1,289 MIDWAY STILL, Falling Stacks, The Setbacks, Bristol The Crown, Wednesday 12th July 2023

“Because Midway Still aren’t coming back…” There’s a Facebook fan site thusly named, celebrating the early 90’s (post-Grunge, pre-Britpop) underground indie scene, when bands such as Mega City Four, Senseless Things and our titular heroes The Still would load up in a van, drive the length and breadth of our green and pleasant land and ply their usually raw, ragged and ramshackle punkish mess in front of any group of long lank-haired, big-shorted indie-kids who’d ‘ave ‘em. For various reasons, sadly, we’re no longer likely to see the Things or the Megas, but it just seems that recently, Midway Still just keep coming back… An utterly incendiary set at Shiiine On 2021, despite initial collywobbles, not only won “Band Of The Weekend” for this returning rabble, but on reflection is currently my favourite Shiiine On set evah! So, two years later, more of the same? Hell fucking yeah!

 

Tim of course is also a Still acolyte, having put them on twice at Swindon’s Vic (May 2010, gig 788 being the most recent time), so he was up for this one too, picking me up at 6.30 for a drive down the M4 to the first of 3 new Bristol venues for me in the next couple of months. This one was a down and dirty tiny beer cellar downstairs room, complete with bitumen-black painted brick curved ceiling, below a ramshackle and sprawling city centre pub. This one might get sweaty…! But first, after checking out opening act The Setbacks (a veteran 5-piece playing basic and formulaic unfocussed poppy punk, all pounding drums, power chords and shouty vocals) and deciding they weren’t for us, Tim and I got a drink and sat in the alley outside the front, catching the last of the evening sun. Good thing we did, in fact, as the good gentlemen of Midway Still sauntered up, greeting us like long-lost comrades, and joined us for a drink and chat! I was happy to share the news of my brother’s full recovery from Covid (he’d just gotten out of ICU when we last spoke, at Shiiine On 2021) and we chewed the Cud (pardon the pun – first time I saw the Still, waaay back in 1991’s gig 196, was supporting The Cud Band!) as other friends and fans wandered by, or joined us briefly. Maybe not the 90 attendees at last night’s Birmingham gig, but still plenty of love in Brizzle tonight for The Still!

 Eventually wandered down for the late-running last knockings of main support Falling Stacks (who were an improvement on the openers, but still just background noise to my and Tim’s bar chat). Took a spot down the front as The Still plugged in, Dec Kelly’s eye-catching kinetic rolling drum style and Russell Lee’s driving bass and Ramones-esque wide stance thereafter underpinning a ragged, powerful opening “Note To Self”, pretty much setting the tone for the set. “I’m 55 – time I sorted my fucking life out,” deadpanned guitarist/ vocalist Paul Thomson before the Lemonheads-like laze rock of “Jamie And Gigi”, then the frantic luge hurtle of “Counting Days” was introduced with a pithy; “this next song is 32 years old; only a little bit younger than me! [Mind you,] Dec’s been in this band since he was 12 – he’s now 70!”

 

The Still were in fine fooling tonight, then, their snarky and sarky comments and self-deprecating humour as much a feature as the rock, which was fast, fierce and elemental, and, with the “Handle With Care” labels long faded, delivered with a raw and ramshackle vigour and enthusiasm belying their “veteran” status. And, belying my own advancing years and dodgy knees, I rocked out down the front as best I could, happily working up a sweat (Full Cleo! Yay!) to The Still. An early string breakage (“that hasn’t happened for fucking years!”) necessitated Paul’s borrowing of the support’s guitar, the man giving us a “Back in Black” riff (“it’s our new single – Back and Shite!”) to tune up. The driving Dinosaur-esque verse and pounding, descending hook of “Me In You” was tremendous; the “juxta-fucking-position” of “Miss You” and the breakneck “Fuck You” a thrilling double-whammy; and whilst “Better Than Before” was looser and relatively sedate, the subsequent “What You Said” brought the heavy riffery roaring back with a vengeance. However, they saved the best for last; after getting the 5-minute time warning, Paul thanked the hardy yet enthusiastic souls (“it’s amazing you’ve all come to see this shambolic fucking wreck of a band!”) before letting loose with a rip-roaringly brilliant “You Made Me Realise”, once again including the whole of “Come Down” in the middle-8 feedback fest before a lengthy thrilling riff-heavy outro. Great stuff!

 Grabbed some air and more chats and compliments with the boys outside afterwards, before bidding farewell and heading off for a drive home punctuated by idiot lorries on the M4. I’ll ache in the morning, but as always, well worth it… If they’re going to deliver such incendiary performances as this, as far as I’m concerned Midway Still can keep coming back… and back… and back!