Something to write home about...

Oh. My. Fuck.

In keeping with the theme of "this summer is an epic love fest of gigs", I spent the weekend seeing one band I saw a long time ago and never thought I'd see again, and another that I truly never thought I'd see.

So, on Saturday I made my seemingly weekly trip to London and to the newly re-branded Relentless Garage (because, y'know, selling naming rights to Coca-Cola owned energy drinks is awesome) for the first time since it's epic "refurbishment". I put refurbishment in quotation marks as I honestly believe the owners wanted to "close it for refurbishment" (i.e. close it permanently), failed to find a buyer, and then actually refurbished it. That aside though it looks, well, basically the same as the Garage of old.

Venue architecture aside though, being stuck in the queue meant we got in as Mouthwash had already started. A mate who was already in there informs me we probably missed a song or two, which is a bummer. What I did catch, though, was the usual awesomeness I've come to expect from the 'Wash, even more impressive as they had a stand-in guitarist. They ended their set with the now-trademark Rage Against the Machine riff except this time Nipa bounded back onto stage for a lightning-quick cover of Minor Threat's "I Don't Wanna Hear it". Ace.

Next up, The Grit, just didn't do it for me. I'm not a massive fan of rockabilly-infused-punk in the first place so they never really had a chance with me. The crowd seemed to be into them, and they definitely seem to be very good at what they do, I'm just not into what they do.

By the sounds of the crowd The Filaments, despite being main support, were the main event tonight and man, did they meet expectations. It's been a while since their last reunion gig, and tonight they were on form. Sure, they weren't perfect (and the trumpet player seemed a bit lost sometimes) but damn, they were fun. They played all the obvious 'hits' which drove the crowd crazy, and ending on "Trevor" resulted in a see of sweaty punks having their expectations suitably met.

Lastly then, Suicide Bid had to follow. Being a 'musical collective', as opposed to a fully-fledged band, means that members come and go, and you're never quite sure what to expect from them. Unfortunately tonight, it just didn't seem like all cylinders were firing. Babar Luck was notable by his absence, although the sporadic appearances of Itch from the King Blues and the Babylon Whackers' Majah Thunder helped. The set picked up right at the end when Sonic Boom Six turned up from their afternoon gig in Leicester, and Barney and Laila really added to proceedings.

All-in-all, either though I wasn't really into Suicide Bid or The Grit, it was still a fun night. The clubnight-induced early curfew even meant we weren't in any rush at the end to catch a train. Good times.

The main event of the weekend though was still to come. We only went to the Suicide Bid gig as I was going to be in London/Surrey for The Get Up Kids show, so me and Claire thought we'd find something to do on the Saturday.

So, fast forward to Sunday evening and we're at the Peel in Kingston, a venue I love in a place I wish I lived. Beautiful. The Kingston scene (read: Banquet Records) is so unbelievably great, so any chance to catch a show in the suburb affectionately known as K-Town is always welcome, especially when it's such a legendary band in such intimate surroundings.

Kicking off proceedings is Dave House, in his first gig with his new four-piece (i.e. four of them plus him) backing band and all I can say is wow. I've always been a massive fan of Dave House, be it solo or with other musicians backing him up, but tonight was something else, something even more special. Especially so when Dave put down his guitar to rock out with just a microphone, in the crowd, under a see of raised fists and shouted-back-at-him lyrics. Superb.

Of course though, tonight - and this weekend - was all about The Get Up Kids, playing their first UK gig for years and it was unreal. This was amazing. From opener "Coming Clean" through to fake ender "Walking on a Wire", through the encore (and actual set closer "Ten Minutes") this was a massive 200+ person singalong. Sure the band have got old, sure their voices are a little worn, and sure they weren't entirely perfect but none of this mattered. Tonight was about a tiny - and rammed full - room of people singing their hearts out to a band that mean so much to them. The band played for nearly an hour and a half, going through such classics as "Red Letter Day", "I'm a Loner Dottie, a Rebel", "Mass Pike" and everything else you'd expect from them. The encore even included covers of The Cure and The Replacements.

So, this was a truly spectacular weekend rounded off absolutely perfectly with the Get Up Kids' impeccable performance.

Our own little Kingston

Massively overdue, but here goes anyway. I'm going to try and tackle the 5-gigs-and-a-festival-in-5-days marathon.

Day 1...

Thursday my good friend Mike was putting on the Bridge Nine tour. Local (I think they're local, at least partially Norwich-based anyway) openers Holy State kicked things off nicely. I'd seen them before supporting Cloak/Dagger and thought they were ace. Kind of rock-n-roll punk-hardcore, I guess. Great start to the night.

I wasn't familiar with Defeater or Ruiner but was blown away by Defeater. Ruiner were good too, but not as good. Both were good hardcore bands but Defeater had something about them.

A year ago I wouldn't have known we Polar Bear Club were. I'd heard their name a lot and checked out some tracks on Myspace when I'd seen they were support on the Gaslight Anthem/Frank Turner tour. Tracks sounded ace - punk-hardcore with an indie edge - but come the gig I wasn't impressed. I thought it might have been the venue (700-capacity Waterfront) so wanted a chance to see them in a much smaller environment.

Fast forward to this gig - at the barely 150-capacity Marquee - and, I don't know why, but they still didn't do it for me. They're a good band, and play really well, but I just wasn't feeling it. Maybe you have to be at the front screaming along to every word to really get it?

Anyway, I went outside during the latter part of their set and raced back inside when I heard them covering The Get Up Kids' Ten Minutes. That was ace. More on The Get Up Kids later...

So yeah, an alright night. Probably would have been a lot better had I really known the bands going into the show.

Day 2...

So yeah, running a gig is a chore. Especially when you can't announce one of your acts and are constantly ultra-paranoid that he won't be able to turn up and your reputation will be shattered.

Luckilly that didn't happen, and everything went smoothly.

Back story... years ago I'd put Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly on a few times at the tiny Ferry Boat pub. I'd seen him a stack more times too, both in Norwich and other towns. Then he got signed to a major and got really, really big for a while. You know you're big when you have a song played on Hollyoaks!

So yeah, the aforementioned Mike had a similar relationship with Gallows. Once they'd got huge (1,000+ tickets sold per gig, that kind of huge) he'd got them to play a 300-capacity show for him. There and then I was determined to get Get Cape to play a small show for me.

Fast forward to a month-or-so ago and I decided to see if Get Cape can play our upcoming Dave House show. Alas my contact details for him are out-of-date so I go for a PM on the Punktastic.com forums... which actually works! A few e-mails later and Get Cape is on for the show. Fucking A! The caveat? I can't actually announce he's playing. Easy, make sure word of mouth spreads and spreads a lot!

So onto the actual gig (with over a hundred people turning up). Darwin and the Dinosaur were on first. To be honest, even though I was putting on the show, I'd never heard them before. Alan (bassist) has been in a lot of ace bands before, so when he asked if I could give his new band a show I trusted they'd be worth it. They were. Awesome pop-punk in the Saves the Day-esque mould.

A Broken Robot were Dave's tour support so I'd not heard much of them either. They were also really good though, in the good-pop-indie-rock kind of way!

Next up was Get Cape who was just phenomenal! The crowd was so attentive, especially given it was just one man and a guitar on stage. A couple of classics, some new ones, a Saves the Day cover. Good times. It was awesome to see Get Cape again, especially on a small stage.

Headliner Dave House was equally ace. I'd not heard much off the new album but was suitably impressed with the tracks played off it. Dave's set was somewhat stripped down as his drummer was unavailable so the line-up was Dave on guitar/vocals, another guy (whose name was Aaron, I think, apologies if that's incorrect) on second guitar and bass (where appropriate), a backing track sometimes, and Dave kicking a bass drum with a tambourine attached to it, which compelled me to text Dave at about 1am saying I'd decided that would now be called a drumbarine! Dave played possibly me favourite song of his; All D's, No Future from his awesome second album See That No One Else Escapes.

All-in-all a fantastic night, topped off with a huge political discussion involving myself, Sam Get Cape, Claire and Luke. The other thing about Sam is his political views are actually logical! I've seen far too many people get too into politics and lose sight of logic and sensibility, but Sam manages to keep sight of these (whilst remaining true to his beliefs).

Two days down, and still more to go...

Tune in next blog, same Bat time, same Bat channel.