Fat Four Tour - a Live Review

The Event
The Crowd

Bunker Bar is a new punk stage in town. Basically the punk hangout Jameson opened a bar in the basement and now they engage bands. As a concert place it isn´t optimal. But the fine thing is that the lazy punks in the Jamson bar can´t make up sorry excuses such as it is too far to the concerts.

The place was crowded as there was a spectacular 4 band night on. The Fat Four Tour containing bands from the west coast, east coast and down south of Sweden.The tour concept (I guess Divan in Headons wants me to credit him for it) is that the bands shall play in every city the band resides. Last night Stockholm was on the schedule.

The Bunker bar was, as I told, well crowded, full of both punk scene regulars as well as new faces. The regulars, however had a tricky choise because the exellent band Saturday´s Heroes and Faster Pussycat Kill Kill was playing at the KGB bar at the same time. So some choosed that event and I guess they didn´t got dissapointed from what the rumors been telling me.

Headons

First out was the Halmstad based band Headons. A scruffy rock n roll infested punk rock that mix both English and Swedish as their laguage of choise. The Swedish lyrics are very angry and upset with our right wing government. And they dedicated the song Fuck You to the right wing party and our prime minister as well. Actually this was band that I came here to see. They got the uneasy task to open up it all. I don´t know why they were choosen to be the first. Because this was a 4 headline band night. Headons didn´t spare anything and went into a wild and frenetic gig with all their hearts and punk attitude. Wow, they are quite good on record but live they geared up a few gears.
Unfortionately the sound wasn´t matching their effort. Partly it was a bit numb I think. But that didn´t seem to trouble them too much. This was punk in it´s essence, good contact with the still rather stiff and shy crowd. I wouldn´t be the man that would go on stage after their appearence. I wondered how on earth could the rest of the bands match this?

Suicide Syndicate

Next in line was the Scania based Suicide Syndicate (from Malmö) that had no choise than to go up and play because they´re ”in it for life”. In studded black jeans jackets full of band patches they looked like a buch of savage barbarians, not least because the main singer Bengtsson´s necklace made of bones. And with their Street Punk they continued where Headons started. Actually they proved that they could match Headons. Shame on me, to even think they couldn´t. Slowly the crowd woke up a bit. The sound was a bit better but still not to good. After some violent slamdancing infront of the stage a microphone pole went to hell. That´s punk rock!

And then there was technical troubles, the PA went dead so there was some times to have a chat both with the regulars and the band that visit us. And refill our glasses with more brew.

Smash it up

Smash it up is from Gothenburg containing both the guitarist from Troublemakers as well as Roger from Stockholm who sings like his last breath is near (desperate and shouting in a punk rock way). He was on home turf so to say, as well as they used a amp with the Troublemakers logo all over it. Maybe because the two ingrediences they got both the crow going and the best sound all night. Or was it because their carismatic singer was all over the place and their catchy old school punk rock tunes. I realized during their set that despite technical problems and partly bad sound, I was really in for a good time. Their excellent tunes in combination with the crowds reactions and the hard working band on stage was taking this to the hight that I hoped for.

Spotlicks

There was no way out for the last band and also the band that was the hosts for the event, Spotlicks. Last time I saw them they broke up the gig halfway through because of a diabetic incident on stage. That was a total ”no no” last night, total unthinkable. It was up and defend Stockholm against the hillbillies that just rocked our brains out. And they did.

Except Bass player Rikke, as usual, not knowing how all their tunes starts, there was no mess ups. As the only female singer last night Elin sounded sparkling. It was refreshing to hear a ranting female voice after all the ranting males.
Spotlicks got the best song among their set list. ”Fatta att du duger”, that gives me 1979 vibes in a nice way. And they closed the party in a way that summed it up real nice.

And so

120 SEK did I pay for four classy punk bands. That was real cheap. The beer was at decent prices and I really had a good time, my only grief last night was that I missed Saturday´s Heroes, but you can´t have it all, can you?