So, after resigning Dave to whatever fate had in store for him, we went and parked up the van. We hastily stuffed the 100 beers that we had bought between us into rucksacks, and walked to the festival gate but not before several comedic exchanges with some people who passed by the cvan. Once we arrived, we met up with 7YearsBadLuck and Dave, who, surprisingly, didn’t punch any of us.
On the walk to the entrance, it had been baking hot, which put us all in a positive frame of mind for the antics of the weekend, however as we got closer and closer to the campground, the sky darkened and there were ominous rumblings that for once were not emanating from Adam’s bottom.
Sure enough, as soon as we found where the guys from Sweet Empire were camping, it started pissing it down, and everyone crammed into Jort’s tent. For some reason, I thought that it would be a fantastic idea to put up my tent in the pouring rain. I realised within about two seconds that this was in fact the stupidest idea in the world, but, resigned to my idiocy, I decided to finish what I’d started, with some help from Jugs.
As soon as my tent was up, the rain naturally stopped and we hung around the campsite for a bit, talking, drinking, and missing bands that we had paid to see. We met some Belgian rugby players who gave us booze and punched Francis, and thus, in high spirits, we departed for the arena.
The first band I saw was Danko Jones, who were, and this is putting it generously, fucking terrible. Not sloppy, just really obnoxious and generic rock and roll bullshit.
I therefore decided to get incredibly drunk, meaning that the rest of the day was pretty much a blur. I do remember seeing Millencolin play the four songs that I like from Pennybridge Pioneers and then I got bored and left. Just outside I ran into Hoegaarden, who seemed in fine spirits, and Francis, who was rather less so, being as he was passed out next to the toilets with a number of people asking if they could urinate on him. After close inspection I determined that he wasn’t dead, and thought that it might be a good idea to get someone who had any clue what they were doing to take a look at him. I found an affable Dutch gentleman who offered to go and get some water, and by the time he returned, Francis was on his feet and swearing at people like a trooper. He drank the water then said he was fine and going to watch some shitty hardcore band. This was a dealbreaker for me and I wandered off.
What I did for the rest of the day is anyone’s guess. I remember seeing Sick Of It All and going to the acoustic punk meeting at the barbeque area, which was awesome, and that’s about it.
I woke up at about 5 in the morning feeling like I was going to die from being hungover and cold. I remedied this by putting on all my clothes and forcing myself to go back to sleep, finally waking up at 9, fortunately at that point finding other people who were up and willing to go and get breakfast. After entering the arena and eating some deliciously greasy chips I started drinking jagerbombs, and as a result, the afternoon is a series of blurs including (in no particular order):
· Seeing Astpai tear the Macbeth stage a new one.
· Dear Landlord being funny.
· Teenage Bottlerocket being rad.
· Nearly crying while watching Dashboard Confessional with 7YBL.
· Shotgunning beers with One Win Choice.
· Nearly passing out next to the Bad Mood stall in the merch tent.
By the time Descendents were on, I had sobered up, which is good because they were phenomenal, playing a set that perfectly balanced hits with nerdy fan favourites.
I then went back to the campsite and was given a load of drinks tokens by a guy who couldn’t be bothered to walk back to the arena, so naturally I went back and got hammered while watching NoFx.
And that was about it for Groezrock for me. The next day we said some goodbyes, managed to get Puddel a lift back to London with some Arsenal fans, after he promised to be ‘the best Arsenal fan ever’ and declared that ‘whatever you guys like are all my favourite things.’
We sat around the van for about an hour while Adam and Dave tried to give some guys a jump start after they’d left their headlights on all weekend and then we left for Frankfurt, and the second part of the tour was underway.
Yeah so I still have the rest of the European Tour Diary to upload, and hopefully that will be done in the next few weeks, i just keep getting distracted by shiny things. In the meantime, here’s my top ten records of the year in no particular order:
1. Crucial Dudes – ’61 Penn (Jump Start)
The perfect blend of Lifetime, Latterman and Saves The Day. ‘On Leaving’ is definitely my song of the year, and this band are incredible, hopefully I’ll be able to see them live one day.
2. 7YearsBadLuck – Sleep Now, Pay Later (Laserlife/Disconnect Disconnect)
This is just a great pop punk album put out by three of the best guys. There’s not a bad track on it and it’s been in constant rotation on my ipod since it came out.
3. Bomb The Music Industry – Vacation (Quote Unquote)
The album that made me fall in love with Bomb The Music Industry. It finally realises the potential of the full band lineup and showcases the strength and boundless imagination of Jeff Rosenstock’s songwriting.
4. The Wonder Years – Suburbia, I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing (No Sleep/Hopeless)
It’s not The Upsides, but in places it very nearly reaches it. I think it’s the honesty of the lyrics that sets this apart from most poppy pop punk, and it speaks to me in a way that few bands do.
5. One Win Choice - Conveyor (Jump Start)
Great album, with some absolutely massive songs on it. Got me listening to heavier bands again, and ‘Who Threw Out The Itinerary’ comes second in my song of the year category.
6.Defeater – Empty Days And Sleepless Nights (Bridge 9)
Another fantastic release from Defeater which carries on the narrative of Travels and Lost Ground. The end of the album is spine chilling, although I found the acoustic tracks a little unneccessary.
7. Broadcaster - Joyride (Jump Start)
EP of the year. Impeccably crafted alt rock in the vein of Superchunk with a Jawbreaker-esque edge. They’re also cracking live, and I can’t wait to see what they do next year.
8. Bangers – Small Pleasures (Specialist Subject)
After relentless touring last year, Bangers finally put out an album, and it’s really good. Nice work.
9. Red City Radio – The Dangers Of Standing Still (Paper and Plastick)
Superb pop punk album with soaring harmonies and big choruses. I hear they enjoy the odd drink or twelve as well.
10. The Copyrights – North Sentinel Island (Red Scare Industries)
Not their best album, but The Copyrights seem incapable of writing bad songs. It’s like Ramonescore colliding with Dude Ranch era Blink, with some of the saccharine sweetness undercut with a layer of real lyrical darkness.
Eindhoven to the start of Groezrock
I woke up the next day having kept everyone awake with my snoring, and was immediately shown a video of Francis strongly voicing the sentiment that he was going to facilitate my untimely demise should I not “shut the fuck up.” After this, we went to Lidl and bought food, ate the food, won the accolade of ‘the worst smelling group of persons who have ever stayed at my house’ from our host, used the wifi and then left long after we’d outstayed our welcome. This became something of a trend over the next few weeks.
We said bye to Jort and drove to Hoofdoorp to meet up with Tim Van Tol and recorded an acoustic version of ‘Davey’ for his EMinor7 backseat casting couch sessions series. It was loads of fun but one of the hottest and sweatiest experiences of my life. I then got an apple and pear milkshake from McDonalds and it was fucking awesome.
On the way to Eindhoven, it suddenly seemed like the best idea to turn up as wasted as possible. With this in mind, Dave, Francis, James and myself finished a bottle of whisky within about half an hour, and by the time we got to Eindhoven I could tell the night wasn’t going to go my way. Again.
I should probably explain that Eindhoven is kind of like my Everest, if the aim of climbing Everest was to get to the top without puking. When we played there last June, I got so trashed that I tackled Adam to the ground on the way to the sleeping place, then vomited into my hands in the middle of the street on the walk back to the venue at around 10am the next morning. So, needless to say, shit was going to get real.
Kaffee Aloys is one of my favourite venues to play, mainly because everyone who works there is awesome, Pieter, who puts the shows on there is one of the nicest and most enthusiastic promoters around, the free drinks are plentiful and the food from the Chinese takeaway around the corner is delicious. This time I got rice, as I have unpleasant memories of experiencing the noodles in reverse.
The order was 7YearsBadluck, Leagues Apart and then Chief headlining. From what I remember, everyone was awesome, but Andy from 7YearsBadluck made me realize that gin and tonic is incredibly tasty, so I drank like five on top of quite a few beers and my recollection is not very clear. I do remember that that was the night all of 7YearsBadluck, Puddel and Hoegaarden joined the Buffalo Club, which would have far-reaching and hilarious consequences in the days ahead. I also remember going to another bar after Aloys closed with the guy who we were staying with, Lesley and a few other people, and being bought some disgusting chocolate flavoured shot. Then I got a taxi with Dan and Mave from Chief to the sleeping place, where we drank some more beers. Oh and then I hurled. Hard. Andy, Giorgio, or Tombo (I can’t recall exactly) then christened this move ‘The Roar Of The Buffalo,’ which I think gives it an air of sophistication and finesse. I then passed out on the sofa and Dan stole my blanket. Thus Eindhoven defeated me once again. Bugger.
The next day I awoke feeling surprisingly fresh, given the antics of the night before. We hung around in Lesley’s flat waiting for the guys who had slept in the van to arrive. When they did, we learned that they had been moved along in the morning by possibly the nicest policeman in history. I believe the conversation was something like “Ok you have two problems, firstly you cannot sleep in the city, and secondly your parking ticket has expired. I would like a solution.” We also learned that Adam had partaken of his second bike ride. After hanging out for a while and James getting a tattoo enquiring ‘Slayer?’ courtesy of Lesley, we left for the next show in Deinze, Belgium.
The show was a kind of pre-Groezrock thing, with 7YearsBadLuck, Chief, Dear Hearts (who were putting on the show), Sweet Empire and us, and there was a really good atmosphere throughout the night. The venue was a cool little biker bar/café style place and there was plenty of good beer and food. I also somewhat foolishly elected to take the night off drinking, as I was still feeling the effects of Eindhoven, but no one else was letting up. After nearly getting Buffaloed whilst driving, Andy 7YBL was caught at least three times on stage, as was Giorgio, with Tombo sitting behind the drums looking rather smug about it. Dear Hearts were great, Chief managed to get a ‘wall of love’, which is nowhere near as disgusting as it sounds, and Sweet Empire were as awesome as ever.
This was also the night that Dave decided it would be a really good idea to not wear shoes, with the predictable outcome of getting a large piece of glass stuck in his feet. This was ably removed, with a large amount of screaming, by Craig, who takes the award for hardest partier and suavest puker of the night, as he managed to throw up in the middle of a conversation and keep on going.
After the gig, we drove to the sleeping place, which was Dear Hearts’ old practice room, and carried on the party. Everyone got drawn on, we found some sweet top hats, played human buckaroo with Dan and someone may have defaced a highly valuable statue with the word ‘tet.’ All of this was achieved with Wim from Dear Hearts’ grandma sleeping in the room next door. I then fell asleep embarrassingly early.
When I awoke the next morning, I was still wearing a top hat, which is as good a way as any to start the day. We said our goodbyes to Dan, Mave and Craig as they were going home, and then departed for Groezrock. As we got closer to the festival, Dave, still drunk from the night before and still covered in pen decided that he needed to pee and politely requested that we pull over. Naturally, being kind and compassionate people, we decided to try and not stop the van until we got to Groezrock. Sadly we were foiled in our plan and Dave escaped right near the gate to the festival after taking a leak in a ditch. Thus it seemed that the only rational thing to do was to lock all the doors and drive off. And this is how Dave arrived at Groezrock drunk, with no shoes, wallet, phone or ticket, clad only in a pair of Francis’ shorts, with pen over most of his body, and, unbeknownst to him, a rather fetching set of whiskers and the words ‘I Am A Little Cat’ drawn on his face.
Manchester to Heemskerk
The run up to Leagues Apart’s third tour of mainland Europe wasn’t one of the smoothest. Two weeks before we were supposed to set off, our beloved van, Whopper, suffered a terminal case of dead in southeastern France. Luckily, we were able to borrow an almost identical van, charmingly monikered “Denzil” from the awesome guys in The Living Daylights.
However, the Friday before we were supposed to set off, after taking Denzil into the garage for some routine checkups, it was discovered that some major repairs were needed, prompting a large amount of panic, profanity and appeals to the kindness of strangers to help us get a working van. After a weekend of uncertainty and the help of a large number of incredibly generous and lovely people, we had a working form of transport, and were ready to set of by Monday evening.
Unfortunately, the various problems had meant that we had to cancel the first gig in Ghent, Belgium, but tourminator Dave and our drummer Francis had already left with their other band, Chief (with whom we would be playing the first few dates) to avoid a complete disaster.
So, myself, James and Adam set off from Manchester at around 8pm on the 17th of April. On the way down we stopped off to pick up our merch from Kay of the awesome Get A Grip Studio (http://www.getagripstudio.com/), and after a quick cup of coffee we were back on the road.
We arrived in Maidstone at around 3am and grabbed a couple of hours sleep before leaving to catch the Channel Tunnel at stupid o’ clock in the morning. It was at Maidstone that we met up with our Austrian friend Puddel whose special skills include drinking, sleeping, having the voice of an angel and drinking. We first met Puddel last February along with the awesome 7YearsBadLuck, and the bonds of friendship were so strong that by the third day after meeting him, everyone felt obliged to colour in his entire body with black sharpie. He still maintains that his revenge will be swift and brutal. And inky.
Anyway we left Maidstone at some ungodly hour and caught the Channel Tunnel without a hitch. When we emerged at the other end, the sun was shining, we were all knackered, and we had a short drive to meet up with Chief in Ghent. All in all it felt pretty fucking good to be back on tour.
We arrived in Ghent a couple of hours later and set about invading the house which Chief had stayed in the night before, with the intention of making off with all of the internets. The guy who lived there, Jean, was somewhat bemused to discover that the number of smelly Englishmen had multiplied, somewhat gremlin-like overnight, but once we explained that we were the other band that were supposed to play the night before (why wouldn’t that make sense? I’m going to use it all the time now), he made us coffee and was an awesome dude. After all taking our shirts off in the middle of a Belgian street and taking a picture (as you do), we set off for Heemskerk, Holland.
Once in Holland, we were disappointed to only see two windmills, but pressed on undaunted to Heemskerk, where we picked up Jort from Sweet Empire, who was putting on the show that night, and drove to the venue. On the way, we spotted Tom Hawes walking from the train station, and picked him up too. Whilst trying not to stop the van. I now realize that this kind and friendly act might have, from the outside, looked a little bit like an abduction scene from a slasher movie. Oops.
When we got to the venue, 7YearsBadLuck were already outside, and there was much manly hugging and loading in of gear. Yeah that’s how I’m going to word that sentence. What of it. We also met 7YearsBadLuck’s old drummer, John Hoegaarden, who was along with them for the few days in Holland and Belgium, and he, like pretty much everyone we met on this tour, was a stand up dude. We also got to catch up with the rest of the guys from Sweet Empire, which was awesome.
After load in, Jort made us the largest amount of chips I have ever seen, and we started to take full advantage of the free beers. This is where it starts to get a bit hazy. Chief played first, and were ace. 7YearsBadluck played second and were amazing. Then for some unfathomable reason we headlined and I remember it being a lot of fun, with Adam crowdsurfing during our last song and James nearly destroying the already unstable drum riser.
While we were loading out, Adam went on his first bike ride of the tour. I definitely remember this as he rode past, screaming “I’m on a bike ride!” We then piled in the van and made our way back to Jort’s house, where presumably, Francis fell asleep under the nearest table, Adam and Dave ‘slept’ in the van, James went on the internet, and I snored and kept everyone else awake.
Defeater- Empty Days And Sleepless Nights (Bridge Nine)
Trying to explain what Defeater are like to people who have never heard them is difficult without making them sound like a complete mess, and usually solicits a response of “what the fuck, that doesn’t sound like a good idea at all.” My reaction when I first saw them live and listened to them on record was similar, firstly because a band that you’ve heard being described as “hardcore” starting their set with the singer playing an unplugged acoustic and singing a jaunty tune forces you to double take slightly, and secondly because Converge and The Lawrence Arms seem to be the only bands that can pull off concept albums without it sounding like pretentious bullshit. However, behind the gimmicks, quirks and other miscellaneous bells and whistles, Defeater is a band that manages to take seemingly incompatible styles of music and mould them into releases which have a remarkable sense of clarity.
2009’s Lost Ground, the story of a World War Two veteran and his struggles upon returning home was what got me hooked, and out of their three releases to date is what I would recommend as a starting point. It follows on from their first album Travels in developing the story of one of its minor characters, and treads similar musical ground. Imagine Band of Brothers with the schmaltz replaced with the grit and realism of being in a war and the post scripts of the personal struggles of the aftermath and add some heavy guitars and mind bending drum fills and you’re pretty much there.
So now comes their latest album, Empty Days and Sleepless Nights, and all the elements of what made their previous albums great is present; the hardcore vocals, the Thursday-esque instrumentation and lyrics following a narrative which relates to their previous works. The acoustic element is also carried over from their first album, and expanded from half a song to four songs. For me, stand out tracks are ‘No Kind of Home’, ‘Dear Father’, ‘White Knuckles’ and ‘White Oak Doors’, which best showcase the band’s skill at shifting dynamics and tempos to create some truly jaw dropping moments, and after that part in ‘White Oak Doors’, I nearly shit.
As for the acoustic tracks, while they are all solidly written and I do enjoy them, especially how they sound like I’m Wide Awake… era Bright Eyes, there is kind of a sense that they have been tacked on because of how effective the acoustic part of ‘Prophet In Plain Clothes’ was. The album also pretty much sticks to Defeater’s tried and tested style, which is not a bad thing, as they have found their sound and do it very well, but the fact that there has been little change in the formula since Travels, it could be viewed that they are treading water a little.
In spite of this, this is a fantastic album, full of contrasts and held together by an articulate and pithy narrative, which gives it the same sense of absolute focus as their earlier work. I would recommend listening to Lost Ground first, but I have a feeling that I will end up loving this album every bit as much as their previous output.
Daytrader- Last Days Of Rome (Run For Cover)
I seem to have gotten into the habit of reviewing bands which feature members of some of my favourite bands. Last time with The Smoking Popes it was a large number of Chicago bands, today, Daytrader, featuring Pat Schramm of Latterman and my favourite post-Latterman band, Bridge And Tunnel. Something tells me that objectivity is going to be hard on this one.
However, it is made much easier by the fact that unlike other post Latterman bands, Daytrader sound absolutely nothing like them, which earns them serious plus points from me. Don’t get me wrong, Iron Chic, Rvivr and Shorebirds are/were good, but there was a sense of rehashing “that” sound that made Latterman so great. Daytrader, meanwhile, remind me more of bands like The Swellers, with their strong vocals and huge choruses.
The production on this EP is pretty slick, but not to the point where it becomes detrimental to the energy of the songs. Instead, it just seems to bind everything together and make everything sound absolutely fucking massive.
The most memorable track for me was ‘Living’, which sounds something like Set Your Goals if they had more balls and weren’t utterly cringeworthy, or maybe a better comparison would be to Lifetime or early Saves The Day with cleaner vocals.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this band found the same bizarre crossover appeal that Tiger’s Jaw and Polar Bear Club seem to be enjoying at the moment. Regardless, this is a really good EP and well worth a listen.
The Smoking Popes- This Is Only A Test (Asian Man)
I should probably start by saying that pretty much all of my favourite bands are from Chicago, so I was predisposed to like a band that features Neil Hennessy from The Lawrence Arms on drums, a position that was occupied a few drummers back by Slapstick’s Rob Kellenberger, and in the mists of time before that by one of Alkaline Trio’s former drummers, Mike Felumlee. However, in spite of this, nothing from their lengthy back catalogue has particularly captivated me in the same way as their contemporaries, but there was a free stream of their latest album on Punknews, so I thought I should check this out.
What really stood out after a few listens is not that this is a bad album, but that there is something lacking, and I’m not sure really. The songs are well written and it’s all played pretty much flawlessly, but there is nothing to really make it stick out. Maybe I’m placing too much emphasis of where they’re from, but unlike a great deal of Chicago bands, there’s nothing that really grabs attention in the way that the dark humour of Alkaline Trio, the contrasting vocals of The Broadways and The Lawrence Arms, or the raw energy of 88 Fingers Louie.
Then it kind of hit me around the fourth listen that what separates this album from the rest is the sheer quality of the songwriting. It all sounds meticulously crafted, which is remarkable considering how quickly they have put out releases in the past few years. Something about this album reminds me quite a lot of Weezer with more of a pop punk angle. The song ‘College’ particularly demonstrates this with piano led, Ben Folds-esque kind of instrumentation with lyrics that deal with not wanting to go to college and do a high paying job that will make you really unhappy. It’s just all done so well. The song which follows it, ‘Punk Band’, pretty succinctly and articulately sums up what it’s like to play in a touring band. The only song I couldn’t really get into was ‘Diary Of A Teen Tragedy’, I think it might me the spoken word parts which kind of threw me. Who knows.
This Is Only A Test is definitely a grower for me, and that’s making me think that maybe I didn’t give their older albums enough of a chance. It’s a pretty varied, well executed album that combines a range of influences which stretch quite a way beyond the kind of expected Chicago punk sound. I do feel bad about banging on about that particular city, but fuck it, that’s just the group of bands that they’re part of and have shared numerous members with. I’d definitely recommend giving this a few listens though; you’ll be won over eventually.
Chixdiggit!- Safeways Here We Come (Fat Wreck Chords)
This is my first experience of Chixdiggit (I’m going to leave the exclamation mark otherwise I may have to punch myself in the face), which is a shame because they’ve been around for a good while and from what I understand have a pretty solid back catalogue. With this in mind, I thought I’d give their latest EP a listen.
As soon as the first song started, the word ‘Ramonescore’ immediately lodged in my brain and kind of stuck there, however to dismiss this band as simply a regurgitating third rate tribute act would be unfair. Granted, they inhabit the same territory as the afore semi mentioned mop-headed masters of pop punk, along with the bands that they influenced, like The Queers and Screeching Weasel, but such obvious comparisons fall somewhat short.
This EP leans very much towards the ‘pop’ end of the pop punk spectrum, with simple songs that are meant to be sung along to and which sound familiar on the first listen, but it’s done to a standard which is too high to be easily belittled. Half way through the opening track, ‘Miso Ramen’, I was already singing along, and by the last track it felt like it was an EP that I had listened to many times. In a good sort of way. I think it’s the vocals which sell it to me the most, which are uncharacteristically distinct for this kind of band, sounding something like Mikey Erg Doing an impression of Brendan Kelly.
The enjoyability of the EP is aided greatly by its brevity, as at seven tracks it doesn’t quite reach the point where you feel like you’ve been listening to the same song over and over, and the choruses still feel singalongatastic.
All in all, this is a fun, mid-tempo pop punk EP, with a sense of puerile fun which is kind of refreshing in a dick and fart joke sort of a way. Not bad. Not bad at all.
I got a tumblr. I am thoroughly ashamed of myself. I used to write reviews of records and live shows because it was something i enjoyed doing, but never had the stones to put them anywhere. Then I realised that this is the internet, and as such I am practically obliged by law to use it to air my unquestionably accurate opinions. With that in mind, I am incredibly funny and attractive.
But really, I just want to create some kind of impetus to do more writing about music, and this seemed like as good a choice as any. So that’s it really. Now that I’ve justified it to myself I’m sure it’ll all be just fine. The first review should be up pretty soon.
Kieran Kelly has no swag.
