Okay, so I’m going to have to review this before I forget any of the details.
Banquet Records have always managed to pull off some special Kingston shows, but tonight they were the midwife in the birthing of a true ‘I was there’ event.
If you’ve never been to the Fighting Cocks – the venue section is a dingy but brilliant 100 odd capacity venue in the backroom of the pub that’s seen intimate sets from numerous household names in the punk/hardcore scene, but tonight’s line up really takes the proverbial biscuit.
Set Your Goals alone in a 100 capacity venue was bound to be a sweaty and memorable affair, but as the ‘will-they-won’t-they’ gossip spread about the supports – jaws just started falling to the floor.
It’d be a little unfair to give Spycatcher a review as after dashing from the train I was still a little breathless and only saw a song, but the buzzing atmosphere certainly did them favours and they seemed to have delivered a suitable opening to the evening.
After Spycatcher finished, the next minutes were complete chaos – After some confusion, Fireworks came on stage, announced they were Set Your Goals and blasted out a brace of songs before promptly disappearing. In all honestly, I’m not quite sure on the fuss about Fireworks on record, and what I saw live kind of backed that up, but there’s no way I can really judge their live show on a slightly bizarre two song set.
The next four songs of the evening will go down as some of the greatest live music moments I think I’ll ever get to witness – if you’d told me a few years back I’d watch New Found Glory belt out My Friend’s Over You, All Downhill From Here, a Gorilla Biscuits cover (No Reason) and Hit or Miss in the backroom of a pub in Kingston, I’d probably have told you where to shove it. But it happened, and 16 minutes of pure brilliance later – people were pinching themselves and contributing majorly to global warming outside.
And then, moments after people had forgotten any other bands existed – Set Your Goals stepped up to mark in an attempt to out-stun the sweatiest room in the South East that evening – and they came very, very close to doing just that by producing a brilliant, varied set to keep people partying to curfew. Set Your Goals are an impressive live band on any stage, but having seen them on festival stages, they really are just something else in a small venue. Right up there with the best of the newer generation of pop-punk bands, Set Your Goals make honest, no nonsense, pop-punk, and deliver it brilliantly.
It’s a massive testament to the attitudes of all the bands that they’d come and do this show for their fans for fun, and further cements the already fantastic reputation of Banquet Records as the number one reason to be proud of the UK DIY scene.
A really special evening, and one not to be topped or forgotten in a very, very long time.