King Prawn / Capdown. @ The Vic, Derby. 1/4/2000
Two of the top UK ska/punk bands met at the Vic for a thoroughly enjoyable gig. A local band were up first, can't remember their name but it wasn't really the right crowd for them to be playing too as they knocked out indie/rock/punk tunes. The only tracks that were really appreciated were the NOFX style punk tunes, which were ok. The 4 piece spent most of the time between songs mocking themselves and mentioning how badly they were going down.
Capdown went down a lot better, as after all most of the audience had
come for ska/punk and Capdown were giving it with there own London band
of aggression. The band had a mix of songs some real hard punk, almost
metal with ska breaks. Think of a Nu metal band doing ska/punk, but when
the charismatic vocalist took time out from singing full time he would
be playing the saxophone and the band knocked out a few skanking numbers,
similar to a ska/punk band doing covers of cartoon theme tunes.
While the bass player was re-tuning, Capdown's frontman asked "anyone
know any jokes?", "how about spunge?". This kind of got a mixed reception
to which the vocalist replied "I think I got away with it!".
The band ended with the storming A.C.A.B (Terrorgrouppe version).
Overall they were not band and will be worth watching at Morecambe. Definitely the hardest / heaviest band on show.
King Prawn are a pretty hard skanking band as well, the Rage Against
The Machine of the UK ska scene. Tonight the multi racial band were on
full form. "Not your Punk" and the latest single "day in, day out" were
the highlights as well as the rockin' climax of "Racist copper". Aggressive,
in your face ska/punk as good as any US band could do.
As mentioned in Ska-face#7 the band have got a decent range of merchandise
and also seem to be building up a decent sized fan base, as the gig was
well populated especially for a gig with no USA ska/punk bands on the bill.
It's a real pity that the prawnsters will not be appearing at the ska-fast
in Morecambe. The will be well missed.