Punknews.org

|
Sign In | create an account

Action Action / Spitalfield

live in Pittsburgh (2005)
Victory Records

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: Brian
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on July 29th 2005

Waking Ashland opened things up, and yeah, this is comparatively lazy, but the Something Corporate-lite style wasn't really doing it for me, despite them being one of the tighter bands of the night.

Gatsbys American Dream was next, but they took the stage as a four-piece, which meant: no keyboards. Anyone who knows the band also knows that the stronger tracks off their last two efforts are fairly dependent upon the instrument, and thus, the band was way more raw than both the last I'd seen them and on record. Nevertheless, they rocked out as much as a math pop band can for all half-dozen of their fans in attendance. In this general order, the band played "The Loosing Of The Shadow" (minus dramatic opening), "Theatre," "Pompeii," "Recondition, Reprogram, Reactivate," "In The Land Of Lost Monsters," "Apparition," and "Shhhhhh! I'm Listening To Reason."

I watched Spitalfield from afar. They seemed sloppier than usual, playing cuts from their last two full-lengths including opener "Texas Bum Blues," "I Loved The Way She Said L.A.," "Gold Dust Vs. The State Of Illinois," and some others including a happy birthday rendition for an audience member, preceding a four-second "Snake Bite" ditty (the latter of which was played twice). There was a friend filling in for bass guitarist T.J. as well.

Action Action closed for some odd reason, and while I don't fawn over their synth-laden rock, they do have a decent sound, and tonight it was awash in them with the bassist and guitarists almost always fiddling with them at some point or another. I should also mention they were quite together, constantly on time with each other and proving they've plenty live experience under their belts from past bands. The set list included "Drug Like," "Photograph," "This Year's Fashion," and some others my piss-poor memory won't allow me to reveal.

Moral of the story: Gatsbys needs to do a co-headlining tour with a band of relatively equal status and size, and bring a keyboardist.

Login to rate this album

People who liked this also liked:

Please login or register to post comments.

What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

unholy (August 25, 2005)

Spitalfield And Gatsbys American Dream Both Kick Major Fucking Ass !

Anonymous (August 4, 2005)

Spitalfield and Gatsby's were both great in my opinion.

Anonymous (August 2, 2005)

all of these bands are the musical equivalent of watching TV at the airport.

Anonymous (August 1, 2005)

I love Gatsby's American Dream.

Action Action sucks. Spitalfield is boring. There is no way on earth Action Action sell more records than the other bands on this show.

If they had all day events at Mr. Smalls, they could hang a big swastika behind where the bands play because everyone would die of heat stroke and the bodies would just pile up like a concentration camp.

Anonymous (July 31, 2005)

the guy filling in for TJ is also named TJ

and yes, he's from Divide By Zero

Anonymous (July 29, 2005)

I think the guy filling in for spitalfield is TJ from divide by zero.

Anonymous (July 29, 2005)

there are supposed to be 's between the band names. godammit.
-TOBB

Anonymous (July 29, 2005)

count the stars reunion show = one steaming load of poop also known as action action. the bass player is a mo' for the record. he's from albany ny, and is clowned ruthlessly every time he comes back to town.
-TOBB

Anonymous (July 29, 2005)

Wow- why even bother reading the review if you hate the bands so much?

I think Spitalfield aren't half bad. Action Action are fairly decent, too.

Whatever, just my opinion.

Anonymous (July 29, 2005)

would rather listen to fight paris, who suck your balls, than anyone on this list of bands.

crazytoledo (July 29, 2005)

Couldnt pay me to see the shitfest of Spitalfield.

Anonymous (July 29, 2005)

Action Action is Shit Shit

Anonymous (July 29, 2005)

I was there and that review was pretty perfect. I liked the suggestions for future Gatsby tours...MTB and them would be fantastic...

wehavecomeforyourchildren (July 29, 2005)

action action need to break up.

and by break-up, i don't mean change their name and switch from one bad style of music to another.

Anonymous (July 29, 2005)

Gatsby's were awesome. I thought Spitalfield played just fine- especially with a fill in member. Good show. I don't like the venue- sound kind of sucks there.

Anonymous (July 29, 2005)

TJ plays bass for Spitalfield, not guitar. Way to go.

Also, the singer and bassist of Action Action currently hate each other, to the point where they got in an actual fistfight a week ago. Look for this band to self-destruct soon.

stevejonestherealbones (July 29, 2005)

for some reason i'm thinking bear vs shark did tour with gatsby earlier this year...or maybe that was just a couple shows...

either way, i woulda liked to see that

- jones the bones

- stevejones8770@yahoo.com