ONE MAN AND HIS DOG> scruffykid - a close last - tearjerk

ONE MAN AND HIS DOG> scruffykid - a close last - tearjerk whistlebinkies, stirling, june 03

Review by Captain Marvellous

freto being the kind man he is offered me and beale(regular joe) 2 spaces in his car to head off to stirling cos uni's over and we've got nothing better to do! acl have not stopped telling us how good of a live show tearjerk put on, and we'd never seen scruffykid - so plan was to have a good drink and a good night...... needless to say we started as soon as we walked into the humble but pleasant environment that is whistlebinkies. whilst striking up some good banter with the bands and the locals over a pint of bitter, beato blair, resident stickman in acl, comes up laughing to himself looking at the old guy in the corner and says "i can't wait to see baz in this place". stirling's own scruffykid were first on, cool guys we've met before and i knew a few of their tunes from their mp3s. purely on a musical front they played a lot better than what their mp3's suggested, their new drummer bart (?) was excellent, fits in well and makes their promising mp3's into great punk rock tunes. steve is a good frontman also with an excellent voice, which has again come on a lot from their older recordings. i was thoroughly impressed. next up tearjerk, a band whom i was dyin to see cos they had been built up sooo much!! beato gives me a smile and looks so excited, despite claiming that this is his 14th time seeing them. so, i sit back into my seat and pick up my pint. then they start, and tearjerk begin to hammer out these brutal punk rock soon-to-be anthems to what looks like an old folk pub. baz screams, jumps and throws himself about like a man who's trying to avoid a kick in the nads backed by brilliant instrumentation and vocals. they are as tight as a nuns **** and unquestionably this is the greatest unsigned event ive seen in an age. then a guy walks in with his dog. now in any other venue this would be odd, in whistlebinkies the door is in between the band and the crowd. bare in mind this is tearjerk - which makes it funnier. the dog goes apeshit and the guy decks it and spills a whole table of drink. tearjerk finish their current song. then baz asks the neddy looking local to vacate the premises cos of the dog's hearing. the conversation went something like baz : "hey man you're gonna duff up the dogs hearing." man : "no am no, whit do u ken?" baz : "its animal cruelty, please just get out." man : "&*$% off" baz : "ok who votes for the dog and its owner to leave the premises" (everyone shouts "yes" or words to that effect...) man : "am no leaving" baz : "what do the bar staff have to say?" (bar staff stay up shitting themselves.... whilst the man lamely throws insults at baz, duncan and grossi) baz : "bar staff?" (tiny bartender runs down) tiny bartender : "alright pal i think you've had enough you'd better leave" (man makes for door, swearing and proclaiming loudly "you don't even ken sid vicious" baz gives him a push out the door) duncan : "we dont ken sid vicious?" (everyone laughs) baz : sorry about that. then they play more songs to everyones delight and it is the greatest unsigned band ive ever seen, a big brutal punk rock boot to the balls.... only a pleasent one. ive never seen a band with the energy of tearjerk. i wish with all these kids sporting spiky hair and cons, calling themselves punk etc (same old argument) that some of them had witnessed tearjerk. tearjerk = punk rock. a close last are next up - a band who i thought were unchallenged for scotland's best live act, torpedos funnels and all that - as well as some fucking brilliant songs. everyones pretty merry and having a great laugh and they come on and play out their skin! they open with "break free" off "the bigger than rik waller ep" with beato jumping up and down at the kit. then they nail through the best of the rest, knowing most words and seeing them so much you wouldve thought id get bored but i absolutely loved it, curiously i surveyed the acl virgins in the audience and they too all had big cheesers. as for the quality of music there isn't one bassist in the world who doesn't wish that they had wrote "one better", watching people see bassmaster play that for the first time is hilarious. freto and ger's stage presence might not be as noticable but their riffs are great and miko is a tremendous frontman, with the biggest "i dont give a shit attitude" ive ever seen. baz invades the 'stage' during the hardcore shit - "fight neds", "oi oi oi", "gothic kid" and a new 3 second masterpiece "outside tops". which is very cool, and you hit yourself that you're in a pub in whistlebinkies watching miko and baz wrestle whilst "screaming down the walls" ( you like that one ;-) )at each other. they end with my personal favourite "jealous" and in my 'sober' state ross gets me up to aid him in singing. i jump around, occasionally 'sing' and have a fucking brillaint time. then they properly end with TOR-PE-DO and blair does a flying funnel off the stairs. everyone is left with a huge grin, having witnessed the unbeleiveable in whistlebinkies, stirling. this is punk rock.