Howler  - Live @ Rescue Rooms, Nottingham.

Howler Live at Rescue Rooms Nottingham.

As I'm walking up to Rescue Rooms I'm thinking back to January and Howlers gig at The Bodega in Nottingham and how it had been a gig never to forget and one that can never be bettered. That was just one of those nights when you knew you were special. It was bloody freezing though just as it was then. I arrived early and caught both the support acts who were full on good.

Now, I'm  going to keep this one as short as I can because I don't want to linger and waffle on as I'm sure you will agree that January gig did it good and proper. To my surprise, and I don't know why because I should have known, they were back for more it seems. I recognised a lot of the youths that were at the Bodega packed up into the front, and again as then, there was no pit.

They blistered their way through most of the same stuff as back then too with the exceptions of two or three new tracks. Yes, they still sound awesome. Yes, they still fuck about like idiots, creating antic after antic. Yes they are still Howler and massively entertaining with it too.

Jordan announces near the start that 'he'd seen Saturday morning telly and there's this little guy in the corner doing sign language and shit. I couldn't believe it' he continued, 'its obviously for deaf people'....with a smirk on his face. I swallowed deep and thought 'oh shit where's he going with this?'. 'I don't know exactly why but that little guy's a fuckin legend....' he says. Gazing around at the rest of the band as if in shock that he'd come out with it, and them all gazing back the same, he shrugs and blurts 'I don't know what that was about!' and way they go again. Fantastic.

A little later between tracks he recalls the Bodega night and informs us that 'The last night we came to Nottingham was awful. Oh jees it was a fuckin mess man! We lost our guitars and everything.' Of course the gang at the front were cheering in delight by now. They knew all about it, they were the culprits!

A short while after this Gatesmith spots Will, who incidentally is stood right next to me . 'Hey Will!' he shouts. Now, Will is a little embarrassed to say the least and shuffles around with a half frightened smile. 'Hey come on Will. Get up here man. you can be part of the band.' So without further ado, Will is up on the stage and is given a symbol and drum stick to play with and off they go again. Now, I have no idea who Will is and why he was singled out and judging by the state of happy Will I don't think he did either but he sat and crashed that symbol like a goodun for the rest of the track.

Expecting more antics I thought it best to make my escape and watched the rest of the gig out on the balcony right above the stage. After the last track and the stage strewn with guitars and shit, thrown down on the way off stage Brent (drummer) decides he's going to chat and spends the next fifteen minutes lying on the floor amongst the monitors with a bottle and chatting to the faithful.

As we leave some guy shouts after me, 'Hey, are you the guy that took the photos of the Bodega gig?' Smiling I replied 'Yeh' to which he lauded 'Fuckin shit hot photos they were man! What a night that was!' We engaged in a bit of jovial reminiscing and i recalled the sound man on his knees frantically hanging on to the wrong end of a guitar cable as he got pulled in to the crowd after said guitar.

With a grin to make a Cheshire cat jealous I wandered off into the centre of Nottingham knowing that I was now a star, a celebrity. A dreamer more like.                              It wasn't the apocalypse that was the Bodega, but then it didn't need to be.

It was typical Howler.

DG