The Skints, Dirty Rev, Mouthwash, Anti-Vigilante

Posted by jamie on Mar 25, 2010

The Skints, Dirty Revolution,

Mouthwash, Anti-VigilanteLondon

 

 

 

20^th March 2010

 

Jamie

 

It’s rude to look a gift-horse in the mouth, apparently.  For anyone as confused as I was the first time I heard that, it basically means that if something arrives in your life as an unexpected gift, you should grab it rather than waste the opportunity by checking whether or not it’s right until, just too soon, your lucky surprise disappears.  It’s to do with a horse’s teeth being a good clue to its age, if you’re still struggling.  Like the rings in a tree.  Whatever.

 

So, anyway, when Josh out of the Skints, mentions, not once but twice,  that there are plenty of punk rock shows going on in London tonight, I decided I’d give in and let him decide my opening paragraph again.  As a front-man, the guy is wonderfully quotable, and I ended up doing the same thing the last time I reviewed the Skints.  The thing is, there’s something that really, really needs to be said on that subject.  To put it simply, everyone I know has been talking about this show for ages.  In fact, I saw people who I know had come from Milton Keynes, miles away up North, and Southampton, right on the south coast, to be in this room.  That basically means that in the whole of the south of England, for this many people and more, this was the room to be in. 

Touching as it might be for the Skints, or for any of the bands that played tonight, that they’ve drawn a crowd despite there being other decent shows on, tonight, between them, they’ve made the Borderline the hottest ticket in town.

 

Without that ticket in my pocket, it was a stressful rush through a rainy Saturday afternoon tourist jam on Tottenham Court Road, and, the doors being firmly shut when we arrived (5.30), we ended up doing that twice.  No dramas, it’s well worth it once you’re inside.

Anti-Vigilante open the show with a wonderfully vital set of peppy, snotty, spiky ska-core that immediately gets the early arrivals pogoing and happily shouting back.  For the record, this is another Rebel Alliance show that’s close to full from pretty early on.  The rush for tickets and the panic among the likes of me who couldn’t get them early enough to feel safe probably saw to that.  Anti-Vigilante, of course, are as good as it gets as an opening band.  They start with Skoliver and race through a typically abrasive set, stopping only briefly to shout out to the other bands.  These guys are more fun every time I see them, and are clearly delighted to be here tonight.  Grinning from ear to ear, they spin the room, while there’s still the space, in to a skankpit that’s all elbows and feet, and scarcely even stand still themselves: four lads from Milton Keynes become a flurry of riffs and kicks and the night’s off to a great start.  Anti-Vigilante marry their trademark enthusiasm to a great set of songs.  By the time they’re gone, I just bobbed upstairs for one minute, and immediately, coming back from the chill upstairs, walked in to a wall of sweaty air between stairs and dancefloor.  Underneath that heavy, sweaty cloud there were smiles slapped across every single face that bore testament to what had just happened.  It’s raining outside, but the Borderline still make you wait out there in lines for ages.  Surely a sulk or two, out of the whole room, could be forgiven?  Not a bit of it.

 

The identity of tonight’s second band has been kept a secret.  Chips has been asked a few times for any rumours.  Josh from Anti-Vigilante did mention “a sort of London-themed surprise” at one point, but then quickly hushes up the shouted guesses.  Having spotted every member of Mouthwash in the crowd before they sneak on, under cover of darkness, though, it’s not a total surprise that they’re up next.

 

I’m ill, by the way, so watched this one tucked away at the back.  Pretty soon all you could see was a see of fists and pointing hands in rhythm to chants of “solid as a rock” over and over.  It pretty much just took off from there, That Girl, is glorious and Josh (the Skints) appears to guest on Fool’s Gold after.  It’s a heady stomp through a stunning set of songs:  the basslines and riffs are so big you can feel them through the floor, and the room fairly shakes with the amount of sound Mouthwash are producing.  Pinned back by the sound, we’re pretty much stuck where we’re standing but the floor below us is going off and all around on the upper levels little pockets of pit and of dancing just open up and move around all the time.  As the guys play on, the usual songs are gobbled up with glee.  No Fear, as usual, becomes something of a love-in, and We Evolve is close to the opposite.  Mouthwash deliver their set with so much energy and that really transfers over to the room.  It just makes you so happy.  They’ve given an incredible set, so it almost seems a shame to mention the fact that the sound guy cut them off in the intro to Hazy Days.  It would’ve been the last song, and they were allowed to start it.  Scarcely had it begun, though, before the sound was cut underneath them.  We don’t usually do this sort of thing, but really, I’d complain to the Borderline.  Click here to do it.  I’ve never, ever seen that happen.  If proof were needed of just how good Mouthwash actually were, though, after the initial confusion and disappointment, it didn’t really put a downer on the night.  No-one likes a jobsworth, but I guess the vibe in there was just so good it could survive.

 

Dirty Revolution are the latest addition to the Rebel Alliance roster, and their first release on the label is due out on 10^th May, and pre-orders are available.  In an ever-tightening crowd, I caught a quick word from Punktastic’s Alex Hambleton.  He’s got his hands on an advance copy and apparently Before the Fire is incredible.  Stepping confidently out, all four of them head to toe in black, Dirty Revolution look a totally different beast to the band I watched open a Do the Dog show at the Rhythm Factory in 2008.  Even then, though, as the newest act on that label, they looked like a really exciting prospect and a fantastic live band. 

 

A more traditional, rootsy take on the punk/ska/reggae thing, Dirty Rev are a “classic” four-piece, drums, bass, and two guitars and vocals, and, where needed, a melodica.  From that first EP It’s Gonna Get Dirty, they’re still playing I Love Reggae, which opens the set, and 50p: “this is a song about my arse”, surely the introduction of the night, if not the year.  In it, for the record, Reb does sing about her booty.  I’m sure you know that by now.  Their songs have always been jammed with melody, and the jaunty, choppy guitar work is a treat: upstrokes shouldn’t be underestimated, and here they get to demonstrate exactly why they’re so skankable.  Sometimes You’re Too Rude off the new record gets an airing too, and, by the time they wrap up with Before the Fire we’re a swaying, rocking, giddy mess. On the floor everybody’s moving too, and it’s not long gone nine.  Gently sparkling with other people’s sweat and hungrily sucking in cold air in search of oxygen, the Borderline relaxes after a good, hard work out for its legs and readies itself to go one more time..

 

The Skints, predictably, are pretty much out of this world.  Taking the stage underneath tourist town in the clammy, yet oppressively warm basement, packed with an adoring crowd, they set about finishing the night off in style.  Emerging from behind a red velvet curtain always helps, I imagine. 

 

And then there’s the songs.  It’s been a hard weekend, and I’m so exhausted now I couldn’t put a setlist in order.  The tough thing sometimes about writing afterwards is that at good shows a guy like me doesn’t want to be taking notes.  Sick or not, I don’t think I’d have had a biro out tonight.  There was no room apart from anything else.

 

Bright Girl turns up early, but it’s only been moments, if even that, that the Skints are on stage before the room is bobbing and weaving around, swaying joyously side to side and back and forth, shoulder to shoulder and wrapped in the heat and the rich, warm tunes.  I’m shattered, and the show so rarely stopped that it’s a bit of a blur.  At the point, though, where Josh teases “who can’t wait for summer?” and Jamie K starts to sing, the whole room bounces as one, and noone quite gets the “bom-bayyyy” bit right.  No matter.  Murderer, Roanna’s Song (and Sweat) and Change the Channel are in there and there’s one point where, right at the back of the room, when Marcia sings “I won’t hesitate..” for the first time, that I’d clapped my hand over my open mouth and was standing there totally agog and in awe.  Yes, it was that good, chin on the floor good, and, for some, feet in the air good: we start to see crowd surfers diving full length from the stage.  Most all of them seem to make it all the way back it’s so rammed down there, and then, somewhere after Murderer, right at the end, the stage is full of half the people from the pit.  Two security types try to get on to get them down, but to begin with they can’t even get on there to get the people off.  Contemplations of a Modern Rudeboy ends the show, but the Skints are begged back on to stage, having only got halfway off, in fairness, and perform Sociopath before the lights come on.

 

Once they are on, and it’s clear that nothing else is happening, we go our separate ways pretty quickly.  In our almost trance-like state, there’s not much to grab your attention, really, or at least not much that could compete: I was totally knocked back by what I’d seen tonight, and that’s with being well aware of how good these bands actually are. 

 

A couple of quick, spaced out, shuffling hugs, then, and, with the stairs to the exit right by the floor, it’s time to go.  The room’s running out of air, after all, or, at least, there’s a lot of goldfish mouths about in the rapidly thinning crowd.

 

 

Before the Fire: available now.

Posted by jamie on Mar 1, 2010

Dirty Revolution’s first full length, Before the Fire, is now available for pre-order from Rebel Alliance.

You can also join the guys on facebook here.

Before the Fire

Posted by chips on Feb 21, 2010

Dirty Revolution release ‘Before The Fire’, their first album on Rebel Alliance, in April.  Exact date is still TBC.

NEW Skints headline show.

Posted by chips on Feb 21, 2010

The Skints hit  with a headline show at the Borderline in Orange Yard, Charing Cross Road on Saturday 20th March.

Support comes from their newest Rebel Alliance collaborators, Dirty Revolution Milton Keynes skacore upstarts Anti Vigilante.

Tickets £7adv.  See it on facebook here.  Also, here’s a pic of me with Josh from AV.

Other March dates in place right now :
11th SOUTHAMPTON UNIT
13th PLYMOUTH WHITE RABBIT
14th EXETER TIMEPIECE
18th MANCHESTER STAR & GARTER
26th SHEERNESS IVY LEAF BAR
27th ALTON COMMUNITY CENTRE

Dirty Revolution: Before the Fire

Posted by jamie on Feb 15, 2010

Dirty Revolution will release their first full-length album, “Before the Fire”, in March on Rebel Alliance Recordings.

To celebrate its release, the band will play an Album Launch show at Cardiff Barfly on 6th March, with the Melophobes and the fantastic Anti Vigilante.

There’ll also be a free instore show at Spillers records at 4pm on the day of the gig.

Dirty Revolution sign to Rebel Alliance.

Posted by chips on Jan 21, 2010

Cardiff’s Dirty Revolution have become the latest new act on the Rebel Alliance roster.

“On ‘Before The Fire’, they’ve created the perfect taster of their distinct brand of rebel music which fits in perfectly alongside the Rebel Alliance roster as well as providing a nod to the old-school ska and punk of bands like The Slits and The Selecter.” say the Rebel Alliance folk.  Exciting stuff.  More news, we’re told, will follow soon, and, as soon as we get it, it’ll be on here. 

New Slackers tour dates

Posted by jamie on Dec 20, 2009

DO THE DOG BANDS’ TOUR DATES

Posted by jamie on Jul 26, 2009

Got money?

Posted by jamie on Jun 6, 2009

Dirty Revolution need help funding the recording of their new album “so they can make it great and quick”.  Contact rebelsrevenge@hotmail.com if you can help.  Oh - and their first EP is in the Do the Dog sale.

Dirty Revolution on Radio 1

Posted by jamie on Feb 24, 2009

Last night (Monday) Dirty Revolution got their anti-racist anthem “I Love Reggae” on Radio 1 again, on Mike Davies’ late night Punk Rock Show. 

You can listen again to the show for the next week at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/mikedavies or just email punk.show@bbc.co.uk & asking for more Dirty Revolution.