Punks 4 Mental Health Pride Night 20/08/16
With Trudi Goldsmith
On Saturday 20th August Llanelli Rock Scene joined forces with Punks 4 Mental Health to host a ‘Pride Night’ at The Masons Arms Llanelli.
Sadly in a change to the scheduled line up much anticipated new band ‘Fat Wreck’ were unable to open the night. Never the less, the show went on with four top quality acts.
Opening the show was the brilliant Cath Elms who performed some of her emotionally charged original dark cabaret tunes in a haunting style that only she can. Punks 4 Mental Health founder Julian Hunt’s standout lyrics of the evening came from the performance of Cath’s song ‘I Should,’ which included the lyrics ‘You think I have nothing but dreams between my ears.’ Cover tunes included an excellent version of Radiohead’s’ No Surprises.’ It was plain to see just how much Cath won the crowd over right from the start with the huge crowd applause and shouts for ‘more’ right up to the very end of her set. Excellent performance.
Next up playing live for the first time in Llanelli was three piece hardcore punk band State Of Decay. This was the first time I had heard the band live and I was blown away by the raw energy and drive in their music. Gig goers were treated to some of the bands fine original tunes including cool new track ‘Reap What You Sew.’ With a double pronged vocal attack and some impressive drum kicks State Of Decay are definitely one of my personal favourite live bands, so far this year. Quote of the night came from gig goer Kieran Kiely who said ‘ Now this is what I call punk!’ I agree; awesome punk rock madness.
Up next and ready to play to the huge crowd was Grim Citizens. I do love these guys! Grim Citizens are one of those bands that you know you are going to have a great night watching. The band Kicked off their set in style with an excellent and aptly chosen cover of ‘Against Me’s Transgender Dysphoria Blues’. Mixing up their set with further covers including Alkaline Trio’s ‘Private Eye’ amongst others and a guest appearance by guitarist Ben. Grim Citizens treated us to some of their original tunes including ‘Charlatan’ and ‘One More Step’. They even included my long standing favourite Grim Citizens original ‘Jack n Coke’. Top set!
Making their debut with the final performance of the night was new cover band ‘Come As Nirvana!’ The Nirvana tribute band featured Kristen Smith landlord of the Masons on vocals with Ronan Samolinski on drums; Ioan Lloyd on bass and Liam Bunyan on guitar. As a devout Nirvana fan before their set I eagerly awaited to find out which songs the band had chosen to cover in their set. ‘Come As Nirvana’ made my night, performing songs from the Bleach, Incesticide, In Utero and Nevermind Nirvana albums. Their set even Included ‘ You Know Your Right’ the last ever song recorded by front man Kurt Cobain before his death. The band put on an awesome grunge show and their performance of some of the great Nirvana classics left me glued to the front of the stage for their entire set. Ten out of ten!! I really cannot wait to see them again!
A huge thankyou to the performers and to the staff and gig gig goers at The Masons Arms and thanks to Liam ‘Spud’ Andrews and Kieran Kiley who helped with the bucket collection. Punks 4 Mental Health raised £160.03p for the LGBT Wales helpline on the night.
