October 7, 2015

Deathraid, Skitvarld, Seige Mentality, Spam Javelin @ The Pilgrim, Liverpool

[The View From Within]

(pics by Elliot Capper / Steve Brute)

This was the gig that was on then off then on again then not at the original venue then off then on somewhere else…
Maybe it was us (Spam Javelin), maybe we were the curse when it came to Liverpool hosting three Welsh bastards. Earlier last month we were due to play in some sweat shop in Chinatown, but it was pulled, then this morning the {new} promoter had received a message from a Manchester band telling him not to put us on as we were homophobic, sexist pricks and mud sticks (!!!). He was told we were getting a bad reputation and it was obvious with a name like ours… (If that’s the case, then Rudimentary Peni are obviously homophobic sexist pricks too…)
It turned out the perpetrator was pissed and had got us mixed up with some other band (fucking bellend).

The Pilgrim is (with no irony) situated on Pilgrim Street, behind the bombed out church (I’m sure this place of worship has a real name, but you wouldn’t know where it was if I used it’s proper title).
We arrived to meet main act, Seattle’s Deathraid (above and main pic) scraping the tonnes of merch they had crammed into their Italian plated van. They are on their third (?) European tour and the Italian van could possibly have something to do with their Italian based record label (Agipunk). We exchanged introductions and due to logistics, there was no way I’d still be here to watch their set. By way of compensation, I duly purchased the last coloured vinyl copy of their latest album, ‘The Year The Earth Struck Back’ – a ferocious D-beat slab of American hardcore, and refreshingly screamed rather than growled. Full of distorted guitars that thrash your senses towards toad eating.

I recognised the sound-man (he was a sound man) and he recognised me, but we couldn’t recall where from… Maybe we shared a cell at Risley Remand Centre during the punk wars, maybe we were losing contestants on Cilla’s Blind Date. He was in fact a very sound man and nothing was too much bother.

With a stage time of 7.45pm we [Spam Javelin] were fearing the inevitable 90 minutes each way journey, play for 25 minutes to the very sound-man and fuck off home wondering why we do these things. So it was very pleasant to perform our complicated tunes to a busy venue at such an early hour, and (as always) people were afterwards saying how much they love Nazi Line Dancers Fuck Off.

It was the curse of the bass guitar tonight, but I blame the bassists as they’re wankers (there’s nothing worse than an ex-bassist!). Siege Mentality‘s bassist decided it would be a good idea to fiddle around with his pick-up this afternoon, and couldn’t get his four-stringer to work as they set up. Steve Brute rescued the show and lent him his bass; there’s very little prima-donna bullshit when it comes to punk rock, my bass is your bass, let’s bass together and make beautiful bass-babies…
Siege Mentality are dirty hardcore, with a Nordic drummer who hates drums so much he does his best to break them. It’s brash and the singer Dave is even brasher, with his jeans hanging off his arse and his larynx hanging off the ceiling. So fast and furious they make Vin Diesel look like a shit actor who makes money from shit sequels.

We had to get drummer Gwion to the train station in Llandudno Junction by 10.50pm, so time was against us. He had to get back to his native Bangor… I could’ve driven him and added and extra hour and ten onto my journey… I mean, I like Gwion, but not that fucking much!
This meant that father time was very much against us as local slobs Skitvarld took to the stage. Link2wales shit-worker Mark Watson-Jones was once a member until recently when distances between friends got a bit too hard on the pocket (it’s all the VAT on diesel isn’t it Vin?).
With my turbo charged and pedal to the metal we managed to sneak in three or four opening songs; a great throbbing chugging introduction, with two vocalists, one dreaded and frightening looking; the other simply ridiculous and once the song proper started they both let rip, ransacking the large audience of their senses… Brutal.