Bristol punk rock - Kiss me, Killer

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LaDIYfest 2017 takes over Bristol’s Southbank Club

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Kiss Me, Killer were among a varied, ass-kicking lineup of bands at this year’s LaDIYFest, which took place at the Southville Club, Bristol.

LaDIYfest, if you didn’t already know, is a non-profit, DIY collective, celebrating the achievements of self-defining women and people of oppressed genders through a festival of music, arts and skill sharing. There’s an international movement of such festivals, stretching back to the first Ladyfest in Olympia, Washington in 2000.

During the daytime attendees could enjoy workshop on a range of themes or browse stalls from a wide range of activist groups and artists. Kiss Me, Killer’s Cat had been on hand all day among the volunteers and our drummer AJ produced the funky poster.

In the evening the festival moved from workshops to live music. The organisers had hired in a great PA and Kiss Me, Killer sorted cabs and amps for bands that needed to travel light.

First band on were local Bristol guitar’n’drums band Spunking Octochoke who served up a varied, manic set of songs that calumniated in the audience chanting along to signature tune, Power pussy!, which I now sing every time my cat wanders into the room. Anyway, the band really warmed up the crowd and got them ready for what was to come.

Next up, and many people’s ‘find’ of the night, was Dispute Settlement Mechanism who’d come all the way from Leamington Spa. The bass, drums and vox lineup served up pounding, primal beats, distorted basslines and searing vocals with lyrics exploring political themes. They really went down a storm.

We took to the stage next, our first live performance for over a month, but we were in pretty good shape, powering through all the songs on our forthcoming EP and more besides. Cheri, our photographer and merch grrrl extraordinaire, managed to capture some incredible shots, including some of Nat and Holly getting up close with the crowd – definitely one for the Kiss Me, Killer coffee table book.

Members of Drunken Butterfly were instrumental in creating LaDIYfest 2017 and took to the Southville Club stage with their folk-punk mix.There were furious bits, then softer bits, then more furious bits. A great, great set.

London band Screaming Toenail had to pull out due to ill health but, no matter, as Young Adventurers proved a brilliant headline act. If you thought Devon was all about taking your Nan for a cream tea, think again – Exeter is clearly a hotbed of incendiary new rock bands. The band met at an event called School of Frock, which encouraged women to pick up instruments and form bands. That was three years ago and the Young Adventurers are now a brilliant live act combining riotous rock with brilliant melodies. Singer/guitarist Catherine sported a beautiful Gordon Smith GS1.

With one band pulling out there was even time for an impromptu disco at the end. A great gig!

Carnival Punks’ anarcho-punk half-dayer hits Chelsea

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If you ever hear an uniformed individual utter the perennial moan, ‘the punk scene’s dead’ simply point them in the direction of the next Carnival Punks gig. Craig and the crew rounded up some of the best anarcho-punk around and had them play The Chelsea, Easton for an explosive half-dayer. This is what’s punk’s all about.

It paid to get in early as there was no filler to make up the numbers on this bill with Bristol-based Trees of Rage starting things off, serving-up a varied set of tuneful, conscious punk.

The Chelsea was really starting to fill up when Kiss Me, Killer launched into Snakes, title track to our forthcoming EP release, a ferocious song that might surprise people who haven’t seen us since our first couple of gigs. We’re now feeling tighter than ever and playing The Chelsea always seems like a homecoming. Although we’re desperate to work on a few new song ideas that have been kicking around, the set feels pretty good to play now, really mixing it with straight-up classic punk, proto-metal, touches of heavy psych with b-movie soundtrack derived horror and spy-guitar. Wait till you hear the new stuff, though – it’s going to be a step up again.

Next up were London three-piece, Bug Central, who played a storming set of anarcho-punk before Dorset’s legendary Virus took to the floor with powerfully-delivered songs snarling at political and social issues.

Photos of Kiss Me, Killer by Cheri, others by David KMK.

I’d really been looking forward to Zounds’ Steve Lake. I’d only seen Zounds once before live despite The Curse of Zounds easily being in my top 10 albums of all time and definitely in my Top 5 punky albums. 2011 comeback album The Redemption of Zounds is also a big favourite. There’s not too many musicians I catch live where I know every song, every word, so nearly lost my voice screaming along to material like Dirty Squatters and Can’t Cheat Karma – I couldn’t do what our Holly does gig after gig.

Despite the mighty Anthrax headlining I’d been most looking forward to seeing anarchistwood, after checking out some of the stuff they have on YouTube. This is a band you have to experience live as it was one of the best punk sets I’d seen in ages (and I see great punk sets all the time) with a mesmerizing performance from Frank Cutter, Emily Flea and the band.

Anthrax – one of the ‘big four’ of anarcho-punk – finished off the evening, taking to the stage as a six-piece with an immense THREE guitar attack. The smashed through some of their classic songs which sent The Chelsea into a massive, singing, dancing party with Carnival Punks’ Craig even spotted doing a bit of crowd surfing.

What a gig.

Punk rock DIY merch… stickers, badges, patches

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The band have come up with their fist few bits of merch, which we’ll have available at our first few gigs.

First up, AJ the drummer stencilled some punk-as-hell DIY patches. David printed up some stickers and his daughters got to worker with their badge press making a variety of pin badges – the leopard print ones seemed to be a firm favourite with people.

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Stayed tuned too for a bit of news on the tshirt front.