Billy and the Lost Boys, or Billy The Kid, as the singer is also known as without her band, are on the stage to do their duty, which is to get rid of the smell of piss emanating from the venue floor and have it stinking of soaking sweaty body odors instead (there are actually five ‘Billy The Kid monikers, which can become slightly confusing).
Songs from new album Horseshoes & Hand Grenades (produced by Frank Turner) sound raw and provide more than enough melody and hooks to grab the attention of the crowd.
Tracks from Lost Cause, offer up some highlights with Billy’s soulful voice providing an emotional blanket that provides depth and an invariable range within the setlist.
Eventually the smell of piss starts to dissipate, introducing a nostril tingling acidity that is pretty bearable, job done.
Against Me! are out promoting their latest album Transgender Dysphoria Blues and this seems like a major feat as they have such a huge back catalogue of punk-fuelled sing-alongs, which make it near impossible for them to fail in delivering the goods to their loyal fanbase.
Musically, the band is tight and the musicianship is top class, in particular, Atom Willard is a rhythmic nail gun, punching holes into the crowd’s ear drums (it almost makes you feel sorry for the hardcore fans at the front missing those essential ear plugs that could be saving their hearing, some of those songs may be imprinted for good, in the form of tinnitus).
Laura Jane Grace is fantastic with the crowd in between songs, with the camaraderie facilitating the buoyancy of the crowd.
Grace has a vocal range that can have her sounding like Roger Lima one minute and Brody Dalle the next.
There is a serious amount of passionate crowd chanting going on tonight and it makes some of the classic Against Me! tunes sound epic in scope.
Standouts include ‘White Crosses’ and ‘Teenage Anarchist’ as the crowd in unison, sing along to “when you were young and you wanted to set the crowd on fire”.
Going by tonight’s standards: punk was never dead, it just never sold out.
Words: Derek Robertson
