By DJ Astrocreep
Braving train strikes, Eurovision throngs and highly delayed coaches, I ventured across to my regular haunt of Manchester for a night of punk rock fun in the shape of old schoolers Ruts DC and new school Voodoo Radio. Settling in with a couple of pints, our support act take to the stage.
Cumbrian father and daughter duo, Voodoo Radio are our supports for the evening, but the room is very disappointingly quiet when they start up. The music itself is highly infectious, likeable DIY punk and those that are in early or seep in during the set clearly enjoy their music, myself very much included. Paige, the singer/drummer, comes across almost a touch manic at times, though in a quite enjoyable way, whilst guitarist Tony riffs out right the way through. It’s basically impossible not to like the down-to-earth, approachable things they write about and there is a definite air of something a bit different about them. Whilst still quite raw in their current form, there are definite clues in their live set about why Holy Dotage have snapped them up. A really good opening act.
On to Ruts DC and there’s a reason they have been so beloved for this amount of time. The crowd has busied up a touch, but still not as much as I may have previously expected – a sign of the times, perhaps. Our headlining threesome take to the stage and those in the room erupt. People are quite quickly dancing as some bigger songs are interspersed into the set quite early but everyone seems up for pretty much everything The Ruts throw at us from the start.
Whether it’s the likes of ‘You’re Just A…’ or ‘Time To Kill’, which both appear in the first third of the set, ‘Kill The Pain’ or ‘Mind Control” in the middle third or forever main set enders ‘Stuck In A Rut’ or ‘Babylon’s Burning’, the room clearly enjoys all of the tight set played to us. While there is time for three encores, you can see a couple of people creep out after the two big singles close the main part of the set – probably less noticeable with a busier room, but a difference nonetheless. Everything comes across well and it’s another top-notch set from the seasoned professionals. The perfect antidote to some of the commotion in another part of the venue tonight.
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