Recently, probably like many of you reading this post, I went to see The Menzingers with PUP and Cayetana. You can check out Emma's review here. As I waited for The Menzingers to come on stage I looked around the room, and the sheer amount of people packed into the Shepherd's Bush Empire, and wondered "Where are all these people for the small local DIY punk rock shows?" It's something that I often think when I attend shows like this. It does frustrate me when I go see some of the awesome underground UK punk rock bands and a sizeable portion of the crowd seems to be either members of the other bands on the line up or friends and families of the bands. I don't understand why this is as the UK punk scene is absolutely brimming with incredible acts that really do deserve much more attention.
Getting people to listen to the underground bands we are privileged to have in the UK is a passion and to be honest a bit of on obsession of mine. So I decided to try and work out why exactly there are people who enjoy punk music such as The Menzingers or Bad Religion or Anti-Flag or Reel Big Fish or Descendents or Flogging Molly but don't seem willing to go and see small bands playing places similar to where these legendary bands got started. I asked the excellent folk of the CPRW team and Sarah from Shout Louder for their opinions on the subject.
Triple Sundae at Urban Bar, London
The first point and biggest point, and probably most obvious, is that people just aren't aware that a UK punk scene even exists. I guess it's called an underground scene for a good reason. After this point was made to me I instantly ask why not!? I understand that people might not be as passionate about music as me and might be more than happy to continue to listen to your favourite band you had as a teenager. I still listen to all of my favourite bands from my teens as well but in this day and age of streaming music it's so easy to discover a new band. If you're a user of Spotify they compile you a weekly playlist based on your listening trends to help you discover new bands similar to what you like. Bandcamp has an incredible discover section where you can lose hours finding your new favourite band. There is some real quality to be found out there, three of my top ten albums of 2017 were due to Bandcamp discovery - they were Flabbercasters, Plan 37 and Quitters. So what I'm saying is that there definitely is an underground scene out there just waiting to be discovered. You can also find your new favourite band at a local DIY punk show.
I appreciate that it is a big step to attend a show where you don't necessarily know the bands playing. Why should you give up your time and money to go and see bands you've not heard of before? You could rephrase that statement to say why WOULD you give up your time and money to go and see bands you've not heard of before? Rationally it kind of doesn't make sense. Even though most DIY punk shows will cost you less than £10, it's still money and time spent travelling to a venue where in all likelihood the sound won't be as good (and the toilets won't be as clean!). But you also won't have to queue for ages between bands and miss the beginning of your favourite band of the past twenty years set because you're paying an extortionate amount for a drink. Oh London drink prices, I do hate you. But there is a flipside to this! As I said in the previous paragraph, it is so simple and easy to check out a new band because of that wonderful thing called the Internet - it isn't just memes, GIFs, videos of cats and pornography. Because of social media it is also quite easy to find a local show and most promoters will post Bandcamp or Youtube links to the bands on the bill so you're not going in blind or, perhaps in a musical sense, deaf.
Flogging Molly at The Forum, London
Okay, so now you've found your new favourite underground band and they're playing a show local to you and you would like to go. But you've got nobody to go with as none of your friends have taken the time to listen to the band you've suggested - they aren't willing to go to the gig and hope for the best. You've got nobody to go with and don't really fancy going by yourself so you stay at home and watch videos of cats. When I first started going to gigs regularly I had a good posse of pals who were willing to come along. But as I started to discover more and more small bands and wanted to go to more and more gigs people started to jump off the bandwagon because of, you know, life and stuff. It got to the stage where it was either bite the bullet and go by myself or stop doing something I truly loved. Probably my first love. Easy decision to make really. Sure the hour long journey on the train after a full day of work sucks and the getting home at 2am the following morning and having to be at work at 8am is the worst thing that will ever happen to you, but that four hours of incredible music and performance in the middle makes it all worth it. The hardest thing for me when I started going to gigs by myself was walking in the door of a small venue you've never been to before. I used to get really anxious over the prospect of doing that but you soon get over it. You might worry about the people inside the venue. Will you fit in? Will people be rude to you? Will there be people? The answers to those questions are yes, no and then yes again. The folk you'll meet at a DIY punk show are amongst the nicest and best people you will ever meet. Just have a chat with them and you'll discover this. Some of the best friends I've made over the past few years are folk I've met at little DIY punk shows. Everyone there is at the same show to see the same band so you've already got things in common.
The travelling is the worst part of going to a show. Emma has said that in the past she's been put off of going to shows on her own because the venue has been in an awkward place, at a fair distance from the nearest Underground station and has felt unsafe walking to the venue. I can completely understand why this would put people off going to small gigs. There have been plenty of times when I've been on my way to a gig and had to avoid some unsavoury people. One time I was offered some of the hardcore drugs and called a devil worshipper by two separate groups within thirty seconds of each other. I wasn't called a devil worshipper because I accepted the drugs. I didn't accept the drugs. If this is a big issue for you perhaps a solution could be to message the gig's event page on the Facebook and mention your concerns and see if anyone can meet you somewhere you feel safe. Punks are good folk, I have no doubt someone would at least try and help you out and you'll probably make a new friend in the process.
The Filaments at New Cross Inn (for Level Up Fest), London
Emma and I do a lot of travelling for gigs which will mean we'll often get home from a gig way past our bedtime. This understandably stops people going to too many gigs because of work commitments. So you might be picky with your gig choice selection and probably go and see a band that you have loved for a long time and can guarantee a great show rather than a smaller DIY show where you don't know the bands very well, particularly if it is somewhere you think might be awkward to get to and you just think it might be a bit rubbish. (It most definitely won't be!)
Something else put forward to me as a reason for people only attending bigger gigs is because society associates monetary value with quality. After working in retail for far too many years I've seen this first hand, a lot. People will spend a fortune on the more expensive branded items rather than buying the cheaper own brand things that taste just the same. You can easily argue, and I would usually agree, that you get a better quality gig when you pay more for a ticket. You do often get more of a stage show at one of the bigger venues than you do in the backroom of a pub. Do extravagant light shows, fireworks, flying drumkits, backing dancers, video screens and the like make a great show? I wouldn't say so. They certainly add to a performance and make for great photo opportunities but it's not what makes a great show. Especially a great punk show. It's about the passion and energy coming from a band who do it for the love of it and will be doing the exact same thing you'll be doing the next day, going back to your boring day job. At a £5 DIY gig you get something that for me is huge - you get to feel part of a community and a movement of people coming together to do something very special. Due to a lack of space for a backstage area at a DIY gig the band will hang out in the crowd and you'll see that they are just the same as you. There is no sense of hierarchy at a small show. Everyone is the same and everyone is together. There's a special feeling to realising you're just the same as your heroes. So yeah, in summary, as in life, money is not a measurement of quality in punk rock.
Masked Intruder at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
I could probably go on about this for another 1500 words but if I did I imagine you'd get bored of my seemingly endless rambling and stop reading. So to sum everything up here are some pros and cons for bigger and small gigs.
Big Venue Pros
1. Bigger bands
2. Bigger stage show
3. More of your friends are likely to attend
4. The stage is higher up (helpful for short folk)
5. Better disabled access
6. Easier to find venues, more centrally located
7. Cleaner toilets
Big Venue Cons
1. More expensive tickets
2. Bigger queues
3. Overpriced drinks
4. Further away from the stage
5. Worse views
6. Less thoughtful crowd (eg. throwing beer, barging past people, people being unaware of the other people around them)
7. Less intimate
8. Merchandise is more expensive as the bands have to increase prices because the venue takes a cut
9. Ticket touts
10. Less of a community feel
11. People trying to film, Facetime and take six dozen selfies during a band's set
12. Sticky floors
Small Venue Pros
1. Cheap tickets (sometimes even free!)
2. No queues
3. Seeing bands before they get big
4. More variety of punk gigs at small venues
5. Intimate atmosphere
6. Friendlier crowds
7. More of a community feeling
8. Supporting independent venues
9. Supporting new music
10. The lovely feeling of feeling like you're contributing to the scene
11. Better views
12. Less people filming or Facetiming during the gig
13. It's usually just your name on the door so you save paper as you don't need a ticket
14. You can meet your heroes
15. You can become friends with familiar faces in the scene
16. Supporting local talent
17. More of an inclusive feel - no hierarchy, no discrimination, no cool club, everyone welcome
Small Venue Cons
1. Smelly toilets
2. You won't know all the bands
3. Some smaller venues can be a little difficult to get to
4. Sticky floors
5. Tickets can be hard to get for popular bands
Faintest Idea at the Portland Arms, Cambridge
Ultimately this column is the opinions of a handful of people who are extremely passionate about DIY punk rock and doing what they can to support it. Of course if you prefer going to a bigger show that's awesome, you do what makes you happy. We're very lucky to still have the option in this country and that there is a big enough punk scene that it can cater to everyone's tastes. This column is an attempt to encourage anyone reading who has never been to a DIY show to give it a go, hopefully it will become your big passion like it has become mine.
This column was put together by Colin Clark with the help of the CPRW team and Sarah Williams of Shout Louder.
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