Spunge (and May Contain Nuts) 05/05/2008

First off, I must apologise - I forgot my camera! So no pictures this time... My excuse is that I was too hungover to think straight... (I still feel hungover now, an hour after the gig, and nearly 24 hours since I finished drinking last night... )

This is my fourth or fifth gig at Cardiff's Barfly, but the first since I stated my Glog, so I guess I'll give a bit of a description, it's an, erm, special venue! It's a small (200 capacity) basement venue, so it makes for nice intimate gigs, but then as it's a basement it has three big square pillars down the middle, which have drawn blood in the middle of a couple of mosh pits... And the poor performers are on stage with a low ceiling at the front, so every now and then they go to stand on their monitors or similar and smack their heads...

Any way, on with the gig... First off were May Contain Nuts, who are an excellent local punk rock band, with a quirky sense of humour. They managed to get the crowd moving a little, and played a fun set of great songs, the highlight for me being 'The Game O' Legs', for which they ask people who know them to get down the front and play said game. As there were only about 5 people who had heard them before, and two of them weren't up for it, I ended up sat on the (sticky and wet) floor with two other lads playing the game along with the song... I'll let the song explain:

"I'll put my legs out first

You put your legs on mine

Now you put yours on his

I'll take mine away and

I'll put my legs on top

You put your legs on mine

Now you put yours on his

The Game O' Legs!"

Great fun, though we didn't listen to the bit before that, that says 'If you don't wanna bruise, then first take off your shoes'... This song was preceded by another favourite of mine 'Mr. Caveman' which is a fairly offensive song about Osama Bin Laden, which has a great, catchy, sing a long chorus. Once the game of legs was over the people who were up for dancing finally all managed to convene in one spot and we all danced like crazy people for the rest of the set.

The next act was called Hypo-Pshyco. These guys are a ska-punk band, in much the same vein as Spunge, and (in my opinion) far too many other ska-punk bands... They were good, but nothing special in my opinion, as as I was still feeling pretty hungover I took advantage of their set to have a drink and save some energy for Spunge. (last time I saw Spunge [also in Cardiff Barfly] I wasn't far from collapsing from sheer overheating and exhaustion by the end of their set!). They did have quite a lot of energy, and the people who had been dancing by the end of MCN kept it up for their set, and more people started joining in, especially when the band set up a (scarily named) Wall Of Death. Luckily, as the Barfly is small and ska heads tend to be quite nice, it didn't meet in the middle with fists in faces...

I might have to say here that I was very impressed with the speed with which all the bands swapped stage, especially considering the tiny space they have to work in, I don't think the breaks between were even close to half and hour, which is always nice... I still blame the 45 minutes + the Offspring too kto take the stage for me nearly collapsing in the middle of their mosh pit, so I guess you could say it's a pet hate for me...

I like Spunge's style, they are a pretty big band, but in an underground way, so they have zero ego (well, zero noticeable ego) on stage, and give off a really nice vibe. They just kinda wandered on stage at the start, and there was a slight pause before everyone realised they were on stage! They played a great set, got everyone jumping around to all the songs (even the new ones a lot of people evidentally didn't know). They had a good rapport with the audience, and kept up entertaining on stage banter throughout. They even played one of their biggest hits ('Jump On Demand') about half an hour early for a group of people that had to catch a train before the end of the gig, and followed that by a super-fast, 30 second version of another big hit 'Kicking Pigeons'. ("Kicking Pigeons in the park, we had to stop 'cause it got dark") they seemed to get quite confused after this, as I think they forgot what song they had deviated from the set list at, but this just meant we got a bit more say in what songs they played, so no-one was complaining! There were certainly no complaints when they gave away a box of free goodies, although the cardboard box it all came in got a bigger cheer than the contents!

Another downside of the Barfly is that it gets very hot (worse than most venues) and has curved ceilings that collect all the evaporated sweat you normally get rid off and drip it back on your head. The band have played a few time at the Barfly, and this time around they were trying to convince the management to install some air conditioning before they next return, with the guitarist making the point by literally ripping his t-shirt off, after a lot of 'take it off' chanting from the crowd, and a little extra muscle to tear through the hem! He then threw it into the group of (largely) girls at the front, which started a fight over who got the souvenir! By the time they got to the end of their set everyone was tiring, but with the full version of 'Kicking Pigeons' everyone found that little extra energy, and then they got everyone to sing the guitar riff to 'Centerfold' and ripped into that for the finale. As last time I saw them they didn't do an encore, but seeing as they had played every song I wanted, and I was shattered, I'm not complaining!

Go see Spunge (and May contain Nuts ), cause they are great fun, full of energy and good humour. Although I would advise listening to their classics before hand so you can join in with the sing a long choruses, which is half the fun really...

My next gig will be The Charlatans in the Carling Academy in Bristol on next Tuesday (13/05/2008).