Dr Dave Is Trying To Make Me Deaf and Poor (Gig 1 Dropkick Murphys)

Gig 1: Dropkick Murphys at The HMV Forum 18/1/13

The day I had finally come for the first gig of the year and I was dreading it. Normally on the day of a gig I am on a real high but this time I was pretty worried. You see this week there has been constant snow across the country, so all week I was only 50/50 if A: the gig would be on and B: if I could actually get there for it. The forecast for gig day was the worst for the whole week. All signs were pointing towards this being a very bad evening.

I finished work on gig day and did my usual ritual of rushing home, getting changed, grabbing my phone (which is currently fudged but I took it anyway), my iPod (don’t go anywhere without it, it’s like a limb), my wallet, my oyster card and most importantly my ticket for the gig. When I arrived at Colchester train station I was pleasantly surprised to find all the trains were running to schedule. This amazed me because you only ever hear how public transport is rubbish and fails whenever there is a slight be of dodgy weather. I arrived in London safe and sound, jumped on the tube and made my way to Kentish Town, home of The HMV Forum.

As I entered The Forum I could already hear the opening act Crowns distinctive “fish punk” sounds. I’ve seen Crowns twice before but something was different this time. As I made my way towards the stage I noticed they had added an accordion player to their ranks. This added a great new layer to their sound. Sadly there set went far too quick for my liking as the stormed through my personal favourites Kissing Gates, Parting In The Porch and Full Swing.

Up next was Teenage Bottlerocket. Teenage Bottlerocket are a band from Wyoming in the United States. They play very fast pop punk. When I say very fast I mean very very fast. It’s ridiculous. I was absolutely ecstatic when I heard they had been added to the bill for this gig as I have wanted to see them for years now. They played with so much passion and have an obvious love for the music they play. It’s infectious and I challenge anyone not to have a good time seeing them live. Personal song highlights for me were Skate Or Die, Radio, Stupid Games and a mid song breakdown were they played Blitzkrieg Bop. This was probably as close to seeing The Ramones play as I’ll ever get so it made me a very happy man.

Now it was time for the main event. Dropkick Murphys. The crowd was ready, the chants of “Let’s Go Murphys” were booming. This is why we all had braved the weather. Looking around the gig it dawned on me how many different types of people love this band. There were old people, young people, fathers and sons, boys and girls, old crusty punks and yuppies. As soon as the band took to the stage all of these different people began to party together despite any differences in their lives. Only a band like Dropkick Murphys could achieve such a feat. The band, as expected was magnificent tearing through songs of their brand new album as well as their hugely impressive back catalogue. Even with two power cuts the party barely stopped, piper Scruffy Wallace played an impromptu version of the classic Cadence To Arms whilst we waited. I once read a review of a Murphys gig where the writer said “Dropkicks’ shows don’t wind down; they stop.” A truer statement could not be said. I really loved every single song they played and sung along at the top of my voice to every single one but personal highlights for me were The Gauntlet and A Few Good Men just because they are my two favourite Murphys songs and I’d never seen them played live before.

Now it was time to go home. After shooting across London in impressive speed I was on the train back to Colchester thinking about my night and how happy I was for deciding to take the risk despite the weather. If I hadn’t I still would have not been to gig one of the fifty-two I need to complete my challenge and more importantly I would have missed out on an amazing night of punk rock from three amazing acts.

I’d like to add I had a very interesting chat with the taxi driver on the way home about music and vinyl and how lazy it is these days when DJs use iPods instead of records whilst DJing. He was a decent bloke and so I suggested he drop me off at the top of my road so he didn’t have to attempt to drive on the ice rink that is currently my street.

The next morning I awoke still buzzing from the night before and was quite pleased that I had 1 of the 52 done. However I then realised I was very much down on where I need to be to get the challenge done. We are now three weeks into the year and I’ve only done one gig. In theory I need to be averaging a gig a week so I’m technically two down already. I decided to rectify this so I went online and brought tickets for 13 more gigs. If any one of those or the others I’ve already booked is even half as good as the Dropkick Murphys gig I am in for the best year ever.

Now listening to Voices Of Fucked by Floating Bear

Dr Dave Is Trying To Make Me Deaf and Poor (Introductions)

Foreword

What did you do in the past 12 months? Seriously. Think about it. This is not an idle question – I don’t care “how you are” or “what’s up” – I am questioning the way you live your life.

OK, you say, so what did you do in the past 12 months then, Mr Foreword Writer? That’s Dr Foreword Writer to you. Because that’s one thing I did last year. I finished my PhD. I also published some academic articles about the psychology of social networks, spoke at some conferences, and told some businesses how to do their online marketing.

Being a researcher is a diverse and challenging job, and I think I had a pretty good year. But in five years I’ll still barely remember any of it; hundreds of thousands of academic articles are written every year, even the audience at a conference doesn’t remember the talk they just sat through, and no one wants to dwell on the time they spent telling advertisers how to annoy people more efficiently.

That leaves me getting a PhD. Pretty cool eh? And I’ll surely remember it. But fifty thousand people got a PhD in the US in 2009, so it’s not very unique.

What I will remember is the time between Christmas and New Year when I sat in the pub with Colin, and he mentioned that he’d been to 30-something gigs that year. “That’s nearly one a week!” I said, “You should go to 52 next year.” And then, for some reason that I can’t fathom, he agreed. Despite being just a spectator of his crazy journey, for me 2013 will be the year that Colin took that insane bet.

So, that’s what I think this book is about. OK, there’s a bit about punk rock now and again, but that’s just allegorical flavour for the real morality tale, which is about doing something interesting in your life. Whatever you want, as long as it’s something you can tell people about. Something you will remember.

Dr Dave

Introduction

I love music. Specifically I love punk rock music. I love it because it’s so accessible, its music anyone can get involved with and anyone can relate to. Punk rock music is the thing that gets me more passionate and excited than anything else in the world. I love listening to it, talking about and most of all going to watch it live.

I was very late to the live music scene. I didn’t go to my first until November 2010 but from that moment on I was hooked. It’s now January 2013 and I’ve now been to forty one. Thirty three of those were last year which to me is ridiculous. At the end of last year I decided I should probably try and cut down on the gigs and start to think about saving to move out of mothers and I should probably learn to drive. I’m nearly 27, probably time to think about growing up.

It’s that between Christmas and New Years 2012 and I find myself at the pub with one of my dearest friends. It had been a few months since we’d seen each other so we were catching up with each other. Telling stories of things we’d done throughout the year. He finished his PhD and is now a doctor of psychology. I went to lots of gigs. He was impressed with how many I’d been to and enjoyed my many stories. I then began to tell him about my plans to cut down next year and do some growing up. What happened next will shape the next twelve months of my life.

Dr Dave (who is now a respected member of society) told me I shouldn’t cut down and then challenged me to try and average one gig a week for the whole year. That’s 52 gigs! Straight away I said “no chance, I’m growing up this year.” I amazed myself with how well I withstood this idea. Normally I’m very much up for such a challenge. He then offered me the prize of a pat on the head and a kiss on the lips from our friend Sarah (she for some unknown reason wasn’t too keen on this part of the prize). Even with these massive prizes as incentives I stuck to my guns and said no and we left it at that.

The next day at work I thought a little more about the challenge. The more I thought about it the more it seemed like a fun thing to do. After all, I LOVE GOING TO GIGS. I spoke to some more friends about it; they all encouraged me to do it as well. Clearly nobody wants me to grow up anytime soon. I decided “fudge it; I’ll grow up next year.” I got in contact with Dr Dave, accepted the challenge and we decided on some rules. Here they are:

Go to 52 gigs before midnight on 31st December 2013.

Normally a “gig” is defined as an event for which you need a ticket (even if it’s free), but if you go to a music event lasting multiple days, in which it’s possible to buy a ticket to a single day’s music, then you’re allowed to count the number of days you’re there as separate gigs. A gig is an event at which (live) music is the main event - but for the purposes of this challenge we’ll also include that punk rock crap you nod your head to. We’ll need photographic proof from each gig.

Should you beat the challenge, then I will give you a hug and a pat on the head while proudly saying the words “good Pig”, and Sarah will give you a kiss (maybe on the mouth).

So the challenge has been accepted, now I just have to find 52 gigs for the year. How hard could it be?

Finding Gigs

When I said I now I have to find 52 gigs for the year I wasn’t strictly telling the truth. I have four gigs already booked for this year so technically I only need to find 48 more. That’s 7.6% of the work already done; I’ve got a sneaky head start.

A couple of days after the challenge was set I decided it would probably be sensible to start planning my adventure. The best thing to do is probably to work out what will create the biggest obstacles for me. I quickly realised that they would be having to work full time and the fact I’m sadly not a millionaire. Luckily I have the coolest boss in the world that will always help me have time off if it is possible, however as cool as she is at that she can’t get me a pay rise. Money will definitely cause me the biggest problems.

When I speak to people about the amount of gigs I go to they usually ask how much the tickets are. The majority of time they are usually surprised when I reply “between £10 and £15 most of the time.” I guess they usually go to see the “bigger” bands whose tickets usually range between £50 and £100. If was doing those gigs this whole challenge would be impossible. So the tickets themselves aren’t going to be the major stumbling block either. The biggest problem I will have is travel.

I’m sure everyone is aware trains are expensive. The majority of gigs I went to last year were in London. If the majority of this years are there as well I will spend over £1000 just on travel. Needless to say that is a scary amount of money. The obvious plan is to get to more local gigs at home in Colchester. The main venue for gigs in Colchester is The Arts Centre. Weirdly the same day I started to plan gigs and flyer for Colchester Arts Centre came through my door. It was if they knew of my challenge. Straight away I found gigs for screamo/post hardcore giants Funeral For A Friend, ska legends The Selecter and up and coming local band Dingus Khan.

Sadly, Colchester Arts Centre won’t supply enough gigs for me to complete the challenge. I used Google to search for gig venues in Chelmsford and Ipswich as they are the closest towns to my own. Sadly both appear to be pretty shocking for live music so I would have to go to London. I’ll worry about money later on.

I figured I best get some sort of system going to organise the gigs before I get started booking them. I also figured I better wait until I get some money. I decided the best thing to do is to make a table to organise the gigs. Once that was done I got online and started searching all the usual venues for gigs. A couple of hours later and I had 9 more lined up. That’s now 16 in total. This should be a piece of cake. Assuming I get the time off work…….and I can afford it.

Now I have a system for organising gigs and some lined up its time to start going to them.

Now listening to Truth or Consequences by Eric Ayotte