PUNKTASTIC UNSCENE FOUR LAUNCH/ THE STEAL @ THE BORDERLINE 30/03/08

PUNKTASTIC UNSCENE FOUR LAUNCH

To celebrate the release of the fourth instalment of the Punktastic Unscene series, Punktastic and Banquet Records (the two companies behind the release) decided to attempt something a little different. With the release taking the form of ninety-nine thirty second songs, they invited as many of the bands featured on the compilation to play their thirty second song and one other of their choice. For most bands capable of pulling modest crowds at gigs across the country this wouldn't be an enticing offer, especially if you don't live in the London area, and perhaps this was why the quality of the acts really didn't manage to stand out. Or perhaps it was due to the strange case of only getting to see around seven minutes of each band before they moved on. I'm not a fan of compilation cds and so with this just being a live incarnation of the comp it may be a little unfair of me to judge.

There was one band though that managed to catch my eye. The Ruined have been labelled goth-punk and have had comparisons made with The Misfits and inevitably My Chemical Romance would be thrown their way too, but they managed to seem polished, professional and confident while performing hook-laden pop punk. If the point of a compilation cd is to hopefully come across a band that you haven't listened to before and like them, then The Ruined managed to make this a successful compilation evening for me.

http://www.banquetrecords.com/index.jsp?item=8765

THE STEAL

It would interest me to know how many people had bought tickets to this gig before The Steal announced that they were playing. After seven months without a single show, to announce this as your return was sure to get some people through the door. The seven months seemed to have taken their toll too, the band seeming to have to take even longer breaks between their Kid Dynamite styled hardcore to catch their breaths. But then when the crowd are throwing themselves around like leaves in an almighty gale for the entirety of every song, they too are happy for the moment's rest for backslaps and sighs.

The Steal manage to pull the same people every time. Wherever they might be playing throughout the country there is always likely to be one of the London-Kingston contingent there, and tonight they're at the front, as always, getting as involved as possible. This includes people throwing themselves from the stage, crowd surfing on a shallow crowd and even constructing two human pyramids that leave those involved in agony. But no one shows it, not until their set is over anyway. Positivity is the name of The Steal's game and no one is willing to break that rule.

There are question marks over whether this band will ever release any new material or tour as often as they once were, but tonight that didn't show, nor did it matter. The Steal weren't great but after seven months they only had to turn up to keep the crowd happy. As their set drew to an anticlimactic conclusion everyone's frowns from the previous bands had been forced upside down. The Steal still have it.

http://www.myspace.com/thesteal