The God Awfuls

live in Glasgow (2004)
Warner Music Group

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: Mr_Ian
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on March 16th 2004

It's a cold Sunday night in Glasgow and there is a massive queue outside the Cathouse, which is Glasgow's premier "alternative" nightclub, and it's almost all girls. This is somewhat of a rarity in these parts and the only other time I've seen this many girls at a gig was the last time Something Corporate were here. This was not a good omen. However, it did mean that my friend and I got to jump the line cos guys and girls go in seperate and we got in out the cold relatively quickly.

We arrived up the stairs to see that The Godawfuls were already in full swing. I'd love to tell you all about this band, but I was so bored I headed straight to the bar. They were playing totally pedestrian, straight up political punk rock, which is fine if you like that sort of thing but I only like it when it's really well done. The guitarist said the show was really special for him because all of his family were from Scotland. Just a shame the kids in attendance couldn't offer anything more than polite applause for him and his crew.

Now, the main reason a lot of people were here for this show, and not at the Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, Matches & Zebrahead show that was happening 5 minutes up the road at the Barrowland was Fall Out Boy. Their album had only been available in this country for a few days before the show but a good portion of the audience knew every word and when they came onstage and burst into "Tell That Mick He Just Made My List Of Things To Do Today" the kids went mental. The song itself is fantastic and they played it really well and with a lot of energy - but the vocals were a little messed up. I don't know if Patrick was too close to the mic or what, but they just didn't sound that hot. It was also later revealed that he'd slowly been losing his voice and asked people to sing along...which was a mistake as the girls in the audience (especially near where I was) couldn't sing worth a damn. Mest later commented on this and could barely keep a straight face during their encore, but I digress.

F.O.B. ran through almost all of their Take This To Your Grave cd and were so full of energy, especially their guitarist, who kept making stupid faces the whole time and looked like he should be in Hot Hot Heat with his crazy haircut. Best songs of their set were Grand Theft Autumn, which they played really early on and was the song everyone knew, and my personal favourite 'Chicago Was So Two Years Ago. Another nice touch was all the screaming the Bass player did - he was really good and while screaming is kinda cliched now it worked really well and added another dimension to their poppy sound.

Headliners Mest, who I really am not a huge fan of (I was there for Fall Out Boy) were a reasonalby pleasant surprise. It wasn't until they played 'rooftops' three songs in that they actually got going and Tony looked like he wasn't having a great time. Neither was I really until 'Drawing Board' which was preceded by Tony saying how he'd rather be at the Goldfinger/ Reel Big Fish show and, if it wasn't for John Feldmann of Goldfinger his band'd be fucked. Halfway through the song Feldmann himself leapt onto the stage, having made the trip down the street from the Barrowland and sang the last verse of the song. It was an awesome moment and really made the show come to life. After that the crowd was hugely into it, going crazy for Jaded and any Good Charlotte reference - and they say Glasgow has the best audience in the world...they must have been at the other show cos these kids were fucking Good Charlotte fans...eww. The encore of 'Cadillac' was a blast, with Peter from Fall Out Boy coming on to sing some stuff and Tony's little brother playing guitar. It was just a great bit of fun - the crowd were going mad and everyone was smiling and laughing, especially Mest cos they were having a real laugh at the scots accents trying to sing. It's nice to see the band having as good a time as the crowd sometimes.

All in all, I was quite glad I went to the show. Mest were never going to be amazing, but they came good after a slow start. My only real problem would be their stupid peurile stage banter about 'cuming on girls and their mums' and stuff. That shit is neve funny and makes you look like an ass. Or maybe I'm a snob, who knows. Fall Out Boy were pretty damn good too, getting through the sound problems and still putting on an awesome show.

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

mr_ian (May 1, 2006)

Hee Hee - I called Pete Wentz "Peter" in this review, I saw them again like two months later and he didn't come over for the tour and I didn't even notice. God bless the days I had no idea who Pete Wentz was...and din't see pictures of his penis.

Anonymous (June 21, 2005)

MEST IS FREAKIN AWESOME AND SO IS FALL OUT BOY. Mest I love the live show it sounds so great. Fall Out Boy I cant wait to see you live someday. Love yah all.

Anonymous (June 2, 2005)

Mest pwns Fall Out Boy.

Anonymous (September 16, 2004)

Hey guys. I started a myspace group for the god awfuls. Feel free to join! I'm friends with their manager so I will have all the latest info. -Carla

Here's the link

http://groups.myspace.com/thegodawfuls

Anonymous (March 22, 2004)

mest is terrible. thats all there is to it. why anyone would think this band's music is worth recording, let alone listening to, is beyond me. they make the most simple boring unintelligent "punk" music i ever heard. fuck em.

johnnydanger (March 22, 2004)

score multiplied by 10 is for Forty

Anonymous (March 20, 2004)

What the hell are the God Awfuls doing on this Tour with Mest. I travelled to London to watch the God Awfuls (around 300 mile) and felt like i had gone to a Busted gig. it was like a youth club nite. If i had took a load of soda and chips (god bless em') i could have made a fortune selling them in the line for the gig. Seriously though, thanks to the God Awfuls for saving an otherwise sell out night.

Anonymous (March 20, 2004)

This score is for Pop-punk.

Anonymous (March 19, 2004)

i saw mest in manchester. they were good. and i liked it.

FortyMinutesWest (March 18, 2004)

This review is better if you picture it being read by Scrooge McDuck.

Anonymous (March 18, 2004)

8th rate would imply that one was somehow better than the other. I prefer to believe they both suck equally.

-BSD

Anonymous (March 18, 2004)

You rip on people for liking Good Charlotte, but you say you marginally enjoyed Mest, a 8th rate Good Charlotte?

Care to explain that one?

poopypants (March 18, 2004)

yea fuck scene points, i like gc's first album and saw them at a local small club in pittsburgh, laga, a few times before they really hit. hell i saw them w/ fenix tx and they had third billing at that time, nfg was more popular at that time as was fenix tx. gc shows were fun before they blew the fuck up and the guys are a hell of a lot nicer than some much smaller bands. but mest are dicks, tony's ego is huge.
your still an idiot for skipping rbf/goldginger/zebrahead. fall out are so new to the scene you'll have shitloads of chances to see them again. also 3 years from now when this whole genre explosion of taking back nfg hybrids blows over, your gonna regret seeing actual established bands that arent just a passing phase.

Anonymous (March 18, 2004)

Shiiiiiiiit. where do I start...OK, I didn't like the Godawfuls, sorry but I just thought they were derivative. I do like straight up punk rock, Clash Dead Kennedy's are fucking awesome bands but I've heard that shit before and I don't need to hear it again.
I skipped RBF and Goldfinger cos I've seen them both a shitload of times, I quite like to see bands I've never seen before - even if it is fucking mest. Know what else, and this may lose me all my scenester punk rock points, I went to a Good Charlotte show (in a teeny weeny club just before the new cd got released here) and LIKED IT. It was fuuuuuuuun. I'd never ever go see them again, but I'm glad I went. Doesn't mean I don't like punk (which GC aint) it means I like other stuff too!
I didn't know that shit about the mest singer though. Makes sense, he was a bit of a dick.

threechordsandthetruth (March 18, 2004)

BSD:

yeah. we have bands like funeral for a friend and lostprophets (incidentally both are welsh) who the music 'press' here are salivating over because they are PUSHING FORWARD AND RE-DEFINING THE MODERN BOUNDARIES OF MUSIC. uhh, I mean, trying to be american and playing whiney post-hardcore shit that's been around forever in the states. i hate living here, the scene sucks and it's sad. walk up to any kid here (nottingham) and ask him what a zine is and you get a blank look. ask him to name a 'punk' band and you get slipknot, or green day.

now the review:
"Now, the main reason a lot of people were here for this show, and not at the Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, Matches & Zebrahead show that was happening 5 minutes up the road at the Barrowland was Fall Out Boy."
-RBF and Goldfinger suck, but it's worrying that more people turned out to see Mest than them, you included.

mikeinflames (March 17, 2004)

this score is for me not having genital warts after having sex with a prostitute

Anonymous (March 17, 2004)

The British scene (or what I've gathered of it from a month's stay in London):

Around the mid-to-late-80's, British punk types as you'd like to think of them (mohawks, leather, the whole nine fashion yards) started to fade away as the newest trend took over: Trying to sound American. British bands started copying American bands that were at one time copying British bands...

Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and the Dead Kennedys were among the most idolized. Kids started trying to play, dress, and act like bands they'd never even seen or get to see... A British straight edge movement even started up... The "new" kids' numbers grew until the original scene was hopelessly outnumbered... The Consumed, and those types of pop bands took over in the 90's. They're a variant mix of pop-punk (Fat Wreck. style) and old-school hardcore. In Britain, Mest is now accepted as legit. music, somehow.

Now, there's still a somewhat "hardcore" leather and patches scene, but from what I saw, it's almost been outnumbered by American-wannabes...

-BSD

SethCohen (March 16, 2004)

"You'd think people would learn that a concert full of girls is a one way ticket to preteen poonanny."

Yeah but fat chicks with bad acne aren't that appealing