Munkyfest 2000.
'ok, lets get this event started' say dub club, and after hours of stage building, and listening to gabba mixtapes and ramones records over the p.a, munkyfest returns to our lives once again. The sun is shining, more people are arriving all the time and Dub Club,the improv wing of honey shop screamers, are jamming their way through 'without her'. The new trombonist is amazing, and the almost telepathic connection between the band members is incredible, allowing them to give their improvised pieces a great sense of dynamics and purpose. Its all over far too soon, but there are so so many bands to get through.
A tangible sense of excitement moves through the crowd as the mighty MACHINE, replete with tippexed leather jacket, is sighted in a rare public appearance. He is soon swamped by autograph hunters and groupies but takes it all in his stride, delighting the crowd by frequently uttering his trademark nonsensical statements.
Point 9. Keep things going along nicely. Mixing nu-metal riffing with hip hop scratching and soaring emo vocals, they put smiles on the faces of much of the crowd, although the sound from the p.a., as is traditional for munkyfest, isn't actually that good.
the mysterious "anna's friends" who turn out to be called redbank are a lovely surpise for just about everyone. Their direct and melodic emo is a bit like sunfactor or rydell with ace screaming but tuneful vocals. they're intense and passionate and great fun. Rumours that the lead singer was jimmy saville in a rubber face mask were proved to be way of the markwhen the 100 strong crowd wrestled him to the floor to claw at his 'mask' which was, in fact, a real face. Such rumours are now part of munkyfest tradition- lastyear it was suspected that will's brother rob, was infact skeletor, prince of evil, in a papier mache mask. Again,after 5 hours, no mask was detected. with hindsight it seems obvious that rob and redbank's singer are not the prince and king of evil respecively, but one can never be too careful.
But back to the matter in hand. BOBA FETT get people bouncing along to their pop-punk songs, which sound a little like ash or symposium. Their catchy melodies are perfect for a munkyfest crowd which wants fun, fun, fun. and their vengaboys cover is genius.
The mighty HIP HOP YOU DO NOT STOP AND THEDOPPELGANGERS are quite literally mighty, giving the crowd the most entertaining set so far. In act of solidarity with fellow texan, bankrupt oily businessman J.R, they wear confederate flag tee-shirts. Their jazz-hardcore-folkpop songs of love and heart break kick like a mule and purr like a kitten. They cover the a-team theme tune, the ghostbusters theme tune, and do about 2000 of their own compositions including the one about barlow burning in hell and the haunted house. Being the bestband in dallas takes its toil on 'the boys' and they collpase frequently onto the stage floor and on top of each other under the weight of their own genius. A passing self-proclaimed 'old hag' describes them as ‘lairy as a barrel full of munkies' and as hiphop themselves might say, could they speak english, 'its true, its true'.
Handy jack offs get a big load of teens skanking to their ska-punk songs. Unfortunately they haven't gottheir brass section this time around but they still give us a cool set of catchy, concise tunes with bundie and sammy giving their all especially.
The ian baxter quartet are a great example of the spontaneous spirit of munkyfest, hardly having practiced before their gig. They perform only two songs but that's enough to amaze us. The 'twin peakstheme' and ian's own composition are atmospheric and tense cuts of instrumental guitar stuff, a bit like mogwai or slint. The genius of the songs lies in their elegant simplicity, and the commitment of all of the musicians in the quartet; each note sounds vital. Some equipment seems to break at the end of the set but the element of chaos this introduces as ian's guitar feedback keeps cutting out actually makes the songsound even better. Infamously, ian's set wasn't enjoyed by everyone but munkyfest needed the quartetto give it a truly eclectic and varied line up.
ALLY's set will also go down in munkyfest legend. Performing 3 songs from his cd 'tomorrow will bebeuatiful' and an emotional cover of neil young's'rockin in the free world', ally's set of love songsis the most honest and moving performance atmunkyfest. At the heart of his songs are poppy melodies but off-kilter keyboard and guitar touches prevent them from becoming predictable. Ally modestly says he doesn't deserve applause when he clearly does.
The HONEY SHOP SCREAMERS and their bike gang get up onstage and remind everyone why james hetfield lauded them as ' a right on rock n roll bonanza of peace and harmony' in a recent episode of 'through the keyhole'. Joe looks very randy on the keyboards, increasing calls for him to be neutered. HSS play all their popular favourites with deadly accuracy. They also do their cover rancid's 'old friend' for the first time in ages and its beautiful with 'big stu' guesting on vocals. It's the first time I've seen them with keyboards and they sound ACE. Every member of the band seems to be really enjoying themselves and the will's garden is covered by people skanking. In a way, HSS songs have become the songs of our youth, the way we've all heard them so often and had such a great time when we've heard them live over the past two years. So hurray for HSS. At the end of their set HSS say they'll never forget their munkyfest gig and I think a lot of the crowd felt the same way.
And then pyridine. Singer mike forster is nice offstage. On stage he's a maniac. He gets on stage, sticks a knife in a amp, threatens someone that he'll ‘break them in half’ and then the show starts. The crowd goes whoosh away from the stage as mike screams 'I don't want to kill you' over and over in the first song. The rest of the gig is a blur of mike throwing mike stands around, picking his teeth with his flick knife, and the crowd smiling nervously. When it was actually happening, it wasn't that enjoyable. Butlooking back on it, it was brilliant. Pyridine were easily the most extreme band at munkyfest, with the guitars used as tools to create feedback and mike's totally unhiged stage personality. He puts everything into the bands performance. Their cover of 'now Iwanna be your dog' is one of the most passionate performances I've ever seen, with mike lying alone onthe grass at the end of the song, sobbing. Closing instrumental 'leopard man' has mike somehow making white noise with his mouth over the song's strangely head fucking riff. Pyridine were confrontational, confusing, provocative, unpredictable and exciting and munkyfest needed them.
So that was that. All that was left to do was watch hiphop's come back gig, talk rubbish, watch fireworks, watch the sunrise and finally stagger home with heads full of aches and nice memories. See you all again next year. To everyone that danced, played, smiled, laughed, wrote on each other with permanent marker, played acoustic guitars into the early hours, played drinking games, shared drugs, helped to clear up, lent equipment, helped out with sound or anything else; you made it ace and you made sure it was better than 99, despite this year's non-appearance of andi peters. Hiphip hurray.
Simon Hampson.
