Nite Songs

  Kubix Day 1 Review here And so on to Day 2 of Kubix. While yesterday was a fairly slow-paced opening day to the festival, today proves to be a lot more busy with several stage clashes. In the interest of covering as much as possible, please be aware that for quite a few of the bands I've reviewed here, I didn't catch the full set due to hot footing it to/from the other stage. But hopefully I've done this justice... It's weird how a nice sunny day (a stark contrast to yesterday which alternated between clouds and rain) can make even bands you weren't a fan of first time out seem pleasant enough and Republica , who open the Main Stage today, are a case in point. Back when I was 18, I generally found their Essex girl techno-Britpop about as much fun as root canal surgery without the anaesthetic but today they're enjoyable enough with an energy and enthusiasm to their set that means you'd have to be a bit of a miserable bugger not to enjoy it. They play the hi...

  Formed as a supergroup, initially under the stewardship of Mike Peters, Billy Duffy and Kirk Brandon, Dead Men Walking have been through a few line-ups in recent years with the current incarnation consisting of Brandon, Stiff Little Fingers' Jake Burns and the Ruts' rhythm section of Segs Jennings and Dave Ruffy. This is their belated first album and, as per the group's live shows, it's a mainly acoustic effort consisting of some new songs and a few re-recorded numbers from the various members' main groups. It's to those involved's credit that they haven't leaned back too extensively on their better known material with the only three selections that could arguably be described as obvious ones - SLF's Wasted Life , Spear of Destiny's Never Take Me Alive  and the Ruts' Staring At The Rude Boys  held back for the end of the album and DMW manage to do all of them justice. Aside from the new tracks, the majority of the other selections are from ...

"And they said we played too loud/That we didn't play for their crowd/But we just told 'em wait and see..."  - Stiff Little Fingers  - Wait And See It's one of the most frustrating things about punk rock in general that when you mention Ulster punk perennials Stiff Little Fingers, the general consensus seems to be that the first album is all you need. Pardon my French but that's utter bullshit. For me, SLF's lauded first album Inflammable Material  is the sound of a band starting to nail their sound but it's what came afterwards that was really the sound of this group spreading its wings and coming up with its best material. I think the reason for this is that Nobody's Heroes is the sound of SLF breaking out of their Belfast origins and writing songs about the world as a whole rather than their area of it. Look, I totally get why everybody loves Inflammable Material - it's the sound of the sheer desperation that I'm sure a lot of Northern...