Dead Inside

CHRISTS FAT COCK! To steal a phrase from Morris. Did this define my summer so far or what. Proof positive that the UK underground scene isn't just the stomping ground of mediocre indie rock bands that are stuck halfway between Travis and Sunny Day Real Estate. Proof positive that it's not ridden with just pop punk bands that have decided that singing about girls isn't cool any more, so now they sing about girls but have a twinkly intro. Proof positive that the scene is alive! And that it is populated by a ludicrously large percentage of nice people, but that's by the by. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, "the Golden Shoe" in Homerton. London. This ain't no Astoria II my friend. This is a rundown gig in the middle of a housing estate where the locals apparently call the police if their car is not burnt out in the morning. And so descended on it 11 bands, and a few people with a fiver to spare and some hours to kill one sunny Saturday afternoon.

I rolled into the venue (not literally of course, the beer belly has yet to take on spherical standards) around a quarter past 3 to be greeted by the strains of The! Lights! Alive! (bunch of pretentious arses eh with a name like that!) kicking out the jams. Sounded like they had some good Jehu-esque rock under their belts but it was all over before I even got my bearings. A shame. Maybe next time. I acquired my bearings not long after, perused the record stall (full of obnoxious GSL post-post-post-blah type music that I can't be having with) and then Soon the Darkness started blazing a trail. And did this bunch have something going on. Very impressed with some tightly wound, dark screamo. Chris Thrash looked at me and said "Red Scare riff" during the first song and that was exactly the style they had down. Quality screamo hardcore, with a rather quirky screamer adorned in a black shirt and red tie and some meaty sidies. TSD just plain rocked out, they seemed a little rookie-ish at times, but they will surely develop. The final track built up from a fucking excellent twinkle intro into some powerful screaming. Very Still Life. I was bemused. A UK band? Doing this? I was to think this thought a few more times during the day. Next up was the Army of Flying Robots and they proceeded to destroy in the best performance I have witnessed from these pioneers of the fledgling UK emo violence scene. Brutal metalled up thrash, in the style of Orchid and Neil Perry, twin-throats Chris Thrash and Henry Monkey caused havoc. New bassist Steve was a wizard and Lewk took to drumming in quite a stunning style. They even withstood lengthy breaks for guitar troubles, and threw toy cars into the crowd. Thrash!

It was not long after AOFR that the lure of the sunshine and the local chippy set in. And during the next few bands, much conversation, laughter and general enjoyment was to be had. Guapo played whilst I was in the chippy, but were reportedly excellent, doing some 2 man grind-sludge mayhem with lots of tricks. Surf band Clambake were enjoyed from outside. Good band they are too, but I had seen them quite recently and surf bands don't tend to hold the attention for forever. Also playing around this time was Woe, ex-Understand playing noodly jazz post-rock shit that just was, erm, shit! Ha ha. Sorry, I didn't really get it. Record Buying Public did a much nicer job with their instrumental post rock they is like mid-western bands such as American Football. Again I snuck off as I had saw them recently, but they seemed on form. Pale Horse sludged and skull crushed their way through a brief set of intensity, but I was busy doing something else. Hmm. Bilge Pump took to the stage later and did some very strange stuff. I must admit I preferred their performance last year in Nottingham, but they seemed to go down well. I was more interested in random conversation with other drunks by this point, and pointing at Henry Monkey's stack of records and repeatedly saying: "That looks like the Gauze bootleg". It was, of course. Not much gets past me. Oh no.

So then there were two. Formerly known as the Wolves of Greece, the next band came on. They are ex-members of many bands, and current member of Reynolds (ta for the record Chris!). Two of their number are ex-Bob Tilton. Anyway, they just fucking blew the roof off. Scattergun melodic, spastic emo violence involving much thrashing around and rolling on the floor and they were just so FUCKING EMO my heart wouldn't slow down. They demolished. The drumkit. I hope they apologised to Frank. These fellows do the Mohinder thing as well as any band I've heard, yet with the added bonus that they are from the UK! So you can actually get to see them! This band will be semi-legendary and needs to do a release before they split up. Miss this mess at your peril.

Dead Inside rocked up last and played a blinder. Some good traditional hardcore with added San Diego influences. Everyone always says they sound like Black Flag. I pshaw and offer up far more cool references such as John Henry West. Whatever. Dead Inside play spirited punk rock and are as good a band as you'll find on these shores. I mean it.

After that. Stuff happened. We stood around outside for an hour, awaiting the AA, and a pair of taxis. Then The car I was travelling in had it's engine refuse to work, and I had a ten tonne box sit on my knee for a few miles whilst we returned the PA equipment. That was fun. And then we got home. Hurrah!

And that's about it. This show just refreshed me. Made me excited for the UK underground scene again. I never thought a show like Saturdays, featuring ZERO US bands, ZERO pop punk bands, and ZERO currently trendy indie rock bands, could succeed. This just showed otherwise. And showed that there are bands out there that are going to be stealing my ears for some time to come. For those who who are about to spazz out, I salute you. Fucking go!