman was very funny. He must have realised that people wouldn't be all that interested in them, and yet somehow managed to gain the attention of the entire audience with apparent ease. By the end of their short set, the whole crowd was swaying and cheering in unison.

On come the next band, Failsafe and they are quite good. The singer comes on jumping and shouting and doing the usual things. Though after a while, they just got boring. None of the songs jumped out at me enough for me to remember them after they finished, let alone after the show, and therefore the haven't done enough to impress me. However, the band did have two sets to perform as they played the instruments for MC Lars, which was good.

After a bit of a wait, out comes Lars dressed in the Aquabats costume. The light blue licra perhaps not the most flattering of all outfits, but it doesn't stop him. He comes out onstage and plays one of the best set i coudl have hoped for. Easily flowing between new and old songs, the set was as much for fans of the enw album as those who prefer the Graduate/Laptop etc. Once he got the crowd going, he did a very impressive song introduced by "This is our take on a poem by Edgar Allen Poe" - you guess it. Mr Raven. The song that got me into Lars, and i was glad he played it, he also played Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock, Download This Song and iGeneration. The large screen behind them played through music videos while the song was playing, and other helpful videos either for comedic effect or to get a point across. This Gigantic Robot Kills is so much better to sing along to when there are a thousand or so other people and it is ridiculously loud. Hearing the near deafening cry of hundreds of Lars fans screaming "Ska is not dead!" as loud as they can was awesome. This, however, was topped only by the fact that MC Bat Commander came onstage for the chorus, due to the lack of Suburban Legends who recorded it. Then we got It's not easy being green, and True Player for Real, both of which went down very well and got a huge response from the crowd.

When Lars left, we had a half hour or so wait while the stage was set up for the Aquabats. I hadn't seen these before, but had heard their stage shows were ridiculous so had quite high hopes for them. The lights go down and a video starts playing on the screen. It shows the Aquabats riding horses across some dirt field thing, tieing them up and running into a building. When they go through the door on the video, they run onto the stage. It was well planned, but i think funnier because they were performing at a venue in a shopping centre so the video made even less sense than it normally would. Again, the Light Blue licra suits were perhaps not the most flattering costumes for the band to wear, but when your band identitiy is a superhero, what else is there?

Even after the first couple of songs i could tell the Aquabats were a band that went to a gig and gave it their all, especially the frontman Mr Bat Commander. That guy didn't stand still for longer than 5 seconds at a time all night. What amazed me most about these guys is despite having been going for 15 years or so, they appear to put more time and energy into their stage show than most new bands whoa re just starting out. Which is odd, because usually bands who are just starting out try hard because they want to be noticed. These guys have been noticed, and the fact thaqt they still appear to try so hard just shows how worthwhile it is going to their shows. For the most part, however, the show was quite normal. Song, talk, song, song, etc. However about halfway through, a giant golden buddha wandered onstage.

After a slight disruption to the show due to the "haunted idol" beating up most of the band, they realised the only way to defeat the idol was to use the last loaf of "Magic Bread" they had. Unfortunately, it had run out of magic, so the audience needed to touch it to get magic back. This was never going to work, as soon as the loaf of bread got near the audience, it was ripped to shreds and shared between the crowd. The fate of the Aquabats was nearing a deadly end, with the bread gone they had no way to detroy the Idol. Suddenly, a weird green thing comes onstage and Bat Commander just yells "Look - It's Brobee!" Now, to most people this won't mean anything, but 'Brobee' is a character from popular childrens TV show 'Yo Gabba Gabba', and apparently is strong enough to defeat Haunted Buddha Statues. One the green thing had defeated the evil idol, Brobee and Bat Commander decided it would be an appropriate time for a dance. And dance they did.

A short while after this, Bat Commander looked into the audience, and told them to put their hand in front of their face and repeat a sentence about the confidence. Ending with the line, "I will look at myself and think 'Look at me... I'm a winner". After the audience recited this, there was a momentary pause as they realised what had actually been said, then they went nuts. After that song, everyone went quiet and a new song started about pirates. Halfway through this song, everyone went quiet and there was a struggle to look between the band and the large attraction growing in the centre of the floor. The band looked very confused as to why there was a large gap in the audience with not much going on. Then Mr Bat Commander shouted "Are you breakdancing?! About time!!", so some guys were breakdancing, then someone did a frontflip and everyone cheered. Bat Commander then cleared his throat to get everyones attention and said "So ANYWAY", to which everyone burst out laughing and the song continued. This was nearing the end of the show, and i was glad to see i had finally gone to a gig and managed to stay til the end (trains tend to force me to leave early). The video came back on and they got onto their horses and rode off into the sunset.

I think that gig was one of the best i have been to in a long, long time, and the Aquabats deserve every bit of attention they get and so much more. There is so much potential in that band i can't believe they aren't bigger. If you get the chance to see them Aquabats i strongly reccomend you do it - i know i will next time they come over.