The band returned to London’s famous New Cross Inn over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend for Dugstock II – a three day fest put together by the mighty Umlaut Records. We appeared on the Friday bill with bands like The Murderburgers, Strange Planes and fast-rising Mancunian punks, Aerial Salad.
KMK members arrived there in dribs and drabs, meeting at the venue and happily everyone made it on time. The New Cross Inn is now a relatively salubrious place. It’s also one that’s grown in importance while other iconic haunts have closed down as the capital places property speculation above all other human activities.
Our friend and No. 1 superfan Ina the Dane says she misses the days when The New Cross Inn was a full-on dive bar with people out of their skulls on hard drugs, awakening from a haze to have a little dance before crashing out again, although I was taken with the fine selection of craft beers and real ales now available from the bar. I downed a morish Cornsish pint called ‘Proper Job’, which really touched the spot after nearly three hours on the Megabus.
Umlaut’s Mark greeted us before an enthusiastic Friday night crowd who were right up for some storming punk rock enjoyed the opening acts Dirty White from Brighton. Next up came Kent’s Dark Days feature gallic livewire, John, who charged around the stage like a man possessed, hammering his bestickered Telecaster with reckless abandon. He wore a Kiss Me, Killer snakes t-shirt. Nice. Everyone should have a Kiss Me, Killer shirt.
Most of the KMK and cohorts had invited cool London friends along and many showed up for their first taste of the new breed of punk rock, Bristol fashion. Our set was generally pretty strong, the sound good, and our eclectic mix seemed to go over well, with people appearing to dig our new song, Sliding into my DMs, with its wahwah-laden porno soundtrack intro and spy guitar riffage.
Emilia and Cooper from The Menstrual Cramps were there and Cooper took some abolsutely amazing images for us. Check these out…
Ariel Salad and the headliners smashed it.
KMK’s Easter weekend was not over, though as we returned to Bristol to play TWO more gigs at the Exchange and a fundraiser at The Red Lion! By the end of the third gig in three days I think we were ready for a good long snooze…
