Tag Archives: street punk

(review) Bent out of Shape – Old Rats on a New Ship(Demons Run Amok Entertainment)

Holland has a great tradition in street punk/OI bands and Bent ouf of Shape just released their new debut full length. What do we have here? There are 10 songs plus two bonus tracks on my copy and the music is just the way I love it. These guys play street punk/OI with some hardcore and street core influences but remaining more into street punk side of things than fast hardcore, meaning more songs in punk rock tempo being harsh yet melodic anthems. Lyrics are great, I can totally relate to my personal favorite Places to Go, there are some football oriented themes like Never Went Away, but also humor in Ozzy was a Skinhead hehe. Vocals are harsh, strong but totally fit to songs and you can understand what is being sung about and the singer can pull a melodic one but also hardcore shouting, so this is another plus for this great band. One other song I must absolutely mention is Good Old Memories with anthemic melody, fantastic lyrics and it gave me goosebumps on my skin and tears of pride in my eyes for last thirty years I am in this scene. Great album, have a listen.

(review) Cockney Rejects – Power Grab

Sons of East London, legendary Cockney Rejects are back with new full length album. I must admit that I have never been a big fan of this band, but I did not pay attention to their albums, apart of few anthems that everybody knew from Oi compilations. Well, the new album is here. There are fourteen songs on this one, celebrating 40 years of being undefeated and other merry street punk themes like being stabbed in the back, not having your heart in the scene, fighting if attacked, celebrating life and living every day like there is no tomorrow…Lyrics are great because I always love such themes in punk and hardcore bands. But, music is another thing. There are couple of songs that stand out as highlights, like Paper Tiger, Stab In The Back or my personal favorite being My Heart Ain´t In It. But, other is just too hard rock, with couple of nwobhm influenced guitar songwriting. Melodies are okay in some choruses but I never quite liked hard rock influenced punk, so this one could have been much better than it really is. At the end of the album there is a cover of Tom Petty´s Learning To Fly sounding practically same as original. There are more songs that somehow passed under my radar as fillers than anthems. Okay album but nothing special.

(gig report) 3FF Festival – Day two – Čakovec 03/09/2022

I must say hats off and thank you so much to all Cezam and 3FF crew keeping this festival in center of our hometown alive and what is even better free for all these years. This year was a two day event, like any other year, but for me line-up of second day(Saturday) was a reason to attend, Friday was not possible because I was returning from my vacation at Adriatic sea.

Line-up was fantastic and BKD from near Varaždin opened up the evening. These veteran trio delivered their set of oi punk with lots of anthems to drinking, living a working class life and vocalist/bassist Ida managed to bring early front of stage crowd to good fun, some pogo and singing along. What I love about this band is that they also deliver great dose of humor between the songs and interaction with crowd.

There was a lot of people from other places and it was really nice to see park of our town filled with punks, skinheads, metalheads and people eager to hear good music. What I do not like it some asshole nazis that attended the show, not hiding their swastikas and nazi iconography but they were ignored and addressed soon.

Our hometown veterans BAKTERIJE were next. These guys play for more than 25 years now and crowd was great in numbers and enjoyed their set of fast hardcore punk which was filled only with sure hits from their albums for tonight. Songs like Sam, Zaboravi me, Dižem svoj glas, Apatija, Sistem were superb. They also addressed all asshole nazis by playing Antifa Hooligans cover and ended triumphantly their set with Mir.

NULA from Šibenik were the band that I waited most eagerly. Since they have re-union and play again I was psyched to see and hear them again after almost twenty years. These guys and their music were a great part of my punk hardcore upbringing in the nineties with their anarcho hardcore punk with dual vocals and strong messages and I got goosebumps listening live to songs Tupilo, Pobjedimo laž, Kurvini sinovi, Ljubavna, Kaos Media and as a finisher Revolucija cover of legendary Scuffy Dogs song. For me, Nula was best band of evening. But, I can not get away from the thought that Nula are relict of the past, like myself and all of us who enjoyed their set, because today´s kids were not so much into their music. But band and us enjoyed it anyway, very much. I talked to Vedran, the drummer and he told me they prepare a new record to come out some time in the future.

ALERGIJA from Zadar are also nineties punk veterans fronted by undestructible singer Stipe and although through all the line-up changes, all turmoils, this band still manages to sound better than ever with their punk/street oi with lyrics in Croatian, so crowd ate from Stipe´s hand, so to say and all the hits were there: Antišminkerska, Četvrti stalež, Socijalne razlike and all others classic Alergija songs, also some newer stuff. They finished their set with guest vocals by Alen from Šank, taking on Cock Sparrer cover Pijemo.

ŠANK from Zagreb were headlining and for a reason. This band has some controversies with some fans that attend their gigs, the band never clearly said, no we deny and we do not want to have anything with those people and it is a mistake on their side, at least in my opinion, but let us continue with music, shall we? Well, Šank proved why they are so successful and great band in twelve years and four albums they put out, plus new singles. They delivered mighty set of street punk/rock with songs and lyrics I can relate to and although I missed some of my favorites, hits like Ne odustajem, Metak za kraj, Vatromet, Crni oblak, Zagreb gori, Grad je naš….were all their. Crowd was most numerous and sang every word to every song from beginning to the end, so it was a fantastic ending to a great night.

So, as I said, thank you 3FF crew for making it possible once again and see you next year again.