4ft Fingers, Norwich Waterfront
It’d been a while since I’d gone to a good, old fashioned punk rock show., and while I knew I wasn’t going to see anything especially new or innovative here I was most looking forward to it. Strangely enough, the venue was only about half full (if that) which meant MR ZIPPY had to try hard to elicit even the most casual of responses from the usually receptive crowd. With the frontman battling an extremely mucus-laden cold they had the odds stacked against them but they certainly managed to overcome the barriers. Energetically bounding around the stage and ripping out fast, catchy riffs aplenty the band definitely gave it their all, blending a truly funny stage presence with some melodic punk rock that can surely never get boring. It’s a crying shame that so few were watching Mr Zippy because they showed some definite promise and seemed comfortable on stage. (7)
The current trend for post-hardcore or emo or whatever means that it looks like the perennial battlers 4FT FINGERS are once again going to be marginalised in the punk rock world, in favour of more hair gel and more crying. But they played this show with a ferocity that was absent the last time I saw them, and really kicked the shit out of their amps. Opening with ‘Brickwall’ currently doing the video rounds on P-Rock they played fast and accurately, really getting the crowd moving for the first time tonight. As with Mr Zippy, the venue was hardly heaving but the people that were there absolutely lapped it up.
‘Proud To Know You’ has always been a personal favourite and really captures the 4ft sound in a catchy chunk of melodic punk. With a shouty chorus and lyrics that pretty much everyone can relate to, the band whipped the pit into a frenzy with riff after riff that just encapsulated everything I love about this kind of music. Fist-in-the-air melody mixed with beery vocals multiplied by a tinge of ska – now that’s where it’s at.
Dedicating ‘Slowly Sinking’ to Tony Blair with a throwaway comment, but going into a rant about the subject matter of ‘Last Man Standing’ (anti-Townie, yawn) seemed to me like a definite attempt to pander to the crowd and the current trend of slagging them off. I don’t agree with these sorts of statements because they’re deliberately incendiary in a time when it’s thoroughly unnecessary. It would have been far more poignant to outline Blair’s failings than to say how much you “hate pikeys”. But to be honest that was the only fault I could find in the 4ft performance. They were tighter than a badger’s ringpiece and had a lot of presence, moreso than when I’ve seen them before. They’re on top of their game – could this be their time? (9)
Ben
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