Anti Nowhere League + Strawberry Blondes + 4th Wall @ Birmingham Academy 2 – 12th July 2008
Ah, the dingier side of the Academy. How I’ve missed you. The dank of the Academy 2 conjures the appropriate dive bar atmosphere that the leather jacket-ed and steel-plated boot-wearing crowd have come here for, and while we’re here the summer evening is very much a world away. I am certainly not punk enough for this old guard. But then, neither is the guy in the cowboy hat.
Nor, it seems, are the first support act, 4th Wall. Being first on the bill is never a good slot, but the crowd – apart from the requisite three Drink Drank Punks on the barrier – are not up for 4th Wall’s generica punk rock, no matter how well done it may be.
On next, self-consciously punk Strawberry Blondes are received more enthusiastically by the New Rock generation who make up the other half of the night’s crowd, despite some tuning issues. Have You Ever and Rise Up are hook-tastic and display all the best elements of two-and-a-half-minute punk songs made popular by the 90’s San Francisco scene. I definitely appreciated the ska flavour of the latter part of their set.
When you declare yourselves the future of British punk rock, you have to be arrogant and really rather good, or risk looking like a total ass. I think Strawberry Blondes may just escape the tarring and feathering, although they are a little too scene for the old-school punks that the frontman tries very hard to impress.
Finally we get to the act we’re waiting for; Anti Nowhere League open with We Are… The League and the crowd is suddenly alive. Frontman Animal was on top form, playing to our camera and the raised fists of the pit. From the moment that the first (plastic) glass is thrown, it’s clear that we’re in for a good night.
The set was comprised of classics, mixed with some tracks from Pig Iron and the latest album, Road to Rampton. One of the best-known tracks thanks to a Metallica cover, So What is a song I had listened to a dozen times before I realised who it was originally by, so hearing it live was fantastic. It was one of two tracks shouted for pretty much since the band took to the stage (the other being Streets of London), so when they started to play there was a roar.
Dead Heroes was the only off note of the night for me; for most of the set we were stomping like it was 1982, and the abrupt reminder that we were actually in the future was a little sobering, a shock out of the punk bubble. This was quickly shaken off, however, ANWL not leaving time to pause before launching into the next track and sweeping us along with them.
Shady (bass) lost a string mid-Streets of London, but it didn’t make a dent in the atmosphere. The crowd were all raised fists and barrier-rattling and thrown glasses; one of the most curious things about a ‘proper’ punk show is that the more glasses thrown, the better the show is received. This is directly inverse to festival etiquette.
ANWL came back on for an encore and a bass change, and end the night as they opened with We Are… The League. The floor rattled with Docs as for a little time in that dingy room we get a glimpse of Brit-punk in the pre-myspaceface format. This is why the declaration of the Strawberry Blondes’ was met with bemusement: for this crowd, British punk [rock] hasn’t gone anywhere.
Review – Jack Briggs
Photos – Lucy Pryor