Events for Charity / Goldblade - Ivory Blacks - 050/05/13 (Glasgow)

This was one of those rare beasts where musically everything just fell into place.

Multiple bands over a whole day and no one dropped the ball once.

In fact no one even fumbled it.

Exceptional performances from one and all from start to finish, and all for charity to.

So I think everyone should collectively tip their had to Events for Charities who had tirelessly organized an event over multiple venues and days in aid of Yorkhill Children's Hospital.

It's these sort of events that can be described as going above and beyond the call of duty.

Outstanding effort from everyone involved.

(Including the DJ who feels excluded from all the reviews and comments about the night)

(Insert smiley emoticon here, maybe even one with a wink)

Brothel Corpse Trio opened the show and I was personally very pleased to see them there.

James Edmond had seen them play a few nights earlier at a show I had organized and immediately offered them a slot based on nothing more than their performance.

Very often gigs are offered to mates, on condition of how many punters a band can pull, and a whole raft of other things that have nothing to do with the music.

This was different.

Their inclusion on the bill was rooted in just how good they are as a live band and nothing more than that.

From the first song it was very obvious that as a band they wont be on the bottom of the bill at anything for very much longer.

Each gig has seen them pick up fans and the rise to the top of the bill looks to be assured.

Hovering in the no man's land between punk and psychobilly they are all about the girls, the tattoos, the hot rods and necrophilia.

They are going to have to get a t-shirt that says 'lock up your undead as the Brothel Corpse Trio are in town'.

Next were Buzzbomb meaning Billy was on double duty as he is also in The Brothel Corpse Trio.

So with a quick swap of a double bass to just bass he was back catching his second wind to deliver with his band mates a torrent of punk rock.

It's all well executed and sits comfortably between the sounds of the UK and the US.

Hard enough when it's needs to be, but always with an eye on the melody.

There's a few bands over the years that I've seen multiple times and have yet to see them post in a performance and Buzzbomb are one.

You don't get anything less than a one hundred percent performance from these guys.

The Jackhammers portray the village idiot persona wrapped in the sounds of garage rock.

They do it so well that they blur the line leaving the audience to wonder how much of it is actually a joke.

Close your eyes to just listen to them and the sloppiness that the spectacle promotes slips into the background and leaves the music to do much of the talking, and then what you come to realize is that it is all a joke.

One that's perfectly executed.

These guys can play, but for the uninitiated, or those who have had a humour bypass op, they may not get it.

Worth persevering with until you do get the joke though.

It's been a whole year since I've seen the Skarsoles, and I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder as I found myself thinking about how much I'd missed them.

There's nothing new in what they do.

It's pop punk ska in all its glory, but damn they do it well.

It's just a shame that people weren't up dancing to them.

The early slot on the bill would be the reason for that because if you put them in a room of drunken people at 9pm on a Saturday night then it would instantly be party time.

Alkotron for me are a show stealing act.

They slip in quietly and then just go about their business without much fus,s and I really can't put my finger on it, but come the cold light of day they are the act that I always remember.

They are probably the punkiest band on a punk rock bill because they refuse to be mired down by uniformity.

From what they play to how they dress others could mistakenly ask what so punk about them.

That's akin to the wood and trees argument.

It's that they do not kowtow the perceived uniformity of punk rock that makes them more punk than others.

The Red Eyes are a band that I have run out of things to say about.

How often can you realistically point out that they are consistently fantastic.

It's all there. The song writing, the musicianship and the delivery.

Bloody faultless, again.

It feels that I am selling them short by not waxing lyrical for multiple paragraphs, but all I woud be doing is reiterating what I have already said countless times.

Goldblade lost me over recent years.

It felt like the rut had been driven deep, too deep, and even weeks prior to this I seen them opening for the Misfits and found myself wondering when the energy would return, when the passion for something differenmt rather than the by numbers performances that I had gotten used to, would be shaken off.

Then here it was.

I couldn't put my finger on what the difference was, but finally here was the fork in the road and John Robb was turning his back on the safe route and instead looking to lead the band to pastures new.

It was a subtle difference, and maybe something to do with the new studio album about to be released, but the energy had a more chaotic feel to it rather than it just being a part of the show that people have now come to expect.

If I had strayed from the fold here I was being ushered back in.

John was a dervish on stage and the band rock solid behind him.

I had harboured serious thoughts of the performance ultimately being an anticlimax to the night, but I was wrong.

Very very wrong.

With this singular show they turned it all around and the Goldblade with all the promise they showed when I seen them on their very first UK tour was back.