I should start off this whole reviewing lark with some skate punk. I have to, really. It is what I love. Though I now realise I’ve lost a fair few scene points for that comment. Damn.
Anyway – I don’t know who Side Sixty Seven are, but apparently they’ve provided music for “several” skate and snowboard videos. They also won a Vans demo competition, meaning they must have some talent. Lo and behold, they do.
It’s fast, it’s frenetic, it’s frantic, it’s a number of adjectives beginning with ‘f’. It’s also live, but to be honest that hardly comes across – things are very, very polished with this offering. Audio is in super-ace surround sound quality and the DVD video that comes with it (flip over the CD. It’s witchcraft, dammit.) is just as shiny. This is a nice turn up for the band personally, what with them just emerging into the mainstream – it’s nice to have such a well-produced live album to show off to people with – but it manages to bring things down too. It’s just too clinical – there’s no soul to it. You never hear the crowd cheering and you barely hear any of the band interacting with the audience, as every song fades in and fades out. It loses a lot of the feel that live records get. In fact, it feels very much like a showcase presentation of the band, with a very clean cut nature and all rough edges ironed out. Most likely because that’s what it is.
Musically, the album is sound, and it doesn’t let up the pace throughout. Unfortunately for le Side (as I now call them), the opening track ‘Parasite’ is the best one on offer, meaning every song that comes after seems poor – boring even – by comparison. It’s just a shame that it starts so strong before spiralling into the realms of ‘just decent’. If you know skate punk, you’ll know what to expect. Just don’t go looking for anything that will change your life.
(Actually, I think I’ve just figured out why you can never hear the crowd. It looks like there’s about five people there. Maybe they just change their clothes through the gig to look like they’re different people. Shame.)
www.beyondwarped.com
Ianos