A few years ago the place to be if you were a fan of heavy, punky and generally alternative music in Guernsey was the Hockey Club where a group known as Discharge would put on the sort of nights to get bodies moshing and heads banging.
Well since the demise of that location as a regular venue Discharge have had to make do with their place within the Vale Earth Fair and their annual 3 day festival at Pleinmont alongside the Green Man MCC Chaos Weekend.
On Saturday 4 October 2008 however, this changed as Discharge held the first of (hopefully) many monthly nights at the Fermain Tavern – this month focussing on punk rock.
With the lights dimmed and a smoke machine working overtime the Tavern had the feeling I remember from my early gig going days there when it was one of the darkest and dankest venues on the island.
This was the perfect atmosphere for a Discharge show and things got off to a ferocious start with the twisted punk assault of The Ejaculations.
Mixing original material with distorted cover versions of pop hits and straight up hardcore covers The Ejaculations proved themselves an at once entertaining yet still extremely punk proposition.
Never ones to be restricted by what others perceive of them they paid there own unique tribute to Elton John with their take on ‘Crocodile Rock’ and Los Lobos with a track clearly influenced by ‘La Bamba’!
This though was just the sideshow as when they put their minds to it they did what all great punk acts do, divide opinion and play some great uncompromising music. With Andy as focal centre and undeniably entertaining front man, this left James Burton and Dan Garnham to provide the driving rhythm of the band.
Being down a member tonight didn’t seem to have dimmed their impact, if anything they seemed more focussed than ever and as they left the stage following their version of Misfits classic ‘Where Eagles Dare’ many seemed to have enjoyed their set, despite the constant heckling throughout.
Unfortunately following The Ejaculations it seemed the already small crowd shrank even further giving pop-punkers 2 Minutes 2 Late a major challenge, but they carried on regardless and despite a clearly ill guitar player played a great and fun set.
As ever Pikey and co didn’t really do anything that could be considered mould breaking, but that has never been their point as they combine classic pop punk covers from the likes of Jimmy Eat World. Blink-182 and Bowling For Soup with originals in a similar vein to provide great slices of nostalgia for people like me and great accessible dance-y sounds for the younger crowd members - just tonight there was no one to dance.
The thing that stood out for me about their show tonight was how their originals fitted in with the covers and all had a familiar sing along vibe to them which is always impressive.
Tonight was definitely a good start for the newly rejuvenated Discharge nights, I just hope that future shows have a higher attendance.
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