It was the best of times.... that is all

Goddamnit! So where do I begin to start? Well let's start with expectations. Anyone who read the write up of the last show will know I was kind of a fan of the original More Of This! Fest punk rock all dayer which was back in the distant pasts of November last year. Having a huge of selection of great bands was one part of what made the day so amazing. But the thing that really got me in the heart strings was the community that was created. I made new friends that i genuinely liked and still keep in contact with and we all had so much fun over the course of 12 awesome hours of punk rock that coming into this day I was just a little worried that it wouldn't be the same. The sense that some intangible element would be missing from the day that I could only think of as the magic glue that held it all together.

Of course I was entirely unjustified in my concerns it seems. More Of This! II was in my opinion one of the greatest days I've had, barring the birth of my child and my wedding day. Not only were all of the elements

that made the first day present but they seemed amplified, more potent and just as exhilarating. From meeting more new friends to listening to such impossibly high quality music I was almost brought to tears, this took what was an incredible one off event and turned it into a real culture, a movement. A chance for those sick of their home town scenes to say "IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY". For people used to being outcasts to find a place where belonging isn't just a chance occurrence, but the motto on the door. This is Thirteen Stitches, this is our vision, this is what we wanted our whole lives and collectively we made it happen. A lot of love went out to 13SX godfather Steve Todd on the day and all of it was heartfelt and entirely warranted, as he managed to organise yet another blinder of a day. But equal amounts of praise can be bestowed on all who attended, because it takes all of us to make this so special and by the nine we did make it special. Here's to our little revolution, the one where we allow anyone and say if you're a good person then you're alright by me.

Anyways, onwards, lets talk about bands since we have some time to kill, I'll go along chronologically, so it's easier to find a particular act if you don't want to listen to my waffle. As before I unfortunately had to go and eat at some point in the day so I only caught the last chorus of Chapter Eleven, but I know Asher is the nuts and would have been as awesome as last time.

Sam Moloney

What do you do when your band decides it doesn't want to go on tour? Do you sit in a corner and cry about it or do you say screw that, grab your guitar and go play by yourself because you love what you do just that fucking much. If you're Sam Moloney you opt for the latter and give a beautiful opening to the day. There may have only been other acts in the New Cross Inn at half twelve but all of us in attendance love every second of Sams set. Playing Mixtapes Saints songs by himself you couldn't tell that there should've been a whole extra band behind the songs, Sams melodic style and slightly haunting vocals had us all bowled over in a way that probably wouldn't have happened with a full backline.

Luke Godwin

I'm not going to lie. I google stalked Luke for a few weeks before the show and slightly fell in love with his

album. A fully produced effort with Luke on everything it meant that I had some pretty high expectations and maybe just a tiny guy crush. I wasn't let down for a second either as even though he was on the point of exhaustion (mostly through constant outbursts of awesomeness) he delivered an incredible set on his own with nothing but an acoustic guitar. Luke has a beautiful voice and can do that thing I've seen somewhere where he can actually play his guitar really well and and top of that writes catchy tunes that get the words red wine stuck in you head for a week after!

Red Rag Front

It's a shitty thing when you are about to go on stage and the preceeding act was phenominal. I was suddenly wracked with self doubts and loathing and didn't think anything was good enough anymore. On top of that this was the first show I've played without Drew doing all the good bits for 9 months and the carefully rehearsed set I had handily stored in my head went right out the window. Despite all that I think the set went well enough, I especially enjoyed playing a Demon Smiles cover which is now the best number in my set. Afterwards I was told I reminded a few people of a young Brendan Kelly which is the absolute highest praise I have received in my adult life. So I'll chalk this up as a win.

The Real Quaid

Terrible. Awful in every sense!! Not only did they attempt to shatter my delicate eardrums with melodic pop punk at three in the afternoon, they sung about vulgar topics such masturbation!! Not content with a single voice ruining my earl grey quiet time they had quintuple booming gang harmonies assaulting me and left me with hooks that to this very moment wont leave my head!! There were screaming solos and hardcore songs and not one song with contrived lyrics about some romantic thing. I suppose if you love that sort of thing you
could have said that they were exceptional and that they were one of your new favourite bands. I guess.

East End Riot

East End Riot look awesome. East End Riot sound awesome. East End Riot can be found next to the dictionary definition of awesome! They are a band that wears their influences on their sleeves (tattoo sleeves, awesome tattoo sleeves) but when those influences are Hellcat esque hardcore and Lars Frederkison and the Bastards you can hardly go wrong. The guys had a lot of variety to offer despite hardcore/oi/old school crossovers often sounding samey after a while. Choked with super cool charm, irony and all of the punk rock not-giving-a-fucking-shitingness you'd expect from a band with hellcat inspirations/aspirations they kicked all of the asses despite it being early enough in the day for it to not to be silly wearing sunglasses inside!

On A Hiding To Nothing

On a Hiding to Nothing were my favourite act of the day, despite the fact that I thought the same

thing about every other act as they came on. It's so hard to say that because I don't want to take away from just how incredible the other bands that I could also easily say were my favourite were, but if someone put a gun to my head and said "Dan, judging on your taste in music, who was the best of the day" I would be siding with these guys. They are everything I like in a band musically and they were tight as shit and everything sounded crisp and perfect and apparently the lead singer was ill but now I'm worried about seeing them on a good day because it might make my head explode!! Jack Wiseman (no relation to Demon Smiles Joe - I think) also gets the award for absolute most charismatic person on the stage all day and possibly for ever.

DROP THIS

Damn. I already used my "favourite" badge up. Well also in that category were Drop This. If you had to ask them what music genre they want to be pigeonholed into they would probably say up yours and kick you in the nuts till they turned purple. After that they might say 90's So Cal, Fat Wreck hardcore. That's the type that is Blisteringly fast, melodic and better than all other hardcore ever invented. I literally loved every second they played and could've just watched them play for the rest of the day. If these guys are new to you and you haven't seen them then your world is just a little darker than mine.

The Holiday Plan

It's a dangerous thing eating cheap food before playing a show because you never know when that crap is going to repeat on you. However if you're lucky or excellent or both then you will still be able to crank out massive tunes and bust gorgeous harmonies and keep everything sounding sweet like bosses. This I learnt from The Holiday Plan who may well have had a run it with Weatherspoons crap but didn't let that interfere with bringing the place down with probably one of the most popular sets of the evening.

My Third Leg

I love a bit of ska, as long as it's mixed with generous amount of punk rock and that is what was delivered

during My Third Legs set. Everything that is right about ska-punk was there, it was catchy as hell, had breakdown and speeds up and enough variety to make every song interesting and a joy to listen to. A special mention here should go to Dave the bass player. Not because I have a bass player fetish, but because I freaking love ska walking bass lines done well and he knocked out belters everytime, he also seemed to have his own fan section which is awesome because all bass players need their own fan section!!

Shooting Fish

Sometimes a band with a beautiful lead singer spends too much time worrying about how hot their singer is and forgets to kick ass at the same time. Throughout the history of bands with hot female leads (or at least the ones I'm thinking of in my head) they've always seemed to end up a little more watered down than fully male bands. I'm not sure if this statement makes me a pig or an awful human being but the point of all the pre

ramble is that Shooting Fish haven't let the fact that I fancied the lead singer interrupt them being totally kickass.....

God that sounds bad. Let me start that one again. I loved Shooting Fish, they were all awesome, their songs rocked and I especially loved the Rise Against cover at the end. They all seemed like totally excellent people and the reason I was too nervous to go and chat to them properly is only down to that fact that I am a tool.

Dynamite Dynamite

Dynamite Dynamite may very well be the best band in the UK right now. I challenge anyone to find someone better, and whoever you come to us with as your suggestion will immediately be shown the door as we down at 13SX HQ believe this with extreme prejudice. I do not pretend to be a particularly good reviewer of bands, and it is painfully obvious to anyone who reads these blogs that I'm not good at it. In this case I really think it's a shame because I wish I could find the right words to explain the unadulterated joy I felt watching these guys in musical terms. Were they tight? Yes. Am I still singing all their songs? Yes. Were they the coolest

people in the world? Yes. Did they own the stage like fucking bosses? Yes. There's something good and right and perfect about their sound and I'd spend all of the money I have (which is like £3 right now) making sure I could see them play every day if I could. I dunno what else to say except go listen to them right now and make your life complete.

Demon Smiles

I did a calculation the other day, this calculation determined that I have seen Demon Smiles play a minimum of once every month for the last 8 months. That's a lot of times and I guess that mere fact is testament to how much I love them. Recently they had had the odd technical difficulty here and there but there was no such distraction this time. This was the pure DS experience. When they play on a good day planets move into position and Khonshu smiles on the world. Demon Smiles are just exciting to watch. They love what they do so much that you can't help but become affected by their enthusiasm for super fast melodic punk rock. This was the best I've seen them, and it was humbling. Watching them tear up the room made

that small detail of them fast becoming one of the number 1 punk bands of this generation that much more obvious. Their potential spills from every chord and every beat as they storm through a set on pure balls of steel.

SEEHEARSPEAK

Sweet Jesus. I expected nothing from this band, them having been one of the unknowns (for me) of the evening and from this low vantage point I had my soul torn out my lungs and shown to me in all its glory. That probably made no sense so let me try and elaborate. See Hear Speak are as close to musical perfection as I would dare to guess. I can't begin to find the right amount of positive adjectives to describe them so instead I'm going to go use a thesaurus to help me out. Mind Blowing, astonishing, hallucinatory, staggering, stunning, wonderful, over-whelming, breathatking, wonderous and stupefying. These don't even come close. I wouldn't dare to put them  in a category such as melodic hardcore because the images that may conjure up wouldn't do these guys justice. Every note, syllable and snare crash spoke to me in a thousand languages and all of them told me that this was the greatest moment in existence. My entire outlook of life shifted after listening to See Hear Speak and now my

main goal in life is to try and feel that again. They are my new heroin and I will throw away my pride to seek that hit again.

N.B. I do not, nor have I ever taken heroin and was meerly being poetic and not publically admitting to a drug addiction!!

Real Life Version 

How much can one man give to a show. If you are the drummer of See Hear Speak then that answer if one fucking hell of a lot as he didn't move and stayed to kick out the beats for Real Life Version. Whilst not the all consuming powerhouse that is SHS, Real Life Version do the other half of music with as much precision and excellence as the previous band. And that is writing incredible songs that stay with you and leave you wanting more. All at once they are soulful and powerful and deep and

carefree with a dash of technicality in their melodies recalling such other standout bands such as Thrice and Alexisonfire when they are at their most melodic and not just screaming into a mic. Even without being in their own country and in a dive on the outskirts of London they still had the whole venue jumping and were a perfect climax to the evening.

And there you have it. If you were there let me know if you agree with my roundup of your favourite acts. If you weren't hopefully you can see the unbelievable amount of quality punk rock that was squeezed into one day and you'll bee a part of the next one. If you've made it this far down the blog then thank you for taking the time to read this. I'm just a guy with a guitar who says what he sees when out at gigs and it honestly make me happy to know people read and/or care about what is written on this screen. 

As I'm not the only person anymore who helps with this blog I'd like to thank and give to links to the following:

Chris King who took the incredible pics of the first half of the day. You can find his projects here.

Steve, who presides as king over 13SX promotions. He's my best friend but also now an exemplary business partner. You can see what we're up to on our website.

Don't you dare quit your band!

So I read this blog.

In essence this is basically in my horrendous opinion everything that is wrong with the music industry today so for the first time ever I'm going to write a counter point to this stupid  bunch of words I just had the misfortune of reading.

I have no idea exactly what this guy did in a band before but I can't imagine he really got the idea. He seems to think that being in a band means you just stick three people with an instrument each together and out pops what you assume is the beatles and away you go. The fact that he seems to think that the idea of meeting bands you like is novel makes me think that music for him was only ever a get rich quick scheme. He had some idea that just picking up an instrument and playing without any other effort would propel him to Bon Jovi like stardom and then got disenfranchised once he found out there is just the tiniest bit more to it all than that.

Well screw that guy. Here is why being in a band and sticking to it over the years was the greatest thing

I've ever done:

I'm not in it for the money. I play music because I genuinely love to do it. So I guess yeah if you're whoever wrote that article and seem to hate music for the sake of it then yeah, quit now. Because I love to play music I'm generally attracted to friends to also love to play music and I have probably at some point either played in a band with them, played shows together with them or both. Through playing shows and naturally befriending people through a mutual love of the music we make - not through forcing myself to "network" - we have created our own sub scene within the punk community and that is a wonderful thing. Because we all respect the music we make and encourage each other to stick together and evolve organically we have the fun of seeing each other get better and expand our ranges. We have so many people now who enjoy the music we all make that we have too many acts to put on all at once! This we created not by finding better deals and dumping previous groups and not by going out with the express intention of talking to someone who may be able to further our goals but by actually enjoying the things we love.

I haven't gushed about Demon Smiles for a while but now seems like a perfect time to pick up that mantle again. The three Demon Smiles guys don't play music together for gain or profit. The idea to form a band came before they had even decided on a style or even a complete line-up. The group dynamic isn't one of profession, but of friends from years back and of lovers and overwhelming passion for listening to great music and wanting that to be a part of their lives. That's what makes them special, and no amount of technical prowess or blisteringly fast drumming or beautiful vocals will top that chemistry between them. They sacrifice only what they don't expressly need in their lives to play music. They have day jobs, but music comes second only to the bottom of Maslov's triangle. They don't deliberately go out in the hopes that someone will "notice" them or to scout out opportunities to get into a more commercially viable band, but instead bands and labels and promoters are drawn to them as something truly awesome. If you're really lucky and spend time learning all their songs they'll even let you play songs on stage with them!!! Never throughout all of the successes and welcoming of newer acts is there ever a shred of egotism or vanity either and I think they would disband themselves on the spot if they ever found themselves shunning other bands or talking down to a single person they meet.

And there you have it. Don't ever quit your band. find your bestest friends and be fucking awful and then make friends and then get better and above all fucking love doing it every step of the way.

Demon Smiles
More of This! Fest II
13 Stitches DIY punk promotions