Bristol was hit by storm Doris a storm which brought cold bitterly winds and caused havoc within the city centre due to the extreme winds knocking masonry off the roof of a building and leaving a passer-by very shook up and damage to cars which left the police no option to close the road off in the interest of public safety which ultimately caused the city to grind to a standstill as the cities roads and traffic light system could not cope with the lack of lanes and huge volumes of traffic, but luckily after a 2 hour drive to travel 5miles of the M32 we finally made it to the Academy for a night of punk-rock covers fun as Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies were back headlining the venue.
We got to the venue just before the main support act Masked Intruder took to the stage and the venue was looking pretty busy with many people brightening up the day wearing their finest Hawaiian shirts in honour of tonight’s headliners Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies.
Masked Intruder are a punk band from Madison Winconsin in America and are made up of four masked men simply named red, blue, yellow and green however tonight green was nowhere to be seen as blue announced to the crowd that Fraser from the Scottish band The Murderburgers is stepping in for green whilst he is in prison for pissing over an airport X-ray scanner machine, obviously all part of the Masked Intruder act.
Through their 45 minute set Masked Intruder were a lot of fun and vocalist blue is something else as when talking to the crowd he has this New York style gangster voice yet when singing his vocals become more high pitched yet it works well and once again keeps up with the bands “masked intruder ” crook image.
During the first couple of songs Officer Jackson Bradford stood at the back of the stage with his arms folded just watching on like a serious cop but as soon as the band blasted into ‘I Fought The Law’ he sprung to life running on the spot, flipping the bird at anyone who made eye contact with him and then he went on to beat Fraser and Yellow with his police baton before jumping off the stage and straight into the crowd encouraging lots of moshing.
The likes of ‘How Do I Get To You’, ‘I Don’t Wanna Be Alone Tonight’, ‘Beyond A Shadow Of A Doubt’, ‘Hey Girl’, ‘If Only’, ‘First Star Tonight’, ‘Crime Spree’, ‘Running From The Cops’, ‘Breakin’, ‘Stick ‘Em Up’ went down well with the crowd tonight and if people in the crowd weren’t fans of the band before they took to the stage I am pretty sure that they are fans of the band now as they put on one hell of a show and unleashed some awesome songs.
After a short break it was time for the Hawaiian shirt wearing pop-punk covers super band Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies to take to the stage, a band made up of Spike Slawson, Joey Cape, Chris Shiflett, Fat Mike and Dave Raun however the chances of seeing Fat Mike and Chris Shiflett playing live for the band these days are pretty slim as both artists are really busy with their main bands NOFX and Foo Fighters so tonight in replacement of Chris Shiflett we had his brother Scott Shiflett and in replacement of Fat Mike we have Bad Religions Jay Bentley giving the band the same touring line up as when I last saw them at the Academy back in March 2014.
Tonight was exactly what I have come to expect from Me First And The Gimmies a fast a furious 24 song set running just over an hour in length with lots of fun on stage, a lot of banter between the band and the crowd and numerous announcements of “this next songs a cover”.
The band started with ‘Summertime’ and quickly followed it up with ‘Leaving On a Jet Plane’, ‘Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard’, ‘Who Put The Bomp (In The Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)’ ‘Science Fiction’Double Feature and many other classic Me First And The Gimmie Gimmie cover songs.
The highlights of the night came with the covers of ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’, ‘Jolene’, ‘I Believe I Can Fly’, ‘Mandy’ , ‘’Isnt She Lovely’, ‘Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going To Be A Long Time), in fact there are too many songs to list as it doesn’t matter what cover song Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies churn out they do it justice and have a lot of fun doing so whilst also creating a lot of fan for their excitable fans.
The only criticism I have from tonights show is that Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies didn’t play any songs from their ‘Sing In Japanese’ EP which would have been quite hilarious to hear on the live circuit but this didn’t stop tonight’s show from being a lot of fun as Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies temporarily brightened up Bristol with their summery vibes on one of the worst weather days the city has had in some time.
Masked Intruder 4/5
Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies 4/5
Review By Trigger |
