5 Knuckle

No offence to any of my Brummie / West Midlands friends here, but there must seriously be something in the Brummie water that makes it such a depressingly dull and soul-destroying place to be. One had only to watch the recent _‘Confessions of a Car Salesman’ _documentary - comparing car-sales techniques between Las Vegas and, erm… Canock - to note what an embarrassingly dreary and downright boring place the Black Coooontroooy eeees, loike.

Unsurprisingly, this seemingly has a knock-on affect on the pathetic attendance levels at gigs and, effectively, those poor touring bands that happen to pass through this industrial hub of the Midlands. Labrat even dedicated a section of their website to their less than salubrious reception at Dudley JBs a couple of months ago. So tonight, on a gorgeous summer Monday evening, hopes aren’t exactly raised for the turnout, though I’m assured the 25 or so people in attendance is much more than usual.

Which is even more reason to be impressed by the unabashed enthusiasm of the bands playing to such an empty room tonight. Openers Ye Wiles, whilst taking a little while to warm themselves up, do an admirable job of gearing up the few clinging onto the front stage barrier. According to their bassist’s T-shirt, they appear to have graduated from the ‘University of Ska’, but from the eclectic din being spun off tonight it’s unclear what exactly their skanking tutors would have made of it; the band dancing through some energetic folk-tinged ska-punk (thanks to their fiddler guitarist). I think, however, it was during their song about men in shellsuits (with the classic line “never trust a man with a bum-bag”) that made me think of *Adam and The Ants *for some bizarre reason. And like the scene in Friends _where Ross can’t stop thinking of his Mum when Rachael is dressed as Princess Alena from Star Wars, for the rest of their set I just couldn’t look at their vocalist without thinking of Adam & The Ants. Sorry. Good set though.