|
Michigan ska stars Mustard Plug released Yellow No.5, "The Album To Save Ska-Punk", at the end of last year. They've been following this up with a three week tour of the UK supported by the equally pleasing Captain Everything and Howards Alias. I missed their Portsmouth show but was lucky enough to catch them in my home venue of Tunbridge Wells Forum.
After driving round the countryside distributing CDs we arrived a bit late and walked down the road to the sound of some heavy ska-core kinda stuff. "That's gotta be Captain Everything" I said, "Howards Alias aren't anywhere near that heavy..." But I was wrong. We got in and the Southampton lads were bashing through "Doreen" at a rate of knots, Matts guitar
seeming heavier than ever before. The band have found a new bassist but no trombone player yet, they are sounding a lot more heavier, kind of in the vein of Capdown or NoComply. The new bassplayer (Steve) seems perfectly capable, and Rob (trumpet) has taken over from Nick on backing vocals. After "Doreen" they played a few more from the Chamaeleon Script including
"Head Up" - another classic. They finished with "Rob Wants You Dead", a track that seems to be well known by the kids of TW as everybody was skanking and singing. As soon as they finished I collared Matt for a quick interview which should be appearing on here soon.
Matt had been saying that Captain Everything were a tight band and he was right there. I missed the first few songs but was lucky to catch the second half of their set. They play upbeat punk stuff kind of like 4Ft or Consumed, and they are all great musicians. The bassplayer seemed to be double-picking incredibly fast and not even breaking a sweat. The highlight of
their set was undoubtedly the song that was introduced as "every punks worst nightmare", "My Girlfriends Dad Runs A Sweat Shop". Sterling stuff from these guys, Household Name are lucky to have 'em.
Mustard Plug took to the stage soon after Captain Everything after having hidden out in the Forum "green room" for the whole of the rest of the show. And rightly so, they'd have probably been mobbed by the crowd that had gathered in front of the stage. Mustard Plug are one of those slightly overlooked ska acts (see also Mu330 and Distorted Penguins) that do some good
stuff but haven't been overly publicised and rarely tour over here. However, the crowd seemed to know what they wanted and shouts went up for songs immediately. They kicked off with a few songs from Yellow No.5 to give the album a bit of promotion I guess. This was followed by an in-between songs rendition of "War, what is it good for?" that had the audience cheering. I
stood near the back screaming for their Verve Pipe "Freshman" cover but was drowned out by a unified chant of "One! get off your feet! Two! Stamp your boots to the beat!". Dave smiled, realising that they just had to play Skank By Numbers. The song was belted out with feeling, and a few impromptu thrustings of the mic into the crowd for the kids to scream the chorus
lyrics. The set drew to a close with a couple of old favourites including "To Be", and they even came back out for a two song encore (something which is rarely seen at the Forum). My only gripe was that they didn't play Miss Michigan or The Freshman, but I'll forgive 'em this time. Truly a skanktastic night.
Jamie
|
