Last week, Californian skate-punk Lagwagon travelled around England on a short U.K. tour, taking in Manchester, Nottingham and London. We managed to see them perform a headline set alongside support acts Useless I.D., and Versus The World, and came away feeling very much impressed.
Versus The World were up first, and whilst we only managed to catch a small part of their set due to some delayed trains, what we saw was great, with the band producing a summery pop-punk sound – rather similar to the music of the genre which emerged in the early 2000s. One to watch, as they are the most likely of the three acts here to possibly hit the charts in the future.
Next up were Israeli punk band Useless I.D., an act who have been around since 1994, yet are still hugely underrated (not unlike Lagwagon themselves). Their music was fantastic, with a huge number of songs squeezed into the small half hour set they were given (although being a punk band, it’s perhaps easier to fit more songs in due to the compressed nature of them). Useless I.D. play extremely catchy music but with more of a metallic twist than your average skate-punk band, and managed to combine those two things well. Definitely a band to check out if you are a fan of the genre, as they are very good live and have a good reputation within the scene.
Finally, it was time for Lagwagon to hit the stage, and they did to the theme from the television show Bonanza. The band announced a few days before the tour that they would be performing the whole of their 1995 album Hoss live, which was well received due to it being one of the band’s most recognised records, combining early pop and skate-punk with crashing guitars and thoughtful lyrics. The band did not disappoint, and the audience sang all of the lyrics back to the band, with hits Violins and Razor Burn being ecstatically welcomed by the crowd. After that, the band performed a short greatest hits set, including tracks like Alien 8, May 16, and Falling Apart (the perfect encore song), rounding the set off nicely. All in all, a very good show, and it was nice to see that after 21 years, Hoss still resonates with people, and Lagwagon are still just as relevant as ever.
By Jane Howkins
