Gigtastic...

‘Fuck it, this is our last show in a while here, from now on, you are all going to die’

When someone growls that at you on a Monday night in London, you are either about to get stabbed or at a pretty ace punk show. As it so happened, I was at the latter.

Monday night, barely an hour after finishing lectures and I was outside the Barfly, Camden, on a mission to try and avoid a painful death and watch Trash Talk end their UK tour. Levels of excitement were high as this was to be the first of two gigs in as many days and it had been a long long time since I’d been to any form of hardcore gig- I miss having to avoid windmilling xedgecorex mosh warriors sometimes…

First support came from Moral Dilemma who were, if I‘m honest, disappointing. They didn’t fit the bill, a simple, angry straight edge band supporting two acts known for being drunk and doing ridiculous things on stage. And they were just not very good, full stop. Sorry.

Talking of the other bands, Cerebral Ballzy who were next up are possibly the funniest live band I have ever seen. This was my second time watching them and I am now convinced that Honor (frontman) is never, ever sober. They fired through a set of old school, ‘80s style hardcore about pizza, skating and throwing up. There was stage diving, a kid with a broken leg on stage, stage invasion, crowd surfing, circle pits, did I mention stage diving? Yes I thought I had… you get the point: it was manic. It was awesome.

And as for Trash Talk? Well by the time Lee Spielman had uttered the threat, there had already been double the madness of the previous set, which is no mean feat. I read a review earlier in the week of their show supporting Cancer Bats last week, in which the reviewer expressed the opinion that, to put it bluntly, Trash Talk kicked the living shit out off ‘Bats in terms of live show which, having seen them, I can totally believe. The place went wild; people were back flipping off the stage, climbing amp stacks and jumping up to sing along into the mic. The band were loud, visceral and brilliant. The set was over by half ten (that’s what you get for going to see a headline act who barely write songs over three minutes long) and I genuinely felt slightly disappointed that they didn’t play more, which was honestly my only complaint…

Day two of ‘gigfest 2k10’ found me at Brixton, for the delights of Jimmy Eat World. Quite a contrast then, I think you’ll agree. Support came from Minus The Bear, who fine, but to be honest, I was far too stoked for ‘Jimmy to pay too much attention, other than to notice that their drummer looked about twelve.

Now I was slightly disappointed by the latest album, and as I’ve said before, I much prefer their earlier material. So naturally I expected to be a little ‘meh’ about the whol affair until later in the set when the golden oldies would inevitably get wheeled out. So imagine my surprise (and slight pant wetting) when they strode on stage and rocked through ‘Bleed American’, and didn’t touch any new material until two songs after that. Serious fan boy lovings ensued from all involved.

Overall the set was a beast, aside from a slightly dodge patch in the middle when a couple of slow numbers from ‘Inverted’ were wheeled out the set list was pretty much as perfect as could be. Not too much new stuff, a good mix of older songs. Pain, Work, A Praise Chorus, Blister and Your New Aesthetic all got airings in the main set (I was especially happy about the last couple, I was expecting very little stuff from ‘Clarity’) and to top it all off they ended (pre encore) with Goodbye Sky Harbour, all 16 or so minutes of it, and it didn’t flop…

Of course there was the obligatory encore. How many bands could play songs as good as Get It Faster, The Middle and Sweetness in a row? Not that many…

Not the edgiest gig I’ve been too, t-shirts were 22 quid and there was no rush to get on the tube before it closed because of a late finish, but I left smiling and more than happy to have forked out the cash for the ticked, which is a good thing, right?