I
headed down to the Academy in Bristol tonight
to catch American punk rock legends the Dead Kennedys
take the venue by storm and they brought local
punk rock three piece Slagerij who hail from Swindon
to warm the crowd up for them.
Slagerij are an underground punk band who have
been going for a fair few years now and I have
been lucky enough to see them a couple of times
of the live circuit over the past couple of years
but tonight was more of a special show for Slagerij
as they are more used to playing the toilet sized
venues across the country and tonight they were
opening up for the mighty Dead Kennedys.
When Slagerij took to the stage it looked like
they had a lot of hard work on their hands as
the venue was pretty empty as the majority of
Dead Kennedy fans were taking over various watering
holes across the city having affordable pre drinks
before heading in to buy over priced watered down
beer from the Academy but this did not stop Slagerij
from doing what they do best as from the moment
the three piece took to the stage to the moment
they left they gave it their all putting so much
passion and energy in and by the end of their
set the venue was pretty damn busy with many people
showing their appreciation for Slagerij.
The highlights of their set was when they did
an fantastic cover of the classic Beastie Boys
track ‘(You gotta) Fight For Your Right
(To Party)’ and also the drinking anthem
‘Let’s Get Pissed’ but let’s
face it the crowd tonight didn’t
need any encouragement to get drunk as the majority
of the crowd were middle aged men who have years
of drinking under their belts.
After a 30 minute wait the Dead Kennedys took
to the stage with the bands current line up made
up of founding members Klaus Flouride (bass) and
East Bay Ray (guitar) who were joined by long
term drummer D.H Peligro (Drums) and latest vocalist
‘Ron ‘Skip’ Greer’ who
has been with the band since 2008 and has clearly
made his mark as he had the charisma, attitude
and pure energy of a punk rock front man.
The
Dead Kennedys played an hour set and in that time
they managed to fit in 16 punk rock anthems, two
encores and a lot of banter between Ron Greer
and the crowd with him ranting about how American
football is so much better than English football
plus getting the crowd to chant “Fuck off”
repeatedly as the band set themselves up for the
epic ‘Nazi Punks Fuck Off’.
Through the set all the classics and fan favourites
were played such as ‘Forward To Death’,
‘Police Truck’, ‘Buzzbomb’,
‘Jock-O-Rama’, ‘Kill The Poor’,
‘MTV Get Off The
Air’, ‘Too Drunk To Fuck’, ‘California
Uber Alias’, the band also managed to through
in a cover of the classic Elvis song ‘Viva
Las Vegas’ during the first encore before
going on to finish the set with ‘Holiday
In Cambodia’ which got the pit going crazy
with arms and elbows flying everywhere before
the band left the stage and came back on for the
show closer ‘Chemical Warfare’.
Overall tonight was a top night of punk rock with
Slagerij warming the crowd up nicely and the Dead
Kennedys playing all the songs people came out
for, the only downside was that for a headliner
the Dead Kennedys only played for an hour but
considering the fact that they only have four
studio albums under their belt and they churn
out short fast paced punk rock it was to be expected.
Slagerij 4/5
Dead Kennedys 4/5
Review By Trigger
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