Yes, we’ve been out doing childfree things again. On a school night as well! I know, it’s crazy talk and I am definitely Feeling It two days later but it was fun at the time and don’t worry, I have plenty of things to tell you about that are unchildfree as well….I just haven’t got round to blogging them yet. Look out for a special roundup post soon.
But on Wednesday, we went Out to see Ash again. We saw them a year ago, also at Kentish Town Forum, and it was ace so when we saw that they were gigging with The Subways it seemed like we’d be crazy not to go. I haven’t forgiven myself for not going to see Pulp at Finsbury Park yet and I am definitely eyeing up MSP/Suede tickets for next year. It’s good that we’re getting ourselves back onto the gigging scene in time for the 30th anniversary tours of all our favourite albums but that thought does make my head implode so let’s not dwell on it.
Even Ash and the Subways requires some mind-bending maths. The Subways are like the 2000s Ash and the two bands represent very different eras in my life – Ash were the soundtrack to secondary school and sixth form, all teenage love stories and driving around with “Jesus Says” turned up to the max. The Subways were the soundtrack to our pre-kids London life, squeezing into the Buffalo Bar for sweaty gigs and seeing them getting bigger and start to fill venues like Shepherd’s Bush Empire. But that was almost 20 years ago. If The Subways were Ash’s kids, where are Ash’s grandkids who should have debuted around 2015? And give it two years and a punky new trio should emerge to claim the title of Ash’s great-grandkids.
See, told you it was mind-bending.
Anyway, Bob was always there for those sweaty Subways gigs so naturally she and Not-Bob joined us this time. I’m probably not going to review both sets, song by song as I did with Ash last year because my memory’s not that good but it was advertised as a battle and hopefully by the end of this post you’ll know who I consider to be the winner….this time.
So, starting with the youngish upstarts – the Subways. It took a little while for the crowd to get going. Billy had instruct us with a shout of “London – go crazy!” and this was just after a woman had looked at Nathan funny for dancing into her beer as she was walking through the crowd. It didn’t feel like we were quite ready for craziness yet. Gradually, though, the crowd warmed up and by the time Billy was stage diving in from a great height, everyone was well into it. Before the gig, we were reminiscing about how he used to throw himself off balconies and somehow I didn’t think he’d still be doing it in his 30s. So no one was quite ready to catch him as he jumped but he didn’t quite get dropped. It was a close call tho…I imagine I’m not the only person Feeling It two days later.
In so many ways it’s hard to believe that the Subways have grown up. Not just the crowd surfing but the energy they put into every song. Considering this was the final night of a hardworking tour, I’m amazed that they still threw themselves into it. Quite literally, in Billy’s case. And Charlotte hasn’t aged a day since we last saw them. They truly did figure out the secret of staying Young for Eternity. And no, we have never seen them in the daylight.
All of this probably explains why they have a fanbase that were far too young to have been there in 2005. Which was fun at first, cause they got the moshpit going. But then the moshpit turned into a circle pit, which would prove to be a bit much. If you’re not sure about the difference between the two, then I would say a moshpit is where everyone is moving together, to the music as a way of enjoying it. A circle pit is about boys (and it generally is boys) slamming into each other with no real regard to what the rest of the crown might wanna do…like, yknow enjoy the music. But I get that some people have pent up tension so a circle pit is better than some of the alternatives.
I can’t remember exactly what songs the Subs played – I think they finished with “Rock n Roll Queen”, which everyone sang along to and I think they played “With You” just before that. There were some newer songs I didn’t know, like “Influencer Killed the Rock Star” which was about an unnamed ex-friend of the band and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”, which was hugely popular with the crowd. But there was plenty of stuff from the first album too – as I’m writing this and googling at the same time, I’ve found someone who *did* pay attention and I think they played about 6 songs, including the title track. No “Mary”, which was a shame cause I could have sung the version I wrote about Bob and shared on MySpace. I don’t think that recording still exists anywhere, sadly.
It was a shortish set but packed with energy and they left us beaming and ready for another quick pint before Ash. Would the older guard be able to measure up?
Ash certainly made a strong entrance, with the monologue from the A-Team seguing into a version of Flash Gordon that replaced “Flash” with….you guessed it, “Ash”. And Mark’s orange t-shirt looked amazing under the UV light.
Oh, but then they went straight into playing two songs from the new album without so much as a hello. I know you boys have an album to sell but this is meant to be a battle and the eternal manchild has just thrown down a beer-soaked and sweaty gauntlet. They followed up with “Goldfinger” which got the crowd moving a bit again but although I love anything from 1977, it’s not the most energetic of their songs. “Angel Interceptor” picked things up a bit and then they played “Life Less Ordinary”, which I love for very sloppy reasons. And it was released on this day, 26 years ago! Which I guess means Nathan and I have been together for 26 years? This maths really doesn’t work.
I was feeling weary by this point, after a full on work day and an even fuller-on Subways set but those three songs perked me up. Then there were more new album songs, which were good songs but I wasn’t particularly excited by them. Then “Orpheus”, which Billy had explained had a very special resonance for them…so it would have been rude not to dance to that. Tho since that night, the chorus has been bouncing around my head with “sunshine in the morning/heading for the open road” replaced by “gigging in your 40s/feeling it in every bone” every time I felt a twinge of pain.
Around that time, they played “Shining Light”, which I would have really enjoyed except that the young people from earlier decided to form another circle pit which is pretty incongruous for such a sweet song. Save it for “Kung Fu”, boys. I think they were bored and restless but Nathan and I both had the same thought, which involved people attempting to mosh to “Demons” by the Super Furries at Southampton Guildhall in 1998. Some songs just don’t lend themselves well to the more violent kinds of dances.
It was time for a change of pace, and bringing special guest Démira Jansen out to duet on “Oslo” did just that. I realised how much Ash missed those Charlotte-vocals as Tim and Démira harmonised. It’s that softer side that provides a nice contrast to all the noiserock. The Subways certainly know the value of Charlotte-vocals too.
I hadn’t heard of Démira before but she just made me think of Daisy Jones, both in look and voice. That’s not a bad thing as long as she’s not causing the backstage chaos of Daisy Jones. It was a nice break before a couple more new songs then a cracking double of “Kung Fu” and “Girl From Mars”. It was almost like Ash were finding their mojo, just before taking a pre-encore break. Démira popped back a bit of “Crashed Out Wasted” before we all got to play what I’ve seen described as “an adult game of Peekaboo”.
Unsurprisingly, Ash came back. Slightly more surprisingly, The Subways came back with them. We’d seen some extra mics being set up so we had got our hopes up but didn’t want to get too excited….after all, last year’s encore guest was a bit underwhelming. But no, Billy and Tim were together on stage to declare their bromance to the world. And more importantly, to play “Oh Yeah” with two drummers, two bassists and a whole lotta vocals. It’s not the “Oh Yeah” you’re thinking of though. Or is it? Anyway, Ash and The Subways played “Oh Yeah” and then Ash and The Subways played “Oh Yeah”. Both song were epic. Billy looked like he was living his best life, Tim looked more energised than he had all night and us fans lapped it all up.
Ash finished with “Burn Baby Burn”, sadly without the Subways and we danced out to the sound of “Jump in the Line” from Beetlejuice. Oh yes, they know their demographic.
So, who is the victor in this fight? Sorry Ash, I’ve gotta give this to the Subs. They just brought all the energy and the set was end-to-end joyousness. I feel like Ash were better last year, when they were playing more of the old material and had Charlotte there. But, as I said earlier, I do get it – they’re doing this to promote the new album and it clearly worked because Nathan bought both the album and the t-shirt. If the bands had gone the other way round and I’d had a bit more energy for Ash’s set I might have felt differently but 8 out of the 16 songs in the main set I didn’t know, compared to only 6 out of the 14 songs in the Subways set that I didn’t know. Plus, the bored young people making circle pit trouble made it a less enjoyable experience watching Ash causing every now and then you’d get shoved backwards and just have to kinda wait while the testosteroney ones prowled round the big empty space and decided whether to slam into each other or not.
I mean, I’m moaning but Nathan loved it. I almost lost him to those circle pits a couple of times. In case you’re wondering, he is also feeling the after effects. In case I haven’t mentioned it a million times already in this post, we are a million years old. And sometimes it shows.
But still, it was a grand evening out and I feel very privileged to watch the two bands come together for “Oh Yeah squared”. Epic moments, and yeah, bring on the next gig….
