Monday 30th June; ¡Tomar Control! (Perú); The Exchange, Bristol:
The night opened when Jed and the Microwave travelled from the future to manifest on stage Terminator-esque, the main difference being a mission to save rock ‘n’ roll over going on single-minded murder sprees; though don’t be fooled into thinking Jed is some poor relation of the T-800 given the killer riff after killer riff that far exceeded mere human capacity.
Burning Cows were up next with their trademark brand of searing fast and to the point politically motivated punk; guaranteed to get the pulse racing and pit moving everyday of the week, there was an even fiercer edge than usual no doubt thanks to circumstances surrounding the night (below).
Forbidden Places followed with a solid set of funky tunes spiced with scintillating solos; and so it came as quite the surprise to later learn that not only is the band relatively new, two of its three members are likewise when it comes to the instruments played.
I knew nothing of ¡Tomar Control! before the gig, didn’t even bother to check a track online. There are two types of hardcore punk in my book; manic and melodic. Either can be fun in a live environment, but only the latter can ever be listened to at home and so is the preferred of the two. ¡Tomar Control! fall so far into that preferred second category, the band might well be defining an ultra melodic sub genre of its own while still maintaining bounds of the necessary ferocity.
A look at ¡Tomar Control!’s bandcamp page shows the first release there as 2015, suggesting this tour of numerous venues on a continent a long way from home marks the band’s ten year anniversary. Everything—the longevity of the band; the extent of the tour; the live performance—about ¡Tomar Control! is thoroughly impressive; I was positively ecstatic to leave the Exchange clutching not only two CDs and a couple of stickers, but more so one of the tour Ts in my size!
There was, as ever with such grassroots gigs, a sense of camaraderie between everyone there. This time that feeling had been heightened thanks to events surrounding the gig: initially it was scheduled to take place at Moor Beer, a brewery with locations in the UK that had made the sound—pun very much intended—business move of hosting live music in its brewing spaces.
During the evening of the day before—Sunday—a post appeared in a local punk Facebook group asking if there was somewhere the gig could be moved to thanks to comments made by Moor Beer’s founder in relation to Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury performance and the chants during.
How the chanted sentiment in question is taken can pretty much be divided into two groups: those who think the actions taken by the IDF are a wholly catastrophic over the top reaction to already horrendous events and therefore such a military organisation shouldn’t exist; and those who somehow think its actions proportionate, despite the hell of carnage and death unleashed on people who for the vast most part don’t think much of Hamas either.
When someone’s opening gambit in response to the scenes at Glastonbury is along the lines of democracy would fall if it wasn’t for the likes of the IDF, one doesn’t have to read further to know which side of the divide the opinion is on (though for clarification, I read the post in full).
The fallout from the entire debacle would be farcical if it wasn’t so utterly tragic. I’ve written before about how it’s evident that for all the good it can do—its Glastonbury coverage ironically something I’d cite—the BBC likes to create and exploit its own news; there being absolutely no doubt it happened here, given the corporation started leading regular news slots with the story ahead of the actual real carnage and destruction of life taking place in Palestine.
But apparently whether a live feed should have been pulled because of some words was the hot topic of the day. People—even high ranking MPs—seemed to forget that a TV can be muted, turned over or even completely off, should a viewer not enjoy that currently on the screen. Whereas people in a war zone have no such remote control when it comes to the bombs being dropped overhead.
Meanwhile in Bristol, the punk scene went into action to find the gig a new venue so as to not leave ¡Tomar Control! the impossible choice of play for a business owned by someone holding said views or cancel the show having travelled all that way. By circa midday of the Monday the Exchange had been confirmed as the new venue, an updated flyer had been rolled out and the icing on the cake that really impressed me: the amending of online ticket sales at such short notice to reflect the change of venue.
This, of course, is not the only fallout to impact Moor Beer—upcoming gigs being pulled from its venues left right and centre—and neither is it just bands and promoters: the Exchange also releasing a statement on the same day:
Apparently the grassroots punk music scene understands the principle of turning something off if not liking it, at least.
Many posts directed at Moor Beer have expressed the sentiment that if the offending poster leaves the company, the people and gigs will return. Given the praise for staff in general contained within ‘boycott Moor Beer’ posts, it seems likely to transpire true should someone decide to depart the scene.
In other news, the founder of Spotify is reported to have just invested circa $600 million into a drone-related arms company.
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Thanks for reading 🙂
N. P. Ryan
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