{"id":27000,"date":"2025-09-09T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=27000"},"modified":"2025-09-08T16:06:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:06:53","slug":"the-drowns-fatal-blow-deathtraps-hurting-germs-rumbrave-the-cab-newport-8th-september-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=27000","title":{"rendered":"The Drowns\/Fatal Blow\/Deathtraps\/Hurting Germs\/Rumbrave – The Cab, Newport – 8th September 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s been a little while since I last visited The Cab, Newport\u2019s DIY punk and community activity venue, and just like yours truly it\u2019s had a wee move around in that time. The stage area is now much bigger, and the PA that I always feared might topple when things got a little over excited in the pit is now flown overhead, plus there\u2019s a downstairs area that\u2019s opened up for merch, complete with a seated area, so if the pit action does get a little but too hot for you then there\u2019s somewhere to go to relax and still hear the bands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talking of the heat, it’s sweltering even before openers Rumbrave are more than a couple of songs into their set, and the venue\u2019s can bar (now conveniently situated by the main door) is already doing a roaring trade. I might know a few of the Rumbrave members from their other band, System Reset, but this is my first time of seeing their new baby live and they are mightily impressive indeed. Rumbrave are an altogether different musical proposition to System though and songs like \u2018Johnny\u2019s Shoes\u2019, \u2018Nowhere Town\u2019 and set closer \u2018Forty Minutes\u2019 could easily have been written by Brain Fallon as opposed to Brian Baker, displaying a much more melodic twist to their infectious onstage (or in frontman Stan\u2019s case \u201con the dance floor\u201d) bravado.\u00a0 With a new EP ready to sell at their gigs, Rumbrave are definitely a band worth getting in early doors for, and this evening that meant being in The Cab at an almost ungodly matinee show time too.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Next up, and a late addition to tonight\u2019s bill, are Cardiff\u2019s Hurting Germs, and just like the openers, they are also in the process of getting their first EP (entitled \u2018Shallow Grave\u2019) ready for public consumption. I\u2019m not exactly sure what I was expecting from the four-piece having never seen or heard anything by them before tonight but I certainly wasn\u2019t expecting to be scribbling down Manitoba\u2019s Wild Kingdom as a musical reference, that\u2019s for sure. There\u2019s rap, there\u2019s the odd Sex Pistols riff, there\u2019s a double take when frontman Nick takes the stage and is a dead ringer for prime mover Mark Manning and there\u2019s even a cheeky \u201cBloooobirds\u201d chant at the end of their set to round things off, thankfully without any resulting bang (although Nick\u2019s arm being a sling might indicate other previous misdemeanours). The Germs are spreading their musical message like crazy via gigs through the autumn and into winter, but this lot are the kind you won\u2019t mind catching.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Another band that has been gigging like crazy is Newport\u2019s Deathtraps, now sounding even more fast and furious they ride the universe like Motorhead around the time of the \u2018Bomber\u2019 album. There\u2019s barely time to draw breath during their eleven song set as they bulldoze their way through the likes of \u2018Private Vietnam\u2019, \u2018Your Time Is Gonna Come\u2019 and the excellent \u2018I Want Fun\u2019 all from their recently released \u2018The Lust For Likes\u2019 EP (I\u2019m sensing something of a trend here) and the band\u2019s garish stage shirts are well and truly stuck to their bodies by the time \u2018Denim Demon\u2019 raises it\u2019s (good) head to bring things to a close. Deathtraps are high-octane and spitting flames. Go see them live and get your fur scorched in the pit.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Deathtraps are Motorhead around 1979, then Fatal Blow are equal parts Angelic Upstarts and The Jam from that same era. With five studio albums and a multitude of gigs worldwide under their braces (no one wears belts here, ha!), Cobley, Bending and Kizz fire out underground hit after hit into the by now packed-out audience with the likes of \u2018Generals And Soldiers\u2019 and \u2018Tent City Reality\u2019 all getting the skinheads singing along at the tops of their voices. I\u2019ve not seen Fatal Blow live since they opened for Grade 2 in this very same venue a few years back and the thing I notice most is not just how many more people know every word to their songs but also how much more anthemic they sound as a band. The set closing \u2018Spirit of 69\u2019 being without question the best example of this, a fantastic song of unity, and a bloody great singalong too. Oi! Oi!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three years ago I had tickets to see The Drowns play their first Welsh gig at Pontypool\u2019s Dragonffli venue but had to sell them after I got Covid. Needless to say, as is nearly always the bloody case, that gig became the stuff of legend, and it\u2019s something Drowns singer\/guitarist Aaron \u2018Rev\u2019 Peters is also very quick to highlight tonight, because many of those who were are that show are here tonight, and this time they\u2019ve told their friends and they\u2019ve come along too to find out what all the fuss is about, and that\u2019s why tonight is the first sold out show of the band\u2019s current extensive run of UK shows. Needless to say, what all the fuss is about is The Drowns from Seattle merely doing what they do, playing blue collar punk rock n roll, but by Christ, do they do it well.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I was at one point wondering how The Drowns might follow such a strong undercard of bands tonight, but by the time they let the leash off \u2018Wolves On The Throne\u2019 and asked \u2018Where\u2019s Bobby\u2019 such thoughts are long forgotten, and that\u2019s no disrespect to any of the other bands, it\u2019s just The Drowns really are another level of awesome, and if you don\u2019t believe me, just ask any one of the people squeezed in down the front singing along with every word of the songs played from the band\u2019s three albums to date. The Drowns are that amazing tonight that I\u2019ve forgotten to mention they are now also joined by ex-Chelsea Smiler Christian Martucci on guitar, who fires off lightning quick riffs whilst also grinning away like Kenicke Murdoch on graduation day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s hotter than hell in The Cab by the time \u2018Battery Street\u2019 sends us out into Cambrian Road, and the sweat running down the walls and windows is testament to just how much energy is expelled in the place tonight. Long may nights like this continue, and kudos to venue boss and promoter Joe Wag for putting on such a tip top night of punk rock, and all for under \u00a320 too. Now who was it that said they were getting too old for this shit???<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Johnny Hayward<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

It\u2019s been a little while since I last visited The Cab, Newport\u2019s DIY punk and community activity venue, and just like yours truly it\u2019s had a wee move around in that time. The stage area is now much bigger, and the PA that I always feared might topple when things got a little over excited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[8859,8858],"class_list":["post-27000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-review","tag-hurting-germs","tag-rumbrave"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27000","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=27000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27005,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27000\/revisions\/27005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}