Fuck The Scene – Show Me The Green
Retro Bar, Portrush
Tuesday 24th August

Rory Friers is on record pronouncing that a little solidarity goes a long way and that sentiment rang true over Portrush last night as the topflight of Northern Irish bands aligned for a fund-raising spectacular.
The cause was to support those suffering with multiple sclerosis and to generally raise awareness of the illness. At the end of the night I think the organisers will be quite pleased with the intake and the resounding success of the evening.
The Retro bar seemed an unusual setting for the crusade, especially when a heap of the North’s household names were gradually announced. Even despite Dublin’s instru-punkers Adebisi Shank having to pull out, the sheer level of demand expected for this one called for a guestlist before a single band had been revealed! Something quite special was brewing, other than the Buckfast, and anticipation was insane.
The early kick-off didn’t put off a ‘being with the place rammed as the North-side ghetto punk of Bomb City 7 brought the scenie-boppers out in hordes (who quickly dispersed afterwards until Axis Of). You really haven’t heard anything like them before and everyone in the room goes clean mad to the sound of bouncing ‘Belfaauust’ rants leaping off dandering basslines, fluent in the same rancid rhythms of their supergroup forebearers in Team Fresh. It’s a rollicking start and already the walls of the Retro are gasping for air – you can imagine the terror then when Lafaro begin setting up.
Considering their sub-headline slot at Glasgowbury and abolition of this very bar a fortnight ago, the lads are on early tonight delivering ballsy set favouring new and forgotten material over the usual crowd-pleasers. The place still looks like a crisis zone after ‘Leningrad’ and as per the norm with Lafaro, the comedy comes as thick and fast as the sneering rock n’ roll genius.
“Fuck”, Fighting With Wire frontman Cahir O’Doherty must be thinking, once again having to follow Lafaro as they did at Glasgowbury. It’s a routine performance for the Derry three piece; ‘My Armoury’ adds weight to the other straight-ahead rockers, ‘Everyone Needs A Nemesis’ is left till the end – the only one lips move to. For the most well established band tonight, FWW’s crowd is modest, but the band use the time to preview many songs from their long delayed second album. Cahir even says a tour EP will be released to bridge the gap till the record is sorted, but by the sounds of ‘Erase You’s playful Nirvana structure and ‘Blackout’s getting hit by a Scania-like brutality – it’ll be worth the delay.
Axis Of are by some distance the loudest band on the night and their late slot will surely boost their already massive reputation for double-barrel math-punk brilliance. Ewen Friers doesn’t stop until the crowd are practically on top of him and Niall calls out for for abnormally slow head-banging during their awesomely trippy cover of “Tupenny Sludger”. It’s complete chaos and even in such a jammed space ‘Brobdingnagian’ still sounds galactic.
Second only to ASIWYFA are Team Fresh. Guitar-heavy gang rap reeking of the North coast but showing reflections of Cypress Hill, early Incubus and Tom Morello. Everyone chants back along with the gnashing verses and tempos that gut you like a fish. It seemed Team Fresh had a longer stretch on stage than the others but this was probably down to the mass itching to once again have the walls painted with our brains by And So I Watch You From Afar.
Every time a band pipes up and you start to think “They might well be the best band about these days..” ASIWYFA breeze in and put a lid on any doubt that they are the absolute rulers of this country’s music scene. It only takes ‘S Is For Salamander’ to tell us that much, but ‘Clench Fists, Grit Teeth…GO!’ is just disgracefully good. Once more, after a Zombie Safari Park b-side no less, it’s everyone’s second favourite riff (second to Tupenny Nudger) with guitars being adjusted to their in-built ‘kill’ setting to end the night heroically.
Even after everyone’s been ushered out, still “DUN-DUN-DUN DUH! DUH! DUN-DUN-DUN”ing all the way, the night will be remembered for the sheer harmony of this country’s bands, pulling together to support a good cause, raising the ‘green’ and playing some brilliant music along the way.

By Daniel Robinson