Saturday 31 August 2019

1,150 RAZE*REBUILD, Swindon Rolleston Arms, Saturday 24th August 2019



A late shout, this particular gig, despite it featuring a pretty firm staple on my gig “Dance Card”, namely Swindon’s finest purveyors of strong-armed, hard-rocking blue collar millennial punk rock, Raze*Rebuild… the lateness of my decision was down to this gig falling on the last day of our Summer family holiday in Cornwall, a superb but completely rammed week of sightseeing, Eden Projecting and Adrenalin zipwiring. A hectic time, then, so I wasn’t sure I’d have any energy left for a Raze gig; however a swift drive back with, amazingly, no traffic holdups, got us back to the ‘don in more than good time for me to sit and chill awhile before setting off for this one. My 18th Raze*Rebuild gig overall in little over 3 years, putting them a clear 4th on my “most seen bands” list… let’s do this!

Donned shorts and kneestraps as usual and hit the venue just after 8.30, catching up with fellow Raze uber-fan Paul Carter and also Pete Monkey, whose rabble-rousing punk combo 2 Sick Monkeys were headlining tonight, and chilling outside in the warm late Summer evening. We were also joined by various Raze folks and friends, including crazy Jon, our late plus-one from May’s Spanish Love Songs/ Pkew Pkew Pkew Exchange gig (gig 1,136), who’d been to Twickenham for the rugby with his mate and was in entertainingly bizarre and profane form. Eventually the witching hour arrived and Raze were pretty much ready for the off about 20 past 9, so I joined the throng (which by now included Shuffle entrepreneurs Ed and Colin) inside the pub for galloping opener “Burden Of Youth”. Not much room for me to rock out as usual, with too many folks walking between my vantage point and the window-located stage to get to the bar, so I contented myself with some vigorous swaying to Raze’s blend of fist-pumping anthemic Springsteen rock and Bob Mould-esque sheet metal popcore. Then there was the sound…

Si had called for more vocals in the mix during third number, “Kat I’m Sorry”, before really dialling up the stentorian roar himself, totally belting out this huge, stately power ballad (and I mean that in the “Taillights Fade”, “Hear You Me” sense, not the squawking Jennifer Rush sense!). However, this became an unwanted theme tonight, Si repeatedly calling on the young soundman’s services to adjust a murky and uneven sound throughout, at one point even quipping to him, “I bet you thought you’d get to sit down tonight, didn’t you?” Luckily Raze* Rebuild are the type of band to just get the fuck on with it, and their songs are the type of material which can stand (and occasionally actually benefit from) a bit of roughhousing, so, true to form, they simply barrelled through it, delivering an American Hi-Fi-esque set of ragged, rampaging rock. “Sand In The Petrol” was thunderous (Si introducing it with, “here’s a ballad – we can do punk rock and ballads!”), “All The Gear” and “Troubled Minds” an old-fashioned power-packed one-two punch Rock Marciano would have been proud of, and after “Poison Air” required a couple of takes, Si losing the vocals completely first time around, closer “Back To The Fall” (“this is our last song – maybe you’ll hear me singing it, maybe you won’t…” deadpanned Si, ironically) was it’s usual roaring, soaring self. So despite the sound troubles, this was again a typically raucous set from Raze!

A chat with Si afterwards confirmed that this would likely be Raze’s last gig for awhile, Si also commenting that their return would ideally coincide with some new material to freshen the set up from the band’s perspective, some new numbers being in a very embryonic stage and needing considerable work before being gig ready. Fair enough, I guess, although personally I’m not getting tired of hearing this particular set of numbers! Towards the end of the set, it had also dawned on me just how busy my day (and week!) had been, so I, tiring fast, reluctantly decided against sticking around for the Monkeys and headed off home. At least I’d got the chance to see Raze*Rebuild one last time before a likely pause in proceedings – let’s see what they emerge with next time… and hopefully we’ll be able to hear it too!


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