Break-in tour reviews.
By Tony Fretwell
Date 1 - The maypole.
Wombourne village centre, midnight. A respectable turnout considering the only publicity was on a 7th rate website.
The total number of fans attending? 14. The teaser begins with the tattoo praising
'Modified' which is met with general apathy. Across the street, curtains are twitching.
The fans start to pay attention after the first few bars of 'Still human?' almost all here have a copy of it and they begin to make some effort at appreciation near the end of the last verse. Now on familiar ground, the crowd step up a notch to uncoordinated head banging for the deeply death metal 'Five gold nails'.
At this point the whole of Windmill bank is fully awake and the police have been called. This is made clear to us by several residents who have leant out of their windows to shout 'Go away, we've called the police!' or words to that effect. With unnatural coordination considering the narrow confines of the maypole monument, the band manage to push their amps
deeper into the van, followed by their instruments and finally the band themselves. A cascade of stickers erupt from the passenger-side door as the band-wagon tears of down Giggetty Lane, leaving a trail of exhaust fumes and a rapidly receding cry of 'Leg iiiiiiiiiiiit!' Stickers are snatched up and the crowd disappears faster than a spliff at a house party. Only sticker backs and echoes were left when the police finally arrived.
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Date 2 - Screamers nightclub.
Screamers, a disused nightclub on the edge(ish) of Wolverhampton's commercial district and the venue for the first proper gig on the Break-in tour.
As 1 AM draws near, the first fans appear in ones and twos through the recently un-boarded doors. Even with most of the dust and detritus having been swept away by the band an hour before the place is still a pit, but since it's a free gig there are no complaints. As the fans filter in a battered Discman plays a dubious choice of warm-up music through the vocal amp. The music is by Terrano, one of Skip's previous bands. But soon the REAL music starts and the crowd quickly get into the swing of 'Still human?' closely followed by 'Trendies'. A brief interlude occurs where Sicko requests any undercover police officers to leave. He then warns everybody to be ready to run if the police DO show up. With a cry of 'SKATERRRRRRRRRRRRRs!' and the brandishing of a deck the band lunge into the suitably titled punk sound of 'SK8R'. Throughout the song Sicko beats himself over the head with the deck and by the end has a nasty griptape rash and a profusely bleeding gash in his forehead.
As the last note dies away someone shouts 'You fucking nutter!' The rest of the crowd seem to agree, I know I do. The next song holds the dubious honour of being the most popular bootleg track in Hinksford. '9mm rampage' sends the crowd wild and the mosh pit extends to the four walls! Five minutes of calm descend as the ballad-like 'Troll' plays. An almost simultaneous opening of bottles and cans shows the crowd's appreciation of this slow-down. Someone offers up a bottle of cider to the band and Sicko holds it for the band to drink from during the instrumental section. But the calm is over. The band is ready, the fans are ready and Sicko has something to say:' Scream if you hate Britney!'. Oh, Yes. Sicko's mansonesque snarl throughout 'Britney' whips the crowd into a frenzy and by the second verse everyone is ready to rip Britney Spears to shreds should she walk through the door. But now it's over and the band begins to pack up. Some stay to chat while the rest drift away into the night. An exhilarating experience indeed, but perhaps too short?
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Date 3 - The Dale pub, Wombourne.
Closed for renovation but open to the underground scene(pry-bar power!), The Dale offers plenty of room for the fans AND the band.
With all the boards loosened for a quick getaway, SK8R/FREAK break into their first track of the evening, 'Britney'. Several of those present had obviously been to the Screamers gig as they knew some of the words and joined in energetically on the chorus. The lack of stored alcohol in the pub was entirely ignored by the crowd as they scowled along to the grinding doom-core melody of 'Dark alley'.
Taking an early breather, the band unveils a six-palette stack of beer cans! Carling no less! As Mr Green tells the crowd "Freshly stolen from a CO-OP van this morning by Mr Van Well with assistance from Mr Elphick!" At a pound a can the palettes were quickly emptied. The fans have beer and the band have more tunes! Punk-style the gig continued with 'White noise' and '(Not entirely) stable'. A can-clasping and slightly fuzzy crowd rock along to the literary 'Harm-Joy' and sway (drunkenly) to the hard-rock vocals of tech-master Derry during the excellent 'Turf war'. After a brief pause so that the band could drink down the few cans they had managed to hide the gig was back on track with all four members of SK8R/FREAK contributing verses to the extremely long-titled 'Everything is down to someone else'. As a closing song the band changed style again to roll out the very funny satire 'Pseudo-pop song'. With the musical part of the evening finished, Bassist Chris Van Well invited all the fans to join in with a synchronised pissing on the newly fitted carpet. A top quality evening!
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Date 4 - Himley hall.
Gig cancelled due to police presence. The bloody bribe didn't work!
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Date 5 - Cell phone mast.
Quite probably the best place for an open-air gig in Wombourne. But only from the band's point of view. Situated at the top of a hill and only accessible via a steep and narrow path or across fields, only the most determined fans made it to the top and the bank of sodium lights.
Plugging into the substation/transformer for power, the band was set to play in a mini-Woodstock style. Mud. Lots of mud. Many a pair of DCs and New Rocks were ruined, but the fans were here at last. With a wordless opening typical of the previous gigs, SK8R/FREAK kicked straight into the doomy 'Dark alley'. Perhaps not the best tune to get the fans moving; at least it took their attention away from the mud for a while. From behind the guitar Skip cries "Fucking move or you'll sink, you bastards!" and the Britney baiting begins. 'Fate of a pop star' roars out of the speakers and just for a moment you can imagine that if all pop music were played this way, the world would be better. The light and empty melody of 'Baby one more time' are twisted up and torn apart by Dez's over-engined hybrid of synthesiser, Simmons pads and scratch-decks, the chords ground down to dust by Skip's roaring fret abuse, the rhythm pounded into submission by Vanny's bowel-rupturing bass line and the rhymes jumped up and down on by Sicko's guttural vocals. Without a breath SK8R/FREAK lurch into 'SK8R' and Sicko resumes his self-destructive deck butting last seen at Screamers. As the last chord echoes across the fields a box of stickers appears and is rapidly emptied by those closest to the band. As the band recovers a fight breaks out over sticker trading. The combatants are thrown into the deepest mud to cool off.
Not brightening one bit the next track comes blasting out; Peace of meat' followed by 'Still human?'. The raw hate and vitriolic rage captured on my n-th generation copy of 'Still human?' is as visible live as it must have been when it was first laid down. Everyone headbangs wildly and not a few heads collide. A rumble builds from Dez's tech section and all those who went to the Screamers gig know what's coming next; '9mm rampage'!
A great end to the night and no police!
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Date 6 - Purple six car park, merry hill centre.
As far as acoustics are concerned, the purple six covered car park is not the best place to hold a gig. Echoes and reverberation from pipes are going to be a problem, not to mention security cameras and patrols! But, Vanny assures the crowd as they drift in, security has been taken care of.
The hunderd-odd strong crowd sways along to the familiar 'Still human?' and the cynical attitude of 'Commercial' is something the whole crowd can agree with. During the break Dez needs to re-set his tech section, the rest of the band encourage the fans to "Give security a wave!"
The band unveil their first surprise of the evening; a guest vocalist! Introduced as 14 year old Julie and "someone Sicko knows" she greets the crowd with a flash of the horns and a cry of "Let's hurry up, I'm not supposed to be out this late!" The band glides into the third of their Britney Spears-hating songs, 'Moron'. Sicko joins the mosh pit as Julie takes over lead vocals. Everyone immediately takes to Julie's acid-burn vocals. She screams her way through the song like Morgan Lander's little sister and the crowd love it! But all too soon it's over and Sicko returns to the mic. "More applause, metal heads!" Sicko demands as the grinding chords of 'Flesh' work up to speed. 'Flesh' is racing along at breakneck speed and hair is flying in the mosh pit as Julie crowd-surfs all the way to the back. The sudden end to the song leaves most people confused and the sudden change of pace as 'Firewall' begins doesn't help matters. Neither does Dez's tech section erupting a shower of sparks and catching fire. The band throws down instruments and mic to help quench the blaze. Dez and Skip delve inside to assess the damage as Vanny picks up the mic; "Anyone play guitar?" Sicko gets the mic as a volunteer is chosen. Vanny runs through chords with the volunteer as Sicko explains. The tech section is being fixed, so a rap track will be played on bass and guitar. The crowd looks dubious as the porno-style bass line starts up. But by the end, 'Death stick' turns out to be an acceptable way of passing five minutes.
Now the tech section is fixed, the metal is back! '5 gold nails' death rattles its way along but the band are seized by Security at the end!!! Money quickly changes hands and the security crew leave. Now it's Dez and Skip in the spotlight for the samples-led 'Homer-cidal' Skip kicks in with a distortion guitar rendering of The Simpsons theme with Dez following up with Homer samples and effects.
It's 1 am and the band tries to leave, but the fans demand an encore! "What do you wanna hear?" shouts Sicko "Mor-on! Mor-on! Mor-on!" Julie fights her way to the front and takes the mic for a second run of the Britney-hating anthem.
Excellent!
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Extra date - White house, Penn road.
The biggest crowd yet gathered behind the infamous bio-hazard storage house on the Penn road, nearly a hundred and fifty! The power of word-of-mouth is mighty!
The familiar opening tune, 'Still human?' is an excellent warm up for the night and I saw several people gathered around lyric sheets during the more popular numbers. (Lyrics available from the miss-spelt 'SK8er/freak temple of death' on Yahoo clubs - plug, plug!) Sicko's violent self-destructive deck wielding was noticeable absent from tonight's rendition of 'SK8R' but never mind, 'Trendies' is next and it sets the fans off on an angry chanting of the chorus. To calm the crowd a little, Vanny adopts a super-camp voice and delivers an amusingly vacuous commentary on the fan's clothes and hair. A perfect set up for the 'Pseudo-pop song'! A minute or so into 'White noise' the band suddenly stop as a car pulls up the drive and parks at the side of the house. More fans! And they've brought beer!!! A mad rush of fans surrounds the car and divests the new arrivals of their beer. With none left for the band, Skip threatens to play atomic kitten songs unless some beer is donated RIGHT NOW! Thankfully someone donates and we are saved from the horror. Giving up on 'White noise' the band plunge into 'Flesh' at Slipknot speed. Dez is in fine voice for the hard rock melodies of 'Turf war' and all four join in for the chorus of 'Everything is down to someone else'. "D'you wanna hear 'Moron'?" Shouts Sicko. The crowd definitely DO want to hear 'Moron'. "Well you can't! Julie's been grounded!" The fans are not at all happy. "How about this instead?" cries Vanny as the tectonic rumbling intro to '9mm rampage' begins. It'll do.
But there's time left for an encore and what an encore! 'Fate of a pop star' blasts out of the speakers and the mosh pit churns with the last dance of the night.
Don't read it, print it out. It'll be easier on your eyes.
Yes, I know this should be at the top but fuck it. |
