Ah, the Garage. Sometimes it sounds great/passable and sometimes it sounds like a horrendous pile of dogshit… tonight is the latter.
First up battling against a half empty room and the lovely sound is APOLOGIES I HAVE NONE, and since the move to a full band, they’ve really filled out and rounded off their songs. It’s a shame they’re fighting a losing battle tonight, but the band have plenty of promise and are always a welcome addition to a punk bill.
Conversely, BILLY NO MATES, struggle a bit more to convert the crowd, but provide the best between-song chatter of the entire evening. The band are possibly the sore thumb of the evening, but the elder statesmen of the bill keep things ticking over nicely.
OFF WITH THEIR HEADS get the best deal of the sound so far, and make no mistake about being pretty fucking great (as usual). Seemingly not worn out by a second gig in one eveing, the band continue to impress at every opportunity, and maintain their reputation of being one of the great unsung punk bands of recent years.
The main event this evening, unfortunately, turns into a bit of a shambles. The diabolical sound returns (clearly getting on the nerves of both the band and the crowd), and it’s a bit of a dissapointment considering how long SAMIAM have been away. It’s unfair to blame the sound entirely as the band are clearly a little unenthused as well, but it really does take all of the balls out of the performance. There’s more than a few people here that would have been seeing the band for the first time, and especially considering how strong ‘Trips’ is, it would have been great to see something a bit more special.
TOM AYLOTT
More pictures from the show in our photos section.