{"id":23831,"date":"2023-12-15T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=23831"},"modified":"2023-12-15T00:24:28","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T00:24:28","slug":"dirt-box-disco-split-dogs-jacs-aberdare-10th-december-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=23831","title":{"rendered":"Dirt Box Disco\/Split Dogs \u2013 Jacs, Aberdare \u2013 10th<\/sup> December 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cHooray Hooray it’s Dirtbox day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It feels like a mighty long time since I had that melody line spinning around in my head in the run-up to a Welsh Dirt Box Disco gig, and correct me if I\u2019m wrong, but this must be the first time the streamlined version of the band has ever played a show in the valleys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, with this in mind nothing was going to stop me from making the trip up to Aberdare to catch the band\u2019s return to a Welsh stage, not the torrential rain, and given that the gig has a 2 pm start, not even my nephew\u2019s ninth birthday celebrations. The latter does mean I\u2019m about an hour late getting to the venue (my apologies to openers Jaws Of Life who I missed as a result), but leaving just as the birthday cake sugar rush starts to kick in also means I am fully in the mood for a party, and thankfully Split Dogs are on hand to provide the soundtrack.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is my fourth time of seeing Split Dogs this year and each time it\u2019s been with a different line-up, this time around it’s my first time catching them with new bassist Suez, and the next time I catch them they\u2019ll have a new drummer as this afternoon is also one of the band\u2019s last shows with current drummer Rich. Not that any of this seems to phase singer Harry and guitarist Mil in the slightest, and it\u2019s their belief in the dozen or so songs the band have behind them to date that burns brightest, and the moment these tunes explode on stage is a joy to behold, yet again. The likes of \u2018Prison Bitch\u2019, \u2018Feeder\u2019 or \u2018Punch Drunk\u2019 live (or on CD) just leave you breathless, and in \u2018Tear Down The House\u2019 the guys might just have written the natural successor to \u2018Sunday Morning Nightmare\u2019 by Sham 69. A Sunday afternoon nightmare (of a gig) though, this most certainly was not. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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I\u2019ve said it before and I\u2019ll say it again, I predict big things for Split Dogs in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days there are not many things that can get me to do the Showaddywaddy swagger dance but the sounds of \u2018Under The Moon Of Love\u2019 blasting out of the PA as Dirt Box Disco take to the stage is enough for me to don my imaginary crapes and drapes and \u201cwaddle\u201d my way to the front of the stage with a huge grin on my face, and it’s not just me either, as everyone around me is doing the same (smiling that is, not waddling) just as Spunk Volcano leads his gang of misfits into the opening a cappella of\u00a0 \u2018I Just Want To Be A Girl\u2019 and off we go on a rollercoaster ride of a set packed full of punk rock bangers at every twist and turn.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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With the exception of two new tracks (these being the title track and the Finbarr Saunders approved \u2018Up The Dirtbox\u2019) drawn from the band\u2019s 2023 record \u2018Rokapokalips\u2019 and \u2018Unstoppable\u2019 from their 2020 album \u2018TV Sex Show\u2019 the rest of this afternoon\u2019s hour-long soir\u00e9e focusses on the band\u2019s first three albums and debut EP, and who can blame the lads when they have the likes of \u2018Peepshow\u2019, \u2018Burning\u2019, \u2018Standing In The Queue\u2019 and \u2018My Girlfriends Bestfriends Sister\u2019 just waiting to be screamed along to. What makes it even more perfect though is the fact that there\u2019s a young lad in the crowd (wearing an ace battle jacket complete with a Twisted Sister back patch) singing along to these songs like they were written yesterday not a decade or so ago when he would have still been a baby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s proper sunshine indoors stuff when \u2018I Don\u2019t Wanna Go Out With You\u2019 gets us finishing off whatever is left of our voices, and not even a misjudged stage dive by one over excited punter during \u2018Let\u2019s Get Wasted!\u2019 can\u2019t spoil the atmosphere as \u2018My Life Is Shit\u2019 calls last orders on this most glorious of matinee shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forget Whamageddon or whatever they call it, the Dirt Box Disco Armageddon is not about avoiding great music, it\u2019s about celebrating it. I swear the guys could have played for 3 hours this afternoon and not a single person would have complained, not in the slightest. It\u2019s just a shame they didn\u2019t find time to slot in \u2018I Don’t Want Anything For Christmas\u2019, as I think deep cut gem would have been the real icing on the cake of one the most feelgood gigs I\u2019ve ever been to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember folks, Dirt Box Disco is for life, not just Rebellion, so get out there and support them in 2024, and let\u2019s make every day a Dirtbox day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Johnny Hayward<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHooray Hooray it’s Dirtbox day.\u201d It feels like a mighty long time since I had that melody line spinning around in my head in the run-up to a Welsh Dirt Box Disco gig, and correct me if I\u2019m wrong, but this must be the first time the streamlined version of the band has ever played […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23832,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1787,1710,1681,1680,3009,1833],"class_list":["post-23831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-review","tag-its-a-revolution","tag-rpm-online","tag-rpmnews1","tag-rpmonline","tag-spunk-volcano","tag-tourlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23837,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23831\/revisions\/23837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}