Local Talent?
Punk at a grassroots level...
Hull’s own Adelphi hosted The Breakfast Club…
Who presented: a trio of choice; Friday 21st June 2024. Yes, 8 till late, set up for all. Everyone could afford it. You paid a bit to get in, or just with your presence. No basketcases, though. (I was a special case.)
Ha! There’s no unnecessary expectations with punk-style music at grassroots level.
As far as I know, punk has never had many expectations; but, it is needed when government is pure madness…I’ll not pretend I know much about that, or about punk culture; nor will I hide my bias for the sheer love for the genre, musically. I don’t really do this whole critique on art. Why? I get it, it’s subjective. So, I’m sorry I’m subjecting you to my opinions. But, that’s free speech… and I’m not claiming to be right, or wrong, or neutral: just human: deal with it.
Punk deals with being human and on this evening of “paying what you can” … unlike established bands that demand £60 plus – for your face to maybe be squished beside another’s, for your hips to grind into a chicken-coup figure-8 spot, for your sweat to drip down your body, for your soul to pay for a shirt and a hoodie and a hat and a CD and a keepsake key-ring, and… you do it… of course you do.
So do I!
True story, went to watch Blink 182 & Frank Turner in London, bustled my way to the front with a little story… because, my cousin?! The menace… that definitely existed… (If you think me revealing that affects my ability to get to the front in the future, you are sorely mistaken.) Anyway… she was getting off with another girl’s boyfriend, handing out narcotics, she was… she was messy… and I had to save her… and, it just happened to help me, and my bestie Becks, get to the front, right at the cold-metallic-bar, touching and tasting the sweat of superstars…only to have two VIP backstage-pass superfan chaps pushing into us the entire time, and one of them was definitely happy to see Travis Barker. How do I know? Becks told me about something that we’ll refer to as a lightsaber that protruded into our personal space… thankfully covered (so far as we know), no force.
Anyway, no force like that happens in our local scene (as far as I know). What does happen is a little magic, a little thing called community, or… sometimes, as far as a brotherhood. Adelphi comes from the Greek to mean brothers; so, really it’s brothers in arms… and yet, absolutely not! It’s more than that.
The Puncturists proved that by packing a right good punch to the heart. I almost forgot I had a heart. Their lyrics, their tone, their crowd work, their variety – not – too shabby – not too shabby at all. They give you life-lessons this band. They’re from Barnsley… I think, they’re worth a listen… for the education. They have a song with a head nod or two to historical feats of literature, about the royally protected creature, swans… they ‘can break your arm’. The band are quite clear-cut on how they feel about establishments that aggravate them too, with a song entitled ‘Pissing me off’, repeated… a lot. Feeling is something they like to linger… along with false finishes… and that’s the power of punk there, to unseat you, to shake you up; it works, it really works.
Sounds like I’m gushing with praise. Good! Critics… real ones, they must be so miserable and wrapped-up in wrinkles of time that pass by pulling apart everything. Thanks… I’ll pass.
Pass on over to a band in Hull itself: Zero Cost. Remember about “paying what you can” for this event? Well… for some people, this event had exactly that label attached to the price of their entry. Following the release of their brand-new EP (available on all platforms) ‘Mouths to Feed’. They played some of their new works… and some of their old works, and they shared stories of how some songs came about, and how some redesigned themselves into new packaging.
They’re a band that knows what diversifying means, and that doesn’t mean pleasing everyone. Punk, if I know one thing about punk… it’s this: it’s about displeasures and opinions and the silenced being heard – never – has it been about pleasing everyone. Not one piece of art is about pleasing everyone.
That’s called selling out.
Reel Big Fish, (no doubt a loose influence) screams this out… while, admittedly, being an intriguingly popular song… a sell-out? We – are… we are losing traction. Thank god Zero Cost didn’t do that. I must be fair, they did play a patch of an intro before a song not meant for the inducing of Rishi’s ringing on about National Service… but, their crowd-work that evening saved it: their harmony as a group, not just as a band, but as like-minded people and individuals with a love for creating – for making people’s ears prick up. Complimentary to them, maybe not to society: ‘mouths to feed’, ‘no way home’, ‘armchair apathist’ are stand outs in their originals… speaking of our society. And then they understood audience’s levels of just how much they can take and switched in a beat of a Ramones cover.
The third and final band, two lively Scots from Glasgow: Nanobots. I didn’t hear much of their set. I heard what they opened with, and I heard what they ended with. Both brilliant songs. The last song sticks with you. A compiling of things about people and animals, and ‘crazy horses’… or perhaps it was ‘crazy whores’’, or maybe… a Scots word, maybe Gaelic. That’d be fabulous!
They kitted out the stage well, and “used the space” – as, an old Drama teacher of mine once said. With boiler suits on, bright visors on their faces, and a cardboard cut-out rocket.
Can confirm… their set, (what I heard of it) felt otherworldly. No complaints.
A good evening all around. Weather was mafting. Too hot for Yorkshire. Music didn’t disappoint… priceless entertainment: the main event for all us: the basketcases everywhere.