|
|
Okay so we all know that Antiproduct tour like absolute bastards but two gigs in the same city in the space of 18 days? That's either very brave or very stupid. Knowing Alex Kane, probably a mixture of both.
Late buses mean I miss the first band of the evening, glam-punk types Phluid so it's the ska-punk of Mr Shiraz that kicks the evening off for me. Predictably, these Leeds teens go down an absolute storm with the mini-mosher quotient but there's enough substance in their set to suggest that they can mix it with the big boys.
If Mr Phluid are perhaps a predictable choice of support for Antiproduct, the same couldn't be said of the Scaramanga Six (who I finally get to see live without ten-odd pints clogging up my critical faculties!) but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Sounding like a heavier version of the Fall, they create the sort of dark aura of menace that draws you in excellently with the set veering between slow-burning disquiet and all out thrash stroppiness. Most engrossing.
But, of course, it's Antiproduct that everyone's here to see tonight and boy do they deliver the good times in spades. Crashing on with "Thank God I'm Right", their set takes in all the classics ("If I Was Orson Wells", "Bungee Jumping People Die", "Arms Around The World"), at least two mass singalongs, dragging their website editor onstage for a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Get Off My Cloud" and a few hapless souls quickly learning why not paying attention at an Antiproduct gig is A Bad Idea ("HEY LOOK EVERYONE, IT'S STUART AND MICHELLE FROM BIG BROTHER!!!" shouts Alex at a couple hunched up at the back trying to have a quiet conversation).
They end with a warp-speed cover of the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" with Alex sprinting round the audience offering the mic to willing participants and you leave the venue grinning like a total lobotomised loon. Forget the Darkness' drama queen theatrics, proper good time rock 'n' roll, it seems, is back to stay with a vengeance.
Review and pic by Andy James
