Another very successful Shadow Promotions gig at with both popular and new bands!
What a fun night this was! A new folk punk band, my favourite local punk band, and a folk punk band from Nottingham…what more could you ask for?! This night, put on by Shadow Promotions, was definitely needed and helped my mental health a lot! I always love discovering new bands as well as watching bands I’ve seen before, it’s the best of both worlds.
First up, we had a new local folk punk band – The Abbey Ghosts. This band has a total of 8 members, including Rachael, Jim and Mike of Missing The Scene. This was their first ever gig and what a treat it was to witness! Folk punk at its finest! Rachael on lead vocals, Jim on tenor guitar, Mike on drums, Dan on violin, Chris on mandolin, Martin on lead guitar, Matt on banjo, and Jon on bass guitar. What a perfect combination for folk punk. They played 5 songs – an intro, love song, punk song, drinking song, and political song.
My personal favourite was ‘Whiskey and Wine’, which of course is the drinking song. Their songs are fun and catchy and will be very easy to sing along to, once you know the lyrics. The Abbey Ghosts harmonised so well, both with their instruments and their vocals – it was quite hypnotic! It was hard not to have a little dance throughout their set; you definitely can’t just stand still! They already have some merch available, which of course I had to pick up for myself. I already cannot wait to see more of this band and what other songs they will have lined up for us in the future!
Next up we had my favourite local punk band – Tape It Shut. They are always fun to watch live, I’m never disappointed when I see them. Their lyrics ring true with honesty about politics and the world we are currently living in. This band always creates circle/mosh pits throughout their set, and everyone sings along to tracks like ‘$cam’, which is one of my personal favourites. They covered Onsind’s ‘Hetrosexuality is a Construct’, which vocalist / guitarist Dan shared meant a lot to them, experiencing homophobia, which I have also experienced being a part of the LGBTQIA+ community myself. FUCK HOMOPHOBIA!!
This is honestly why I love Tape It Shut a lot, they are relatable to a lot of people. Their music has personally helped me with my mental health. It is so lovely to see the band becoming more popular in and outside of Reading, and it is amazing to see Dan, bassist Kane, and drummer Andy all becoming more confident in themselves while playing.
Lastly, we had a folk punk band all the way from Nottingham – Cheap Dirty Horse. The band describe themselves as rowdy, queer, and trashy folk punk, which is the best description! They didn’t have their drummer with them; however, they still made their set work. Not a lot of bands can do this, but this one sure did! It was their first time playing in Reading, and I honestly think they should come back again. They got the crowd dancing, jumping around, moshing, and singing along.
Cheap Dirty Horse looked like they were all having so much fun while playing, with such great chemistry and harmonising with each other. They played ‘Hop To It’, which is based on a favourite card of one of the members from the card game Magic The Gathering. They were all so synchronised, jumping on stage in unison with each other. They are another band who are a lot of fun to watch. I already want to see them again!
This whole night was so much fun and I really enjoyed myself. I honestly didn’t want it to end. A massive thank you to Shadow Promotions for putting it together, and please go check out all the bands, they all work so hard at making great music!
Main Photo Credit / All Photos: HANNAH CALVER
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