Crossfire Hurricane, 44 Fires, The Carnabys, Treehouse Fire, The Wonder Beers, Confessions of a traitor at The Hobgoblin Rockgoblin.

Rockgoblin

 

How do you cram 7 bands into one night?

How can you do them justice?

You can’t. You’ll have to take my word that all of them are worth seeing because I saw four of them before and still came back for more.

First in the line-up, in full fancy dress and pumping out Rock ‘n Roll 2014 style was local Staines band Crossfire Hurricane. Better than I remember from the last time; they were tighter and harder.

 

Next on was 44 Fires with their Political Metal. That’s Heavy Metal with a strong dose of left wing politics – mainly Anarchist.

This time round there was no street theatre which was a shame but there was still plenty of angry, idealistic fighting lyrics; songs of peace and freedom.

A different bass player gave them a more traditional Metal sound (what do I know about that?) and playing in an early evening slot is never easy. If I like them there must be something there – I can’t stand metal.

 

Neatly positioned Jägermeister flag there.

Meanwhile these are The Wonder Beers;

 

Armed with raucous songs about beer, kebabs, geezers and Sofa Saturdays recovering from hangovers they weren’t about to disappoint any of their many fans in The Hob.

These are the Carnabys;

 

Of all the bands I hadn’t seen before, I had the highest expectations of them. I liked the last couple of numbers which were gutsier.

What I saw was a really slick, well-rehearsed band; ambitious and tightly focussed on where they are going. They have everything it’s going to take to make it big except for luck and there’s no reason at all why they shouldn’t find some of that.

But the music? I was looking for an edge, a sense of danger and didn’t find it. Ok, I’m too picky. Everyone else thought they were great.

Last band on;

Treehouse Fire, playing Reggae and I saw them a couple of months ago playing with Mocara. This time I took a longer, harder look at them and liked what I heard.

Have I changed? Not sure about that. Certainly this time round I saw them at the end of a long evening which was full of action and noise. Maybe I was looking to come down off that and they turned up at the right time, perhaps I was better able to appreciate what they were doing.

Or have they changed? This time round they were all sporting short hair and ties! Apart from the bouncers, I’m the only one in the Hob who has a tie let alone wears one – where did that all come from?

Did I hear a lot more reggae? Was that Dub? Yeah.

I think that’s how I got won over this time. I’m going to have to catch them again and see what happens next.

And then there’s ‘Confessions of a Traitor’.

Don’t ask me what the music was, I have no idea.

They were in fancy dress but this must be the only band that's probably more outrageous in street gear.

All I remember is a load of noise, synchronised pogo-ing and exploding chaos all around me.

 

By that time the stage was invaded and there were flying bodies everywhere (including mine). I have no idea what is happening here;

Or what they are doing and I don’t really want to know, thanks very much.

All I know is that for a fair old while the singer forgot to use the mike and nobody except me noticed.

Incredibly exciting.

Here’s my advice – max out the credit cards (preferably your own but hey, it’s showbiz - any old ones will do) invent a CV and say or do anything you need to, get yourselves out to the States for a tour of the college circuit.

That’s the small, isolated ones no one goes to.

Where they have courses on corn because they will never believe this. But they will really like it.

Click on a picture for a slideshow and better quality.

That just leaves UKID and I’ll do them separately tomorrow.

Neil Harris

( a don’t stop till you drop production)

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