SKATE TRIPS we ain't hit the road in any foreign countries yet (ie Aberdeen or further :P), although Mick did a bit in Ireland...the group may be going to London sometime, we'll see about that!
CONCERT WATCH Some bad-ass concerts reviewed courtesy of Mick... OFFSPRING (17th January 2001) My first concert! I went with pals from school (around 15-20 of them) to the SECC to see The Offspring, a kick ass metal/punk band. Although they were pretty funny theatrically in comparison to the support bands, Offspring didn't produce the best music. Dexter had a kinda whiney voice, which rang out much more than the instruments. Caffeine, the first band, were a musical masterpiece. J (guitarist) broke two strings near the end, so they had to come off early...and decided to stage dive! AFI, the next support band, weren't great musicians, but they were cool...got the crowd going but did control things, and their singer went for a crowdsurf (still singing) at the same time as I started surfing! Then a huge wait for The Offspring to come on, but when everything went dark and the bassline of "Bad Habit" rang out through the auditorium, we knew that things had started. Offspring were ok musically, but the coolest thing was "Intermission". Everyone was waving their hands around in the air as if it was stadium rock, and Dexter was sitting in a pink inflatable arm chair...then all the bubbles and foam came from above! It was a great night, and it gets an 8 outta 10! DECONSTRUCTION 2001 Skate punk at it's best. I went with Stephen and Nathan, although we caught up with some friends from Cathouse and my school. There was a wee skatepark for the public, and a huge vert ramp for the pros: the skatepark was ok, but the floor was slippy as anything, where as the vert contest kicked ass. We watched in awe as a dude on a board pulled a 720, and the BMXers were pretty sweet too! On the music side of things, it was cool. There were quite a lotta bands there (probably 9), but we only saw Snuff, Avail, Sick of it All, Bouncing Souls, Lagwagon and Pennywise. Sick of it All were hitting out a loada bollocks, we couldn't make out anything from the singer! Snuff and Avail were similar, they just performed with the odd jokes here and there. Bouncing Souls frontman Tony pulled up some people from the crowd to talk to them, while the drummer had to avoid flying bog roll :) Lagwagon were funny, joking all the time, amazing songs and Chris Flippin' in flames! The main event, Pennywise, were also cool, and pulled a ton of people outta the crowd to talk with them on stage or just stage dive! They invited a guy with a Pennywise tattoo backstage, I wish I had been that guy! Although the bassist did point at me after I had finished my crowd surf over the barrier and say "cool, more surfers!". They played a great set, i loved the pits and surfing, this was class! 9 outta 10, bitch! BLINK 182 We are counting down...hope it kicks ass!