Strawberry Blondes, Stiffy Jones at Snövit and Tegelhögen

Strawberry Blondes, the Wales answer on Rancid, was in Stockholm for three gigs in three days. I came to see two of them and was impressed with what I saw. To support them Stiffy Jones came along from the Stockholm suburbs.

Wedenesday, November 27at Snövit

The Crowd

Wedenesday at Snövit, not much people. As I written before, if there is a dedicated crowd at a gig, it doesn´t matter if it´s not a big crowd, because most punk clubs in Stockholm are so small it seems crowded anyway. The people gathered in the Snövit basement on wedenesday was mostly Strawberry Blondes fans and they were there for a good time. Some told me that SB been one of their favorite bands for some time and the support band Stiffy Jones thought it was surreal to be playing on the same stage as their favorites.

The Bands

Stiffy Jones

As I written before I promised to give the lads a chance that I didn´t gave them while I impatient was waiting for Topper some weeks ago. This time I gave them the chance to prove themself as a band to be counting on. In many ways they did. Good songs and a good show. But it all drowned in a massive treble noice that did cast a shade on the songs. It was hard to hear the vocals and even the bass guitar most of the time, it affected my imprssion of them. I have often noticed the same phenomena, the support band doesn´t pay the same amount of attention to all the details as the main band, wich often is the main difference between being the headline and not. Lower the volume a bit, especially the treble and you will stand out as much greater. Besides that they were quite good, with good tunes. If I should put them in a genre or compare them with some others, then it must be the Civilians but with a bit more indy touch.

Strawberry Blondes

The only thing that I can hold against the Wales band (with a Canadien bass player) Strawberry Blondes, is that, on the records they are a bit too much Rancid, Dropkick Murphys, Stiff Little Fingers and the Clash. Even if they do really good records.
Live the band played it a bit harder, a bit more playful and with their own touch, which made quite an impression on me. I didn´t expect to see such a living band. Frontman and singer Mickie Stabs was all over the stage, jumping, dancing and singing so the saliva showers anything around. The intensity was striking. Live, they didn´t have the double guitars with its fat sound like they can have on the records. But that made them more Strawberry Blondes than anything that they can be compared with. They used the dynamics of ease it down a bit before the songs erupts into loud punk rock for instance. A throbbing bass, played by Stew Page, and a drummer, Jay Rebel, that seemed convinced that his drums was something that deserved a good beating.

It was a hard working band leaving nothing to chance in the stage apearance. 100% pure punk energy that was amazing. Sorry I meant 110% punk energy.

Any band that will improve their stage presence, go and see Strawberry Blondes, watch and learn! And even when the strings broke on both the bass and the guitar they went on as the high class band they appeared as.

On Wednesday night the crowd responded with singing along in the songs and spontaniously jump on stage and grabs the mic´s and help out. The band seemed a bit surprised over it and very pleased. The crowd did go, aaaaoooaawwhh etc.

Best songs? It´s hard to pick some of their songs because the high quality of all their songs. But my favorites were ”Fight Back”, ”No Pasaran”, ”Goodbye Inspiration”, ”Social Control”,
And the genius of having a real trumpet, played by Emma Jones, in some of the songs like ”Manners and Respect” was adding on to the good feeling I got from it. The trumpet that cut in between the distorted guitar and the bass, that made them stand out in their own way.

I can truly say that I got a hole in my heart when there wasn´t any Rancid record this years as promised or any West Coast Riot festival in the summer. Strawberry Blond pretty much filled that hole in my heart with their two shows that I witnessed in Stockholm.

So

Worth the money? I paid 60+20 SEK for this and are more than pleased. Even more pleased over the fact that I was going to have another chance to see them next day.

 

Thursday November 28
at Tegelhögen, Vällingby

The Place

For once I just had a 7 minures walk to the gig.
Tegelhögen is a youth recreation centre in one of the oldest Suburbs in Stockholm. Vällingby. Vällingby was rolemodel for building good suburbian towns all over the world after the WW II. But the ideas from witch Vällingby was based on got diminised in the city plans and the European suburbs got to be dead end places full of despair. Even Vällingby in itself have lost some of it´s fame and glory.

One of the things that was important back in the fifties when Vällingby was buildt, was something for the youth to do and a place to do it in. Tegelhögen was such a place, At the place the Swedish metal scene later have had some important moments here.
In the early eighties the local band Taboo reigned here, Jocke that played in Taboo is now in Topper as well as he is working on restore the musical pride of Tegelhögen and in the area, as well as he is an recreational leader.
My girlfriend was a taboo fan back in the days and used to hang out at Tegelhögen. Which could be pretty wild gatherings sometimes. In the early days of Swedish punk those centres was very important to all punk bands that wanted to make an impact och the young punks. (My girlfriend got a nostalgia flashback of epic proportions while smoking a cigarette outside the building. Telling me stories of the wild years.)

This wednesday it was almost empty, Most punks today are grown ups, not kids.

A bunch of lost imigrant kids where there, I recognized some, dead end kids as they sometimes poetic is described in punk lyrics. A few leather jacket clad girls in their younger teens show up, as well as some girl friends of the Stiffy Jones, me and my girlfriend. It was so far from the club the night before.



There was no bar or fashionable punks, no fancyness, just boring everyday things, Brick walls, a stage that was too big for the few that are there to see it. This could been what Iggy Pop refered to as No Fun.
But that was just an illusion.

The Bands

Stiffy Jones

Stiffy Jones first gig was at the same place 9 years ago, now they were back. And treated the situation like they were playing for an overcrowded club.

OK, there was a bit too much treble this time as well. Not as bad as the night before however. But their performance was better, more intensed. I guess they learned a bit from SB the night before? Stiffy Jones convinced me that they are a good band.
The suburbian kids might got a bit of a chock with high volume, or at least they looked a bit chocked by it. This was not their average hip hop dreams about fake gangsta escapism. This was punk rock. And I could see the music reached them. Some just shook their bodies spontainiosly along to the high volume music.

Strawberry Blondes

Strawberry Blondes were in the midle of their European tour. I guess they could be a bit fed up with it, I guess they could be taking a day off just relax through this gig. But no. They really proved why they are a truly great band, a band who gained all my respect.

Actually I think I saw one of the best performances all year. Not even a week after Sham 69, the same year Stiff Little Fingers, Dropkick Murphys, Bad Religion, Asta Kask and Alonzo Fas 3, been raiding the country. They did delivered for real. Not being on stage as rockstars, but as speaking voice for all the underdogs. Being a true to the heart is in my eyes not about being a cool rock star on stage, Dr Marten boots and some fashionista haircut. It is about the social bit as well. Being there, supporting the underdogs.
I think you guys just outscored them all, all the rock stars.

My tears came during ”Goodbye Inspiration”. Shivers down my spine, total sober. A dull thursday their music took me to a emotional place where only good bands, great music and a some special occation takes me. But that moment was short, because a bass string broke and cripple it. OH NO not now, she said! The situation was brilliant rescued by the bass player and Stiffy Jones. But the magic moment was gone. Standing there in the suburb surronded by the underdog kids listen to a punk rock band singing ”Goodbye Inspiration”, well, something was shaken inside me. Shaken, in a good way. I will probaly never forget that moment. It was something outside the average punk club experience.
I loved every single moment of it. Then it was over.
The bands got their gear. While collecting them, Jocke encouraged one of the kids to enter the stage, grab the mice and do his rap. Which lead to a big applause from both the other kids, us and the bands.

That was it, the band Strawberry Blondes continued on their European tour, with another gig in Stockholm, at a sold out Klubben at Fryshuset.

 

So

The entrance was free, it was a total shame that the kids didn´t showed up in big numbers when they could get a glimpse of the real world, real rock stars from the real world. But as the drummer of Strawberry Blondes said. -The kids today is into all that crappy music, I agree.

Some extra cred to Jocke H that made Strawberry Blondes and Stiffy Jones do this.