[spunge], London Astoria, 11.23.02
Posted by Phil McCann on 01.01.2003
Is British punk still alive?
[spunge] are an odd commodity in music, as they haven’t exactly breached that pop-punk barrier, but they do have a very accessible sound, and have reached some level of popularity. However, they are not mentioned within the same sentence as Blink 182 or Sum 41 when it comes to ‘selling out’, and this seems to matter to most of the punk audience who can at least still tolerate the sound as long as it doesn’t become ‘mainstream’. Not the attitude I take, but then again I seem to have gotten lost in the whole ‘hey they’re popular…they suck!’ argument.
But that’s going off on a minor tangent, well major but I’ll let it slip. The point is [spunge] are at a point in their careers where anything could happen to the band, and hopefully it goes in the way of making more enjoyable music.
Well short paragraph there, anyway…the London Astoria- a deceptively big venue, can’t really compare it to anything, but the general look is a big-ish stage, wide floor, and balconies upstairs where you can go at any point for a drink. There’s usually a good atmosphere there, and it’s generally full for its gigs, and for [spunge] it was no exception. Good crowd, good venue, good bands?
First up to impress were Spankboy…weird name, no? A British punk band…well ska-punk, I don’t know the punk identification process is more complex than getting a green card when you’re an English farmer so I’m not even going to attempt to classify them. However their music was good, and I try not to use good in the ‘well they were good not great sense’, more in the ‘solid’ way- they were impressive live, and had a good array of songs along with a good on-stage presence, that really got the crowd going. A friend bought their album, and despite not sounding as good recorded as it did live, most of the songs still hold up and show that the band have a chance of becoming a popular band within the scene, if not likely to gain much popularity outside of it.
Next up were Farce, and they…weren’t as good. Not to say they were extremely bad, far from it, there was promise within their performance, and some of the music they were playing was more than catchy. However, the lacked fan-friendly charisma, they seemed too arrogant, too in-your-face for a band that weren’t connecting with the crowd musically. Whereas Spankboy had played good music, then become interactive, Farce expected plaudits straight away and didn’t wait for their music to do the talking. A disappointing performance, but not one that has put me off looking out for the band in the future.
Well that leaves one, and [spunge] were great fun, I don’t want to say their music was brilliant, or that they were a band showing signs of great song writing ability, because deep down I don’t believe that. I do believe, however, that they know how to write songs that get crowds going, they’re everything I wanted the band to be that night- something different, something to dance along to and have fun.
Whether it be their well known songs ‘Jump on Demand’, ‘Roots’ and ‘Kicking Pigeons’, or their brilliant cover of ‘No Woman No Cry’, [spunge] impressed and delivered more than I could’ve expected live. Just like my experience at Deconstruction earlier in the year, the punk crowd was more than up to join in with the bands demands for skanking…woah it feels weird to type that seriously, and more than willing to be knocked around by the various old school fans in attendance, whose leather jackets were probably padded with steel plates…but anyway.
I’m not the band’s biggest fan, I hardly know any of their songs, but it didn’t seem to matter as long as everyone had fun listening to whatever the band put out. [spunge] and Spankboy put on a great show for the crowd, with Farce seemingly tagging along for the paycheck, and to look past how enjoyable the night was would be over-analytical. The night wasn’t about complex riffs, it was about singing along and getting elbowed in the face by a guy who a minute later would link arms with you and jump round like a folk dancer…and that’s why I’d recommend going to see [spunge] to anyone who likes to forget about the music critic within them.
The 411: Nothing to say but- a great night was had by all. Forget the ins and outs of the music and have fun…
