Third Punk Rock Outlook gig with popular bands and an exciting new band is a success!
Reading, Berkshire, UK has a very lively Punk scene – it may be known for the annual Music Festival, but during the rest of the year, there are numerous Punk bands playing at our great venues. One of these, Launch Control, puts on gigs to showcase local talent at east-of-town-centre bar The Outlook.
New writer Hannah was at the third of these shows, along with Punktuation! editor Ruth (who has been to all of them!)
First up were local Reading pop punk band Almost Aliens. They wowed the crowd with their music and an inflatable alien, which had its second outing at this gig! The sound was great, the songs were enjoyable, and they are lovely guys to have a conversation with.
They played a couple of new songs, one of them being ‘My Friends Come First’, which is on their recent EP release ‘The Summer And The Pride’.
Next up we had another local Reading band, Skinhawk. They have only been together 2 months, so very new to the scene, and this was their first ever gig. They are Hardcore and Nerd Punk, they were very loud and heavy. They were the first band to start a mosh pit in the crowd, who they interacted with a lot. (I was particularly impressed by their bass sound – Ed.)
They played 5 songs – all were enjoyable. Their next gig will be on the 28th October at Purple Turtle, Reading.
Of course it can’t be a Punk Rock Outlook gig without the hosts themselves, Launch Control. Their singer Lee Switzer-Woolf is very energetic, going into the crowd and involving himself in the mosh pits. They are all absolutely lovely, friendly guys, and have incredibly fast songs which the crowd responded really well to – mosh pits, circle pits, and lots of jumping around!
They played their new single ‘Attention Economy’ which is out on all streaming sites.
And lastly we had Rage DC, a very well-known Punk band within the scene. They had a stand in drummer, Kenny Stevenson (usually behind the kit with Anabollic Steroids), who played with them for the second time at this gig and did extremely well doing so. The crowd loved them. They were loud, energetic, and overall an absolutely incredible band to watch. They played a couple of new songs including ‘Fuck The Man’, which was a limited edition single brought out with Tony Smith, owner of Sounds Of The Suburbs Record Store, London. It is available on Spotify and other streaming sites. Their next gig will be on the 2nd November at the Holroyd Arms, Guildford.
Main Photo Credit / All Photos: HANNAH CALVER
Follow Launch Control on Their Socials:
Need more Punk In Your Life?
Live review: The Uprising, The Pipeline, Brighton, 27th June 2025
What an incredible showcase of bands this was! Fluffy Bunny, the host of Underwrld, definitely knows how to put on a banging gig! With Mirrors
Live review: Guana Batz at Facebar, Reading, 3rd July 2025
It’s forty years since Guana Batz released their debut ‘Held Down to Vinyl…At Last’ and there has been a seismic change in the music scene
EP review: Petrichor release their self-titled debut
The kids are alright, folks. Washington DC quartet Petrichor are probably sick of journos like me mentioning their age (all between 13 and 15 years
Terminal Sleep/Spaced, London New Cross Inn, 8th July 2025
Truly, Real Life Presents has been on a roll recently, with a week of great hardcore shows now coming to a close with a beast
Shake Some Acton gig #102, London The Lexington, 5th July 2025
There are plenty of gigs happening tonight, including a fair few rock n’ roll ones, but we rest assured that we’ve made the right choice
Gig Review: Pussy Riot, New Age Doom, Dolly Min, in The Hague, the Netherlands
On 26th June 2025, Pussy Riot brought their Riot Days show to het Paard in the Hague. Canadians New Age Doom and local punks Dolly
I’ve been going to gigs since I was 18 years old, and have loved them ever since. They are my second home. I enjoy discovering new bands, meeting punks of different ages, and learning more about the scene. I sing, play guitar, and learning the drums. Punk for life!
Did you know that we are 100% DIY? We run our own game. No one dictates to us, and no one drives what we can or cannot put on our pages – and this is how we plan to continue!
