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Mini Punkfest, Exeter Cavern Club, 05-02-03
Robolint opened
for this line-up of amazing local talent with what may well be called tomfoolery
or perhaps fooltomery if you’re that way inclined. They appealed to all and seemed to have the largest and most
active audience of the evening. They
amused, they sang, they yelled and they ska-ed. And all after only 5 practice sessions. After half of the set, Chris celebrated by shaving off half
of his beard into a plastic bag which was then fought over.
The two (lucky?) fighters were me and Adam (what a coincidence) and we
had to wear Chris’ dad’s pants as blindfold.
It was pants. They were, to be honest, still very disjointed but they had
only practiced a handful of times and more than made up for it in enthusiasm.
Haborims Tea Party
– Quite a strange set this. It
was clear that this was the Tea Party’s first show, as they all seemed very
nervous, yet they sounded very tight. Excellent
Shooting Crayfish-esque ska, perhaps influenced by the amazing wandering Will,
drummer for the Tea Party and brasser for Crayfish.
Really cool to dance to and very promising.
Skiptracer started
their set by stating that they were baffled as to how they got on the line up
– apparently they didn’t fit in?!? In
my opinion it wouldn’t have been a night without them. They gave the night a much needed calmer moment.
They held the stage with a presence of a band much more than their years
and the songs that they performed were careful and showed obvious talent, both
instrumentally and vocally. It was
said before and will be said again but these guys are going to go very, very far
indeed.
Second Class
Citizens is pure, talented, metal-fuelled punk-rock.
They got a lot less of an audience than they deserved, possibly because
any potential dancers were too afraid to move because of a couple of idiots
wankering about as per usual. They
played a tight and well played set but one critism that could be made would be
that they didn’t say a lot. They
were there just to play, not to entertain.
Not involving the audience at all could be what is holding SCC away from
the admiration that they so obviously are due.
Spoon9 – Don’t
shout ‘pop-punk’ too quickly! Yes,
they do sound like a slightly – and only slightly –more serious Blink but
THEY PLAY THE ATARIS COVERS! That
automatically makes any band good. Spoon9
aren’t as bad as they say they are, although it feels something is missing.
It’ll turn up soon though. The
songs are quite cool although anything more that 25 minutes might have been
stretching limited resources too far.
Mr Belding held
the headline slot but all of the bands that played tonight could have easily
stolen it, especially Skiptracer. Mr
Belding played what sounded like a muddled set and they started to verge on
annoying towards the end of the show. But, credit where credit is definitely
due, they can damn well play their instruments, they can be comical and they
look good on stage – all the ingredients for a good musical group. And with the extra of a comedy drummer, Mr Belding remains
better that good.
Overall, the night was enjoyable and an
eye-opener to the very talented local scene that we are so very, very lucky to
have. Kudos to you all!!!