Thursday 22 February 2018

Gig Review: Ducking Punches Album Launch at The Lexington 16/2/18


It doesn't seem that long ago that Emma and I were at The Monarch in Camden for the album launch show for Ducking Punches' third full length, Fizzy Brain. That was in March of 2016 and there has been a lot going on the world of Ducking Punches since then. In the two years since its release, there have been countless shows (including two tours of America including very well received shows at Fest), a broken leg and a big line up change. Despite all of that, the newest version of Ducking Punches have found the time to record a new album named Alamort. Emma and I were most excited to attend another album launch show, this time at The Lexington in Angel.


Of course Ducking Punches weren't alone. They had invited Grieving and Nervus to play both the London album launch and the hometown Norwich show the next day. Grieving took to the stage first to what was already a quickly growing crowd. This was my first time seeing, and even listening to, the Cambridge based four piece and I was really impressed. Despite the band's lead singer having suffered with pneumonia for the previous six weeks, they put on a great show. Playing a great blend of emo and indie punk rock whilst channelling the powerful gruff vocal style of Hot Water Music, they certainly got the Lexington crowd warmed up. Grieving have a new album out soon that I'm really looking forward to checking out.


Up next were one of the most talked about bands in the UK punk scene - Watford based four piece Nervus. I caught a little bit of Nervus from the back of the room at 2017's Manchester Punk Festival and was seriously impressed. Since then the band's popularity seems to have grown and grown and seem destined for big things. Led by guitarist Em Foster, Nervus had the crowd in the palm of their hands from the very start of the set. You'd be forgiven for thinking that this was actually a Nervus headline set. They had plenty of fans down the front singing along to every single word. They played a selection of songs from previous album Permanent Rainbow, including the excellent Oh Joy, as well as three new ones from upcoming album Everything Dies. Nervus are an incredible charismatic band with keyboard player and backing vocalist Paul Etienne displaying some of the slickest dance moves ever seen at a punk show. The set finished with the song The Way Back where Em was joined by her dad to help play the guitar solo - which he also played on the record. This was a really fun set from a band that are set for big things.


Now it was time for the reason we were all at The Lexington, one of the UK's leading punk bands, the always incredible Ducking Punches. Since the big Ducking Punches line up change of last year where Dan (guitar & vocals) and Pete (drums) were joined by Marcus (guitar) and Ryan (bass), Ducking Punches have morphed into more of a straight forward punk rock band rather than one with acoustic and folk tendencies. I absolutely adored the last carnation of Ducking Punches so I've been slightly apprehensive about where this new sound might lead a band that I hold so close to my heart. I'm happy to report that the slight change of styles seems to have added even more power and emotion to the older songs that were played and the new tracks from Alamort fit perfectly into the set as well. As you would expect at an album launch, the set was heavy with new songs with some old classics thrown in for good measure. The old songs of course got the same great reactions as always, with Six Years in particular really getting a big emotional response from the crowd. As always Dan took the opportunity to talk to the crowd about the shocking amount of suicides that happen due to people not feeling able to talk about their mental health issues. This really is a topic that cannot be spoken about enough and adore Dan for always taking the time to bring it up. If it saves just one person (I'm sure it's helped many many more than that) then brilliant! I'm always a bit concerned when a band brings out a new album that it might kill the crowd during the set. People don't tend to react as well for songs they don't know. Other than the tracks that had been previously released in the build up to the album launch, I'd not had time to listen to Alamort before the gig so would be hearing a lot of songs for the first time ever. This wasn't the case with everyone though. There was clearly some folk who had spent the entire day listening to Alamort and managed to sing-a-long with every word. I enjoyed them live and was really looking forward to checking them out again on the record we'd bought at the beginning of the evening. This latest evolution of Ducking Punches feels like another step on their way to becoming the biggest punk band in the UK.


This was another great gig showcasing three bands and shows how the UK punk scene continues to thrive.

This gig review was written by Colin Clark. Photos by Emma Prew.

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