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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