The following is adapted from a post on my other blog, which can be found here: http://danblogs.tumblr.com/post/1373374491/128
The videos and photos below are ones I took at the gig.
-
On Wednesday, I went to see Chuck Ragan, frontman of seminal 90's hardcore punk band Hot Water Music play a show.
Though my friend and I didn’t know where we were going, we managed to stumble our way there, thanks to the maps on my phone, and a bit of guesswork. The Windmill, in Brixton, initially seemed to be a nice little place. I had assumed it would be an actual music venue, but when we got in (though, we had to eat our sandwiches outside), I could see it was essentially a pub.
As we were there an hour early, and I didn’t want to wait outside in the freezing cold, we stayed inside. Some guy came to check we had tickets later, and said there wasn’t a problem with us being inside. When we entered, I could see Chuck soundchecking. The bar was practically empty except for us and the musicians who would be supporting him.
But Chuck was a brilliant guy. He was so down to earth, and had the patience to put up with me telling him how great I thought he was. He seemed really flattered when I told him my band used to cover one of his songs (even though we could never do it justice), and eventually, took me up on the offer of a drink. He was only talking to me for about 5 minutes, but that was pretty much all I needed. I was walking on air.
It must seem odd to him. He playing a show is his day job, something he does for a living, but for me, just him taking the time to acknowledge me made my day. Chuck Ragan has supported some of my favourite artists, Alkaline Trio and Frank Turner for example, and he’s currently on tour with The Gaslight Anthem. I would kill just to spend 5 minutes talking to these guys like I did with Chuck.
Naturally, when the music started, I moved to the front and centre. There was no stage to speak of, so I stood in front of the main mic. The support acts were all lovely, the first one closing with a great cover of Social Distortion’s ‘Story Of My Life’. Sam Russo also supported. Russo’s is a name I’ve been vaguely aware of for some time, but never bothered to check out. I really liked the stuff he was playing, and I’m glad I’ve seen him now. Weirdly enough, his friends from Apologies, I Have None were in the audience, though being as big a fan I am of them, I didn’t realise untill after I had left.
When Chuck came on, I had been standing up for so long, my back had already started to hurt, but I didn’t complain, and belted my way through the songs. He didn’t really have a setlist, but just asked the audience to shout out songs for him to play (he played ‘Glory’ when I shouted it out, which is one of my favourite songs by him). He also played about 5 new songs, from various different projects he was working on. A few were from his next solo album, some were from his split record he is currently writing with Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem. Finally, he also played ‘God Deciding’, probably the best known song by his old outfit, Hot Water Music.
Chuck ended on ‘California Burritos’, and by this time, everyone was dancing and singing along. I can honestly say that this is one of the best gigs that I’ve ever been to. The atmosphere was so warm and friendly, I would have probably jumped up and hugged someone if my legs weren’t on the verge of collapse.
