Punks 4 Mental Health - Band Night

Saturday night saw day two of the punks 4 mental health mini-fest with the bands taking the stage at the Masons. If you have read this column before, you will probably have picked up on the fact that I like to see something a bit different from the norm so I was quite excited when I heard there was a late line-up change and now opening the night was ‘not the only clown in the village’, a Dutch punk clown act. Even though this was a solo act featuring a guitarist/vocalist with a drum machine, he had a big enough sound to make you feel that you were listening to a full lo-fi punk band. As well as his own songs such as ‘set Milford Haven alight’, he also performed covers from The Ramones’ classic, ‘I wanna be sedated’ to Portishead’s Glory Box.

Next up were Pembrokeshire band, Trunk Shot. It had been almost a year since I last saw the band, as they have not been gigging much recently and although they may have been a bit rusty to start off, they soon got into full flow. More than one person remarked to me how much they sounded like The Wildhearts, which is always a good sound to go for. The band featured a couple of guest vocalists on the night; Tasmin Mathias, who seemed to be channelling Poly Styrene from X-Ray Specs and Kieran Keily, who was MC for the night, who joined them for a rendition of 500 miles.

I have waxed lyrical about The Frights in this column many times before and again, I found them to be one of the most unique and interesting bands to play Llanelli. Stand out tracks for me were opening track, Vampire Love and a great cover of Bauhaus’ Bela Legosi’s Dead. If you have ever wanted to hear a goth surf band, then these are the boys for you.

Closing the festivities were The MLC. This band really have the punk spirit running through them. They admit themselves that they may be slightly over the age for a band to get signed and make it big but they just have great fun playing around the pub circuit. With their catchy songs and boundless enthusiasm, The MLC, always bring a smile to the faces of the watching crowd.