girls to the front

As a band we should never eat quality pies before a gig… The first time we ate some lovely Welsh pubgrub pies before a show and played to a couple of people with, um, a band that wasn’t really a good fit. On St Patrick’s Day we scoffed some of Bristol’s famed Pieminister products… and the PA blew up just a couple of songs into our set. Still, it wasn’t all that bad as we had a fun-packed Irish holiday all the same.

Punka Presents is a new series of gigs put on by Bristol’s Punka crew, who are tearing it up on Bristol’s LGBT nightlife scene. Promoter Stu had put in loads of effort putting the word out about the gig, which took place at The Trap venue below St Nick’s Market. With celebrated drag superstar Ruby Rawbone acting as compare the stage was set for a gig that went far beyond the humdrum run of the mill.

Local act Monocle were the first band on the bill and warmed up The Trap with some sonic pyrotechnics fronted by powerful female vocals from the energetic Becky. The were followed by Chang, who are getting a lot of attention with a musical mix that’s both absorbing and explosive in equal measure with involving grooves blending elements of neo-grunge, noise-rock and post-rock. It’s definitely a band to see if you like your rock music fresh.

Kiss Me, Killer had their photo taken by a chap called Marco Bardusco-Brazier, who’s making a documentary about the aforementioned Ruby Rawbone before we took off for pie and mash. Marco’s Instagram account can be found here and very colourful it is too.

Notably, it was the first gig featuring deputy rhythm guitarist, Cooper Rose. Sadly, our lovely Cat had had to jet off to sunnier climes with work (and will soon be travelling again around Central America – alright for some). Cooper, or Coops as she’s often known, plays with our friends The Menstrual Cramps who are causing a stir across the UK with their feminism ‘n humour infused songs and have developed rapidly into an unstoppable live force. When not making videos for the Menstruals and DIY-recording with Logic Pro X, Cooper also performs with London’s unbelievably cool Bad Sidekick project. She also has one of those proper Instagram accounts with great poses, style, followers and whatnot. Northern and vegan, she chose Pieminister’s animal-free Kevin pie, which I think she very much enjoyed. I think we all enjoyed our pies. Pieminster know what they’re doing I think.

Everything was going swimmingly and the band was in a positive, party vibe mood for St Patrick’s Day, even though we had to feign our own terrible Irish accents in the absence of authentic Irish punk girl, Cat: ‘KESS ME, KELLER!’

We powered into Beware! EP favourite From the Inside and gave Rat Race a hammering before we realised something was up… Had Holly blanked in her lyrics for recently-written tune, Sliding Into My DMs? No, it was the mic, no, it was ALL the mics. Yep, the PA had failed completely… blown up… kaput… no funciona… muy jodido… t’be sure, t’be sure…

While Mr Soundman fiddled frantically with his equipment we bravely tried to fill the space with some improvised material, eventually easing into a completely new genre we made up on the spot – anarchojazz pornopunk – which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on the Vampiros Lesbos OST. Eeeking this twangy, sleazy wahwah-infused jam out as long as possible, and attempting a super-quiet version of our song Snooker so Holly could be heard without a mic, it was time to knock it on the head and call it a night…

Cheri Clouds managed to get some good shots of us, even if we weren’t on stage for very long:

Punka’s lovely Stu was deeply apologetic about the technical hitch, just one of those things, but was keen to have us back ASAP. And, yes, we’ll be playing another Punka Presents in June. Watch this space, people… Watch this space… We love Punka. They’re fabulous.