The UKs ska punk scene has a fantastic knack of consistently
churning out amazing ska punk bands. Over the years we've had the like of
Capdown, Lightyear, King Prawn, Sonic Boom Six and [Spunge]. Another of those
fantastic bands are Random Hand from Keighley who sadly announced they would be
putting a halt on being a band for a while earlier this year. Thankfully not
before one final album and tour. Wanting to make the most of seeing one of the
finest live bands in the scene before they go away I have tickets to three of
their final shows. This past Thursday was the first of the three, at the New
Cross Inn in London. Here's what happened.
This would be my first time visiting the New Cross Inn and I
have to say as soon as I walked in I knew that this would be a great venue for
live music. The stage, whilst not being massive was a decent size and it was
low so felt very inclusive. The floor area was also a decent size considering
The New Cross Inn isn't a very large place. The first band up were The Popes Of Chillitown who recently released the excellent To The Moon (reviewed here). The
Popes are without a doubt one of the most exciting new bands on the scene,
their music and live performances giving out the kind of relentless energy very
few bands can display. Despite the early start it was great to see the band put
so much into their performance and they clearly just love performing together
as a band. Excellent stuff.
Up next were Call Me Malcolm. I have to admit I hadn't ever
listened to Call Me Malcolm before and kind of expected a Less Than Jake style
of ska punk. I was quite wrong. The horn section was absolutely fantastic,
really carrying the sound of the band forward. Like bands like Streetlight
Manifesto the horns provided most of the melody to the songs rather than just
added brass riffs throughout the track. Like the Popes Of Chillitown before
them the energy of the set was immensely high, which is commendable when you
consider just how warm the room was becoming. A highlight of the set was a brilliant
cover of Metallica's Enter Sandman. Call Me Malcolm taken one of the biggest
metal songs ever and turned it into one hell of a ska song. Definitely a band
to keep an eye on.
Leeds based melodic skate punks The Human Project were the
next band to take to the New Cross stage. I thought they probably had the
hardest job of the three opening bands tonight. Being the only non ska band on
the bill you might think it would be a bit of a fish out of water scenario but
happily that wasn't the case at all. They played a set that was fast and
furious with the intensity seemingly increasing with each song. The Human
Project are a band that are so highly thought off in the punk scene and after
finally seeing them live I can see why. Musically they were so tight and I
loved that vocals were coming from everywhere. After finally seeing them live I
understand fully what the fuss is all about and will make sure I pick up their
CD very soon. You should as well.
Now it was time for Random Hand. Legends in the scene. As soon
as front man Robin Leitch blasted out his first trombone riff the crowd was
moving and it didn't stop until the very end of the night. At one point during
the set I could actually feel the floor shaking beneath my feet such was the
level of dancing. Impressive considering there was only about 100 people at the
gig. This felt like a proper punk rock show, it was hot and sweaty and everyone
was having the best time with a band that is so loved. The stage at New Cross
was great for a punk rock show as well. It's lowness put the band on the same
level as the crowd an makes the whole thing feel like a collaborative effort. This
was my seventh time seeing Random Hand and I can't think of a time when they've
been better, and they've always blown me away. Maybe because they know they
won't be doing this much more for a long time but it felt like they really gave
it the full beans on that stage. This made the crowd respond magnificently but
there was one gentleman in particular I want to talk about. He was someone who
clearly didn't know any of the bands that were playing the gig but he lost his
bits to every single one of them. During Random Hands set he got on stage,
stage dived and crowd surfed and looked as if he was having the best night of
his life and that was fantastic to see. Random Hand played quite a varied set
of classics and songs that I haven't heard them play in ages plus one brand new
song which was a real hard hitting punk rock jam. It's the biggest shame that
Random Hand will be taking the hiatus soon as they are the very best at what
they do.
Now listening to A Man Like Jack McCall by Bangers
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