Pignut

HURRAH! It's Easter holidays, I'm off college for a few weeks, have moved out of the hustle & bustle of smokey Manchester [and away from those pesky car theives that are somehow attracted to my Vauxhall Astra] and into the Foot & Mouth-infected Shropshire where burning sheep & cows greet me with a similarly smokey cloud.

Ah well, at least I get to meet up with a few mates & mosey on down to the Foundry in Birmingham for a top night of ska-punk action. Talking to CHUMPSTATE before the show they seemed very pessimistic about what I was gonna think about them, advising me to come back when they'd finished. Well, I did stop, and although I do agree that their skate-punk sound was kinda shabby & that a good solid practise is long overdue I get the feeling that with better equipment & tighter songs they could ripen into something very powerful.

TEN MEN JEN follow in a more melodious vein and really start to get the impressively large crowd [esp considering this is a local band night for local people] warmed up for the later bands, who are obviously starting to gain a BIG following in the west Midlands. A nice touch of early AFI here & there but a bit more energy wouldn't go amiss.

After speaking to fellow DiS-er James Benwell and establishing that the next band isn't Pignut but is in fact special guests, The Buggers [written in small print at the bottom of the flyer, might I add] it quickly becomes apparent that this isn't any ordinary 'local band' night. The Buggers come accross experienced & talented as they blast the crowd with their poppy melodi-core choons. Kind of like Mad Caddies without the horns. Their 3-track EP jus got 4/5 in Kerrang! so it's worth checking out their website www.thebuggers.com for more details.

And now onto PIGNUT. These guys recently supported Goldfinger on their recent tour but a more apt band would have to be Less Than Jake for these guys [sorry, and gall] possess much of the same bouncy, sunshine-soaked grooves that LTJ are famed for. Man, that must be hard coming from dull old Birmingham. Seriously though, Pignut really know how to whip the crowd into a frenzy, with an energetic horn section that can't help doing mad bendy jumps at every opportunity together with an amazingly tight, professional sound. In just about every song there's a crowd invasion and any punker walking in off the street & seeing the crowd's reaction could be forgiven for thinking it was Less Than Jake themselves or a similar californian Ska-punk band. They really were THAT good! After a rip-roaring cover of NOFX's The Brews and impressive backflips off the side speakers from some random punter they play one last 2-minute number right up to the curfew.

It would be a crime for any self-repecting punker not check out any of these bands if ever they got an opportunity in the near future.