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Punkfest 3

Exeter Phoenix - 18/7/04

A festival. Of punk. And not punk.

So what was a non-punk who openly admits to not being a big punk fan doing at the Punkfest then? He was there to see a band almost as out of place as he was, The Saii Corporation. Comparisons with early Mogwai are obvious, big brooding, wailing guitars building up in hugely atmospheric space rock songs to a cathartic, distorted crescendo, but whereas Mogwai go from quiet to loud The Saii Corporation go from loud to louder. It’s angry Mogwai. Space-punk maybe. It’s also rather fantastic. An incredibly energetic and exciting show (both musically and visually) which really hits the spot. It wasn’t perfect, technically speaking, but a little bit of a tighter performance and it would be damn near it. Impressive.
9 out of 10



The big danger of going to a gig to watch the opening band is that there’s a danger of it being downhill from thereon in, so could Loggerhead impress equally? Well, no, not really. They just weren’t my thing, punk rock with heavy metal influences actually makes me feel quite ill, especially generic examples of it. That said the only problem with Loggerhead is that I don’t like that style of music, otherwise Loggerhead are very good. Fantastic even, if you like that kind of thing. They played very well, were charming, confident, fun and just about everything else you could ask for. I even found myself almost liking it. Worth a look if you’re more punk than me.
6 out of 10



So Loggerhead were not all that and the next band were Not All That and were also not all that. Playing rather generic and dumb punk rock Not All That were also “not my thing”. In fact, you can apply most of the above review for Loggerhead to them as well, just with a slightly different style of music. A few mistakes aside they were very good at what they were doing, I just didn’t like what they were doing. Sorry.
6 out of 10




Burning Coalition also seemed quite generic to me, but they were at least distinctive enough to make it stand out a bit from the bands that had gone before, but not quite enough to make it stick in the mind to any particular degree. Quite straight punk rock played to an impressive standard (at least until the heat took its toll and the singer/guitarist started feeling faint, poor bugger) and certainly good enough to cut the mustard. But then, I don’t like mustard, so what use is that to me?
7 out of 10




The real mystery about Resonate is how does someone so small and cute looking scream like a demon with his balls in a blender? I expected a lot from Resonate, so I was quite worried for the first couple of songs they played simply, because they weren’t very good. They didn’t flow at all and there were several mistakes. It looked like they were going to be overwhelmed by the size of the venue (three small people on a big stage doesn’t help this appearance), but there are turnarounds then there are turnarounds. This was a particularly magnificent one. A few songs into the set and Resonate turned into the screaming, rocking monster of a band they are. I want to buy stocks in them now because if they get better over time they’re going to be huge, or they deserve to be at least.
8 out of 10





I’ve been getting bored of Robolint lately, the joke’s been getting old, so I went into this with resigned to being disappointed. Try as I did to have a bad time though Robolint just had to go and put a smile on my face didn’t they? Hell, I almost danced. Bastards. They had new material (music and jokes, both good) and worked the crowd like no other band I can think of (they got everyone to curl into a ball and rock back and forth on the floor at one point). Their show is much better suited to a larger stage where their sing along anthems fill the room and they have much more space to run around and act like complete twats (in a good way). Robolint’s music might not make you think much, but it doesn’t half make you grin. Immense fun.
8 out of 10





For some reason Wenchface made me think of a punk version of Faith No More, but this could just be because their drummer made me think of a shaven Mike Bordin. Never mind. Wenchface were another punk band, but an infinitely better one. They’re take on punk music was still heavy and fast but was very individual and inventive, encompassed a variety of styles and they also had the advantage of having a very talented and entertaining vocalist (despite his worrying habit of spanking himself) on the team too. Great musicianship, hugely entertaining and slightly addictive, Wenchface were definitely the best band of the night.
9 out of 10





Second Class Citizens play thrash-punk, this means that it is a) heavy and b) fast. It has to be said that these parameters do limit the musical range on show but still it’s rather impressive. To be fair there was some variation in the music (there was quite fast, fast, very fast, really fucking fast and “everything’s a blur” fast) and everyone should hear ska-thrash-punk at least once in their lives. Unfortunately that might be harder now, as this was a goodbye gig from the SCC boys and they gave it their all and put on a storming performance, it’s hard to imagine many other bands in the country playing this kind of music better. It’s a shame to see them go, even if just for a while.
7 out of 10





* Additional note – For some reason I came away from this gig with Lovecats by The Cure stuck in my head. I can offer no explanation as to why*