A WHIMPER AND A BANG: GREAT PUNK SHOW, SMALL TURN OUT

LIVE REVIEW | HI-STAKES TOUR (The Last Gang, CLOBBER, Last Hounds, SPLIT DOGS) | MANCHESTER, REBELLION 16/09/24 by Craig Harston

The first Hi-Stakes tour kicked off this past week. Featuring an eclectic line-up of up and coming punk rock bands, the tour is due to feature a rotating roster each night, meaning each band gets to play a different slot at each show, as well as a raffle for a bag of goodies (including an EP, beer and headphones, amongst other things) and a few tour exclusive items for purchase. Sadly, whether due to poor word of mouth, minimal marketing or the fact the first two shows were on a Sunday and Monday night, respectively, the attendance has been very low, meaning the bands were playing to fairly empty rooms. That doesn’t mean the bands didn’t give it their all by any means.

Opening the show tonight were UK punk ‘n’ rollers SPLIT DOGS who played a raucous set, getting what little of the crowd there was warmed up nicely as they blasted through many of there songs, mostly from 2023’s self-titled album (Gutterball, Prison Bitch, Feeder). Frontwoman Harry Martinez exuded confidence throughout, performing like a woman possessed as she moved about the stage. SPLIT DOGS finished strong with back-to-back songs ,’Tear Down The House‘ and ‘Punch Drunk‘, but not before playing new song ‘Monster Truck‘.

Next up were crossover punks Last Hounds. They played a tight but energetic show with frontman Mikey Skelcher absolutely owning the stage as usual – and he looked awesome in his dungarees and bucket hat combo! Their set was pretty relentless, including the likes of ‘Snakeskin‘ and ‘Growing Pains‘.

CLOBBER hit the stage next, bringing their brand of ‘oi’ all the way from London. Frontman Charlie Longman clearly wasn’t happy with the small turn out, regularly prompting the crowd to start dancing and calling them ‘boring’. As is often the norm for bands travelling from down south he couldn’t help taking potshots at the north, which although likely meant in jest did become a bit tiresome after a while and one member of the crowd, whether wrongly or rightly, took the bait. Charlie did later take some time to talk about the genocide in the middle east and trans rights and overall CLOBBER played a blistering set including ‘Tottenham Court Road‘, ‘World’s Gone Mental‘, ‘Council Estate Of Mind‘, ‘Karens, Gammons, Hippies and Conspiracies‘ and a cover of Bad Religions ‘Do What You Want‘.

Easily the highlight of the night were California’s The Last Gang but prior to them closing the show, event organiser Lee Erinmez hit the stage to draw the raffle winner. Due to the low turnout, it took several attempts before a winner was pulled out but it was a great bit of fun and hopefully the winner enjoyed their prize bundle.

The Last Gang are due to release their third album, Obscene Daydreams, this coming Friday, and played a great set of songs from across all three albums, including ‘Panic Dreaming‘, ‘Sing For Your Supper‘, ‘Rumors‘, ‘Madness‘, ‘Berlin To Rome‘, which segued nicely into ‘Noise Noise Noise‘, ‘WFTW‘, ‘Gimme Action‘ and ‘Blood Drunk‘, with the latter song getting the only mosh pit of the night (which was admittedly only three people, but still). Brenna Red owned it on vocals and guitar but was given amazing support from bassist Sean Viele, guitarist Ken Aquino and drummer Sam Mankinen. They even brought along vinyl copies of the new album to sell ahead of it’s general release (spoilers: it’s great!).

For those wanting to pick up memorabilia of the night, Hi-Stakes have an EP for sale, featuring a song from each of the four bands and can be purchased in a bundle with a tour shirt.

Overall, it was a great night of punk rock that deserved a better turn out than what it got – hopefully the remaining shows will see an increase in attendance due to word of mouth. It’d be sad if the tour was unable to return for a second run next year.

Tickets are still available for the remaining dates HERE!