Mad Caddies
Date : January 2nd
2002
Venue : Glasgow Garage
Support :
Veda
I was surpirsed that a band, such as Fat Wreck's Mad Caddie's, were able to pack out the Garage, which holds almost 800 people. They had originally been booked to play the Cathouse, which holds 350, but obviously the demand had been absoloutely massive. So off we went.
When we were there, along with the majority of the people there, we had no idea of the support, but then we got it and seen that it was Veda, who are a pop-punk band from Glasgow, and the thing about them is 1. They look, sound, and just completely try to be American, why anyone would want to do that, no one knows, and 2. They just sound and look the same as any other pop-punk band these days, why Glasgow pop-punk bands cant be like Nerve, and sing Scottish, and talk Scottish, I will never know. But despite their downsides, they are actually quite good, the first song they play, Insignificant, is a reasonably good opener, although it does take a while to get to the singing part, but apart from that, and the fact that there's no reception for that song, despite the fact that the majority of this crowd seem to be friends or family to this band, it's all good. They carry on their set full of American sounding pop-punk, and gradually the crowd starts to materialise more and more, until the front half of the hall is in a complete frenzy! So it looks like they must be something right. Now as with all bands of this category, they have to have the song that the singer puts out to his girlfriend etc etc, you know the score. Then comes the cover of 'Only You', which is a fucking classic song, and they are good at it, but the thing is, they don't change it all that much, untill they do the chorus, or some part of it, apart from that it's the exact same tempo, and vocal style, all credit to them, despite the bloke sings american, he's still really good, and the bassist can pull off good harmonies. They then played some other cover, and then wrapped the set up with a song I believe was called 'My Favourite TV Show', or something along those lines, which their little fan base seem to know every word to. At this point of the show, everyone who knows them goes crowd surfing, over about 3 rows of heads, and with only one secuirity guard! So the bug butch guy from the M.A.D Tour Support team decided to lend a helping hand, and without him there would've been a few casualtys! Overall, a not bad set from the Glasgow mob, although it has all been done before, I can see them becoming the next teenage girls heart throb band...possibly.
Now here we go. After a short gap of clearig up and setting up again, out come 5 characters, no Chuck though! They play a little bit of an instrumental introduction, which takes up a minute or two, and then Chuck takes to the stage, wearing a wicked yellow cap, visor up-turned at the back. Now let's face it, these guys are cool, full stop! They look great, sound great, and for the course of the first song anyway, know how to get the crowd going. They open with some new song I believe, and the crowd is going quite mental, the whole floor is moving. And then they play another new one and the crowd starts to go downhill again, although they are all still moving, it's becoming one of those crowds that are increasing in appearance these days, where everyone just pushes around as one, and you're knee deep in sweaty bodies, and im not a fan of them, so I decided to just step back and chill, watch the show and get a good idea of whats happening at the show. And then finally comes one that I know, in the form of DIstress, which is generally a great song, which keeps everyone on their feet. Their set goes on with songs such as Goleta, and without doubt one the highlights of tonight, it being a highlight, because everyone knows it after it's appearance on Fat Wreck's Life In The Fat Lane comp., Road Rash, which is genuis song, mixing great trumpet riffs, with their distinctible ska-skatey-punk sound, and with Chuck's versatile voice, I could swear that there was two different people singing in that song. So now...something original, a big raritie at shows these, days, 'Group Therapy With The Mad Caddies', sounds good...what they have to do, is come up on stage and talk about their problems, and then sing along to an improvised hardcore song with the band. First up, Chuck, who's problem is that he can't shove a beer bottle up his ass, no matter how many times he tries! Pretty good...can't make out a word of the song though, but then again, it's hardcore, it's all part of the package.Now first up from the audience, a girl that has a problem, but won't sing or tell anyone about it, umm NEXT! A guy that wants to stage dive, although, despite his best efforts, is still taken off stage by the Trombonist, who is seen rolling his eyes after finally getting him off stage. So now comes a young bloke, who says his siter looks at him naked in the shower, bad problem, so he sings, once again, you can't make out the words at all, so he went down well, time for one more Glasgow, who should it be, it would kick ass if we could get a girl to come up and sing, so up comes a girl, oh look, it's the singer from Save Ferris, sarcastically, I would hope anyway, as she bares no resembelence at all to Monique and her fine ass, anyway, she comes up, whispers her problem to Chuck, and he can be seen laughing, so it's obviously a good one. So she comes out with a big story about politely...something i'd rather not type about, it was very funny, but very sick. So anyway, not they tell us they're gonna play the happiest song ever for our problems, and they weren't lieing, when they play Monkeys, which really is a happy song. Their set carries on with the expected songs, and before we know it, it's the end of the show! But no sweat, they did come out for an encore, as they still hadn't played Macho Nachos or Polyester Khakis, so they play both of them and they go down a feckin storm, especially Polyester Khakis, as someone down the front has made a sign for them. They then play one more, but i can't remember for the life of me what it was, but it was a decent ender.
So there we go, another night of madness in the Garage been and gone. The crowd wasn't up to very much, but the band themselves really couldn't be beaten. They have every right to become literally massive, although they don't seem to be the type who'd care, they've got themselves a decent fan base already off of Fat Wreck. We'll definetly be hearing more from this lot.