Punk ain't dead

Decided to skip the LMS tonight - though the room was surprisingly full, they made £110 tonight by only charging £1 or £2 per head, or sometimes nothing. Instead, I spontaneously decided to go and see the Ruff And Ready tour at the Academy. The King Blues were playing, and I loved them when I saw them supporting Capdown. Also on the tour were Mouthwash (who I was too late to see), Failsafe and headlining were Sonic Boom Six.

Failsafe were pretty good, and seemed to almost be getting into what I consider the real spirit of punk by the end of their set - even though it was a bit heavy and distorted for my usual tastes. I should point out that when I think of punk, I don't think of spiky haircuts, swearing or distorted guitars - it's not a look or a style of music, it's a philosophy and a passion.

That philosophy, that passion, that sheer indefeasible spirit was what I saw in the last two bands tonight. Even though the styles of music were so wildly different, the message and the feeling behind it was the same.

The King Blues had bongos, a ukulele and a couple of acoustic guitars, along with the usual rhythm section and the odd few interesting instruments thrown in every now and then. They combined rap with folk with doo-wop, but it's the spoken word interludes and the preaching to the crowd that really wowed me. You could really feel the passion and fire in every word, as the frontman spoke out against all forms of discrimination and right-wing facism. This wasn't mindless anarchism, this was intelligent and heartfelt, with well thought out points, inspiring not violence or aggression, but thought and inner-searching.

Sonic Boom Six kept the pure punk ambience of the night alive but in a wildly different way. Although King Blues, not Sonic Boom Six were the band from London, I really got the vibe of the London garage scene from these guys. The sort of freestyle rap and hip-hop I'd normally associate with the streets of inner London was mixed in with some heavyish 'punk rock' (as the musical genre is annoyingly called) and some good old fashioned ska. Extremely danceable stuff, a wildly eclectic mix of styles thrown together and some really high quality hip-hop thrown in there (none of the modern 'pimp n playa' stuff, just quality beats and some superb raps and improvs thrown in) to really round it off.

Punk, in its truest and purest form isn't dead at all, the music, the culture and the look may have changed or died, but the spirit is still there, still waiting, go check it out sometime. A caveat however - you're not likely to find it by browsing the 'punk' section of your local music store or torrent site, you'll find it out on the streets, in a small upstairs gig, or on some pirate digital radio - where it belongs.