Not that anyone gives a rat's arse but here's the mini review.
Place
Leeds Union - Refectory
Date
Saturday, 11th Novemeber.
Support Acts
Yorkshire Rats
Think of a Dropkick Murphy's tribute band, now make them from Yorkshire and you have the Yorkshire Rat's. It appears these local lads are the British band following Rancid for this leg of the tour. Not a bad set, some of their own songs (none of which grabbed me by the balls) and a few Dropkicks covers. Short set, nothing special but I could easily listen to them again.
6/10
The Unseen
To use the words of my Da "That's not music, that's just bloody noise.". Dunno whether it was the sound engineers fault, or whoever tried to teach these guys to play but they were sodding awful. Vocals trailed on an off, guitars and bass mixed into what can only be called White Noise and the guitarists squeaky girls voice didn't make them the best punk band I've ever seen. The little half arsed 'Hurr hurr, Bush ****s' speech in the middle didn't make me take these guys any more seriously. Why are these guys supporting such heavy hitters as Rancid is beyond me.
Painfully long and uninteresting set.
4/10
The Main Event
Rancid
After seeing The Pixies last year, this band was top on my list of 'bands I must see before I die of heart disease' and they didn't disappoint. Coming onto a cowboy slide show piss take of Shane and then playing for the first few tracks with a video of British tommies 'Going over the top' in the background (classy move lads on the 11th) it was obvious this was going to be an interesting gig.
Coming onto Radio and quickly following with Roots Radicals they won over the crowd instantly with Armstrong throwing himself around the stage and Lars bouncing around in his Yellow tracksuit so much he nearly brought the amps down on him twice. Fantastic set and the videos in the background were classic, ranging from war footage, horror B movies and clips of Taxi driver, to videos from NY and London. High points of the set for me was the extended bass solo during Maxwell Murder and the amazing acoustic version of Fall Back Down. Although they didn't play my favourite track (Old Friend), they did get the entire room bouncing to Time Bomb. Closest to a perfect set I've ever seen from a punk band.
Great interaction from Lars "I'm only ****ing human!" (after announcing the wrong song), although Armstrong looked quite shy throughout the set.
In short, 9/10. If this tour passes near your home town, go see them.
Other highlights
- Range of people there at the gig. Young teeny bopper girls, emo kids, old school Punks, obvious Clash fans, Ska kids and a 60 year old woman dancing like a psycho for the whole thing.
- Seeing a guy with a false leg who I saw 3 years earlier at a Less Than Jake gig.
- Seeing the lighting tech freak out when someone threw a pint over him and nearly blow the lighting controls.
- An American roadie bollock the same techie for ****ing up the lighting during Rancid.
Place
Leeds Union - Refectory
Date
Saturday, 11th Novemeber.
Support Acts
Yorkshire Rats
Think of a Dropkick Murphy's tribute band, now make them from Yorkshire and you have the Yorkshire Rat's. It appears these local lads are the British band following Rancid for this leg of the tour. Not a bad set, some of their own songs (none of which grabbed me by the balls) and a few Dropkicks covers. Short set, nothing special but I could easily listen to them again.
6/10
The Unseen
To use the words of my Da "That's not music, that's just bloody noise.". Dunno whether it was the sound engineers fault, or whoever tried to teach these guys to play but they were sodding awful. Vocals trailed on an off, guitars and bass mixed into what can only be called White Noise and the guitarists squeaky girls voice didn't make them the best punk band I've ever seen. The little half arsed 'Hurr hurr, Bush ****s' speech in the middle didn't make me take these guys any more seriously. Why are these guys supporting such heavy hitters as Rancid is beyond me.
Painfully long and uninteresting set.
4/10
The Main Event
Rancid
After seeing The Pixies last year, this band was top on my list of 'bands I must see before I die of heart disease' and they didn't disappoint. Coming onto a cowboy slide show piss take of Shane and then playing for the first few tracks with a video of British tommies 'Going over the top' in the background (classy move lads on the 11th) it was obvious this was going to be an interesting gig.
Coming onto Radio and quickly following with Roots Radicals they won over the crowd instantly with Armstrong throwing himself around the stage and Lars bouncing around in his Yellow tracksuit so much he nearly brought the amps down on him twice. Fantastic set and the videos in the background were classic, ranging from war footage, horror B movies and clips of Taxi driver, to videos from NY and London. High points of the set for me was the extended bass solo during Maxwell Murder and the amazing acoustic version of Fall Back Down. Although they didn't play my favourite track (Old Friend), they did get the entire room bouncing to Time Bomb. Closest to a perfect set I've ever seen from a punk band.
Great interaction from Lars "I'm only ****ing human!" (after announcing the wrong song), although Armstrong looked quite shy throughout the set.
In short, 9/10. If this tour passes near your home town, go see them.
Other highlights
- Range of people there at the gig. Young teeny bopper girls, emo kids, old school Punks, obvious Clash fans, Ska kids and a 60 year old woman dancing like a psycho for the whole thing.
- Seeing a guy with a false leg who I saw 3 years earlier at a Less Than Jake gig.
- Seeing the lighting tech freak out when someone threw a pint over him and nearly blow the lighting controls.
- An American roadie bollock the same techie for ****ing up the lighting during Rancid.
