I'd expressed some reservations about going to this show as I wasn't sure about exactly what type of skinheads Mi San Dao are. Lucky for me, they turned out to be anti-nazi old school punk. And they ruled.
I turned up to the show with Evans, my wife, and immediately bumped into some familiar faces. Frank from Mortal Fools, who was involved in putting the show on, Abe Deyo, 'Super' Sophia and Yixin too. There was a fair amount of people there considering the very specific style of the band and a diverse crowd at that.
First in were Pink Berries. They seem to take any opportunity to play a show and are hungry to improve. They did a good job for a new band and improved greatly on the previous show. The sound was clearer and their songs started to take shape as they got tighter. They also played an on-time and shortish set, about right for a support act. This always scores big points with me considering how many bands play comparatively huge sets peppered with monologues when they are the second band on from six. Pink Berries guitarist Tony brings the Rancid style riffs and ska but overall the band is teetering between punk and pop. Hopefully they can keep together and develop a strong style or look too.
Talking of strong style, on came Mi San Dao. These guys have been doing it for over nine years now. They are skinheads, in every sense, and had a great presence. They were very professional players who put on a good show and didn't miss a note all night. They also had a great balanced set. They started out with the more hardcore tracks and then broke out the ska and anthems for the second half. Moshes and pogos broke out during the signature tracks much to the confusion of some random suit wearing bloke in the front. They rocked and even non-punks in the audience couldn't resist chanting along to the copious amounts of 'oi's in almost every track.
I may have mentioned camera guy a post or two back and how it wasn't just me but also Abe who was getting really annoyed with it. Does this guy read my blog or is life just weird. A couple of songs into Mi San Dao, he again took centre front and hoisted his big pro camera up and stayed there all the time, getting in everyone's view/way. Then he seemed to gravitate towards Abe for some reason - and actually ended up camped right in front of him with the camera directly in front of Abe's face. And didn't move again.
At the end of the show we went to out to get a pic with the band, especially seeing as I'd recently shaved my head. I think the blog size photo is too small to see my expression though. That's maybe a good thing. Odd end note: we were walking back, buzzing from seeing a great band with a great attitude when I saw a full-on white stretch limo parked in front of C's bar. Unsurprisingly, a bunch of posers came falling out drunk and they were even whooping and yeah-ing. You can't bring me down, vacuous oxygen thieves. Oi!
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