590 CAVE IN, THE DAMN PERSONALS, This Is Prologue, Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms, Wednesday 7 May 2003

...and here we are, back on the South Coast for the second time in 4 days. This time, an intriguing gig for Cave In, a Boston band packed with potential, was doubled with the Damn Personals, friends of The Gravel Pit and victims of an unfortunate gig clash in Boston last June, being added to the bill. So once again we motored down and were waiting outside for doors at 8!

Virtually the first person we bumped into in the lobby was a mop-topped character sporting a Seafood t-shirt, which turned out to be DP's bassist Jimmy Jax! We instantly struck up a rapport with him, as again the Gravel Pit tattoo gained some attention! We also met and chilled with vocalist Ken and drummer Mike, and heard the tragic news that The Sheila Divine had split up! Aargh! in fact, big Jim Gilbert nearly accepted the DP's invite to accompany them on this tour as manager/ merch man. Now, just how freaky would that have been?

Popped into the bar with Rach, and suffered the horribly bassy shouty nu-metal stylings of openers This Is Prologue. Not quite as appalling as Winnebago Deal, but really not far off! We then took up our usual (ha!) position at the front, stage right, for the Damn Personals' first ever UK gig. They introduced themselves as hailing from Boston, Massachusetts (just as I'd predicted beforehand!) and burst out of the blocks like prize greyhounds, with opener "Better Living". On record, the DPs brand of rock veers closely to the jagged Who/Stones influenced primal variety, but "live" their numbers really take flight, and assume an identity and purpose of their own. "Better" was easily a quantum leap better (groan) than the CD version, and next number "Fucking In NYC" was raw, aching rock at its freshest and most bloody. The Rumble judge who had to choose between this lot and The Gentlemen sure had a hard job!

Visually too, the Damn Personals are a treat; a highly kinetic band with barely restrained energy and enthusiasm bursting from every riff. This was particularly true of guitarist Anthony, who moved onstage as if he had a snake down his back! Overall, the Damn Personals were damn superb, and the set simply flew by.

Chatted and congratulated again afterwards with Jim, and got free t-shirts from the merch guy! Cool! We then popped back in for headliners Cave In, on at 10.20. They have a Boston reputation for being "proggy", a term which for me, in describing modern bands, really doesn't mean much anymore. However for me, new CD "Antenna" has shades of the pissed-off powerpop of the Posies' "Amazing Disgrace". They certainly left the power full on tonight, as from the outset their set was potent, powerful and strident. Another example that you don't need to scream incoherently to emote, Cave In were a perfect example of dramatic hard rock perfectly restrained and balanced. A pregnant pause during single "Anchor" really appealed to me, although Rach could have done without the squalling white noise of the subsequent number. Overall, though, they also left a very favourable impression.

And we left pretty much straight afterwards! Quick goodbyes with the DPs, as Rach was knackered, and we hammered home in 1 1/4 hours. Wow!

592 CAVE IN, THE DAMN PERSONALS, London University Of London Union, Wednesday 14 May 2003

A promise of a guest-list spot is always good enough reason to justify a midweek trip to London, and thus we tanked it up the M4, avoiding footy play-off traffic near Reading, and amazingly finding a good parking spot in Shepherd's Bush, despite QPR's own play-off game! Tubed it over and hit the venue at 8.15, immediately bumping into Kev and David from Seafood! It subsequently turned out we didn't have a guest-list spot after all, having been "bumped" so Seafood and their +1's could get in free. Bah! Still, we forgave them, being the lovely people we are.

Chatted with da Fooders in the bar, before the opening bars of "Better Living" heralded the entrance of the Damn Personals onstage, so we headed in and down the front. The boys were struggling a little with poor sound set-up in this venue, but their performance was once again incendiary, kinetic and very committed. An early "Fucking In NYC", all jagged and joyful, was probably the set highlight, but this lot share a Boston trademark of being so damn better "live" than on record (and their raw amped-up Stones-ish sound is pretty damn good there too!), and thus are quickly becoming another Beantown favourite!

As before, bassist Jimmy Jax hunted out a set-list for me at the end, and we repaired to the bar with Kev and David before the commencement of Cave In's early-starting set. Took an initial place towards the back of the venue, for their powerful, strident hard-rocking early numbers. The excellent "Anchor", once again featuring the pregnant pause (this time not justified by the vocalist. Good!) was the early highlight, at which point we headed to the back to chill with DP's merch man Jay, during Cave In's more psychedelic interlude. We were joined variously by DP's Ken and Jimmy, and VCR-wielding drummer Mike, who videoed my hernia and stomach scar to show mutual friend EdV back in Boston. That should freak him out... again!

And the band played on! Cave In, still more than adequately audible from our merch stand spot, were laying down another fine, heavy yet restrained melodic rock set with edge, but I was happy to chill with the DPs, comforted by the knowledge that Cave In had just been added to the Reading Festival bill. Bade our farewells shortly after Cave In's set finished, and hammered home to get in for 12.45. God bless The Damn Personals!

609 THE DAMN PERSONALS, Runner And The Thermodynamics, SPACESHOTS, American Car, TT The Bear's Place, Cambridge, MA USA, Tuesday 30 September 2003

Billed as a last chance to "Smoke Em While You Can", before Cambridge follows NYC's example and bans smoking in all places of employment, including (amazingly) pubs and clubs, this is also the last Boston gig for Rachel and myself, for this trip. So we get in early, at 8.45, paying to get in after getting bumped from another Damn Personals guest-list! D'oh! We run into Spaceshots boys Patrick Emswiler and Joe McMahon, catching up on my recent health events. We then get a drink and a pew while American Car play the early set. I like their style - starting off with a song about smoking - but we largely ignore their old school FM rock set after that.

We run into "awesome" Tom Polce, chatting with Josh Lattanzi and Derek Skanky, as we wander onto the dancefloor to see the Spaceshots. I tell Tom that we'd heard that the best-sounding record from Boston this year is the Polce-produced Spaceshots CD. Tom chats, and tells us he hopes they live up to the hype. So do we!

We're treated to a few 1950's pro-smoking adverts, which are quite jolly in a "Pathe News" kind of way, promoting smoking's health benefits (!), before the Spaceshots come on. And when they do, jaws drop immediately with an absolutely stunning opener, "Angelesque", which packs too many words into the chorus line and too much brilliantly simple tunefulness into the song for its' own good. The Spaceshots are great - Patrick is a real star, confident and controlled, and the band chemistry between himself, faithful cohort Ben on drums, Big Joe, and Ed's friend Toirm on guitar, is perfect. Another great, tuneful, hooky powerpop band with huge choruses and fresh ideas from Boston - just what do they put into the water here? This strident, toughened up set has us smiling and more than lives up to the promise; more so as Patrick, who later gives us a copy of the CD (cool!) tells us this is only their, "fourth or fifth gig!"

We chat to Pat then get drinks from Pete Caldes - working the TTs bar tonight! - before Runner And The Thermodynamics' set. They do their best to live up to their name, with an energetic performance, but have a very derivative, zeitgeisty Stones/ Stooges garage rock sound, with little to differentiate them from the likes of, say, Jet or the Von Bondies.

The Damn Personals, now minus Jimmy Jax and with a new spindly bass-man instead, then quickly set up and kick-start their set at 11.30. They open with a newie which then merges into my favourite, the incendiary "Better Way", and it becomes clear they're here to rock, in the most furious, determined and Damn Personal way possible. Much like The Gravel Pit on our first night here this time around, this set is as raggedy-arsed as all hell, The Damn Personals walking the fine line between rock genius and chaos with an incendiary performance, the essence of rock and roll. "Fucking In NYC" is the epitome of this performance, all huge awesome hooks and committed powerful rendition. An unexpected "Models And Airliners", with its' clarion call of "We are New England till the day that we die!" is the highlight for me of an awesome set, which ends with Anthony leaping off the speaker stack next to drummer Mike!

We then say goodbye to whomever we can find, then taxi back to our digs for the last time, for an early flight back to Blighty. Another great Boston trip climaxed in a perfect way by the Spaceshots and the Damn Personals!