Green Day - Warning

I briefly liked Green Day in the mid-90s before moving onto rave. A few years later I got back into them and it was the fast drum beats that hooked me back in.

By the year 2000 I owned all 5 of their albums, but with their most recent album coming in 1997 there were question marks over whether they were still going.

Later on that year they were back with the new single "Minority" and a new album to follow. The best word to describe the single was solid, I enjoyed it but it was far from their best and did lack the fast drums.

I wasn't too worried, the lead single from their previous album was "Hitchin A Ride" which also lacked the fast drums but the album was much better even if it was no "Dookie".

I knew the release date of the "Warning" album in advance and on the day it was released I bought it and couldn't wait to give it a listen. Here's what happened:

Warning - OK I wasn't expecting this, slow drums, acoustic guitar and a song I found rather boring. Was this really a Green Day album I bought? Only the first track, hopefully it will get better

Blood, Sex and Booze - it's got better, but not by much. This is this albums "Hitchin A Ride", the second track with a similar beat, it's just that Nimrod started with a fast one and this album didn't

Church on Sunday - this one's a bit more promising but doesn't quite deliver. Again this is mirroring Nimrod in that the third track on there "The Grouch" wasn't fast enough and this track does the same. The difference is "The Grouch" made up for its lack of speed with its aggression, this ones a bit limp

Fashion Victim - back to the "Hitchin A Ride" beat again. I come to expect these type of tracks but 2 from the first 4 seems too much, particularly given the other 2 tracks are boring and limp respectively

Castaway - we've finally got up to speed, easily the best track on the album so far. Yet it feels like there's something missing from it, the drums are pretty much the only good thing about it

Misery - a 5 minute long Green Day song, that's unheard of. I'd written a 5 minute song myself but my drummer wanted to cut it down to 2 minutes, with Green Day doing a 5 minute song he might change his mind about songs longer than 2 minutes (he didn't). It's different to your average Green Day song and takes inspiration from The Doors. It's not bad, but at the same time if I wanted to hear a song like this I'd just listen to The Doors

Deadbeat Holiday - this sounds like the song I've been waiting to hear all album, like the Green Day I know and love. That's until the drums kick in and turn out to be frustratingly slow. Speed this one up and you're onto a winner

Hold On - is this still a Green Day album or has Bob Dylan taken over? 

Jackass - completely forgot how this one goes now, all I remember is that it doesn't have the fast drums

Waiting - I know the feeling about waiting a long time for this moment to come. I've been waiting for the album and now I have it I'm still waiting for a song with the fast drums and a bit of power. This isn't it but it's a good song and easily the best song on the album

Minority - the single I already knew. I'd expected it to be one of the worst songs on the album such was my expectation but is probably the 2nd best song on there

Macy's Day Parade - last chance to deliver something great but this is the worst song on the album. There was a lot of slow and boring indie music around this time and this sounded like one of those songs

86 - a bonus track which is a live version of a song that appeared on the "Insomniac" album. A song that's nothing special but sounds a breath of fresh air compared to the album I've just listened to.

Needless to say the album was a huge disappointment. I gave it a chance to grow on me but that never happened and I no longer have said album. 

The Rave Story @ Electrowerkz

There seems to be a lot of nostalgia for the 90s rave scene these days. Several events take place in the day time with DJs playing sets of 90s tunes to mainly cater for those who liked the music the first time round. The Rave Story does just that but there's something extra I've not come across anywhere else, a rave seminar.

The latest of these events was celebrating 35 years of DJ Vibes and I bought tickets when on DJ Vibes and Billy Bunter who is behind these events were the only 2 DJs announced.

The full line up told us DJ Vibes was going to play an old skool set, a Vibes & Live Lee happy hardcore set, a house set and doing a seminar. Also on the line up included Slipmatt and Sy in the old skool room, Groovrerider, Brockie, SS and Remarc in the jungle room, Alex P in the house room and Fat Controller, Kaos and Vinyltrixta in the hardcore room. There was also a seminar with Magika.

It was inevitable that I wouldn't get to see all those mentioned and there would be clashes, but annoyingly they didn't give the set times ahead of the event.

I arrived just after 13:00 and the first room I walked into was a place to buy rave memorabilia such as vinyl and flyers with Ray Keith being among the people with a stand.

I then located the set times to find none of the above names were playing at that moment in time. Taking a wander, the first room I came across was the jungle room which was surprisingly small. Then I went upstairs and found the house room which had doors either end. Returning to the ground floor I saw the hardcore room the other side of the windows where the memorabilia stands were.

We settled on the jungle room to begin with, though it was very much drum & bass that was being played. I didn't know the bulk of what was being played and suspect it was after my time. Was enjoyable hearing the drum & bass beat nonetheless and a bit later the MCs join, 2 of them and I couldn't understand a word they were saying.

With the facilities outside the jungle room being closed a search of alternative facilities took me to the main room. I don't know whether I'm just getting old and my eyesight is failing me but the lighting in that room made navigating it interesting and I was completely sober. 

By this point there was around 40 minutes to go until the Vibes seminar and went to the house room but the music seemed a bit too slow after the old skool room so it was onto the hardcore room which obviously didn't have that problem.

To the Vibes seminar then hosted by Fat Controller. Plenty of seating on arrival and I thought it would be more popular but the room did start to fill up as it went on. It was interesting to hear his story and also a nice way to break down the day between the music.

Following the seminar it was a 30 minute wander between the rooms until Vibes & Live Lee were due to play in the hardcore room. In the jungle room were Millz and Jack Light, DJs I'd never heard of but turns out they're Nicky Blackmarkets daughter and Billy Bunters son respectively. The minute or so spent in that room during this set just sounded a racket but was mostly down to the female MC with them. Quickly concluded this was after my time and moved on.

Time for Vibes and Live Lee and was just what you'd expect, some singalong anthems plus the usual rhymes from MC Live Lee. I suspect they did go into the 21st century towards the end because I wasn't familiar with the later tracks and they finished with "Angel Eyes" which I know is 21st century.

Following this it was back to the seminar room with a Magika seminar except there was no Magika there. Instead MC Chalkie White was up there filling in last minute. Nevertheless it was interesting to hear his story. I don't know whether people already knew Magika wasn't there but hardly anyone was in the seminar.

Then it was onto the house room to see Vibes play a house set. This clashed with Slipmatt in the old skool room so decided to do 30 minutes of Vibes and 30 minutes of Slipmatt. Was a little reluctant to go to see Slipmatt because I was enjoying the Vibes house set so much but persisted.

Chalkie White was MCing for Slipmatt instead of Magika but given the lack of visibility it could have been anyone on the decks. 

It was back to the house room for the penultimate hour with Alex P. I've never seen him play before so was looking forward to this. It was set of the day, he was playing Ibiza anthems without being it being too obvious and got the blend spot on. 

Back to the old skool arena for the final hour caught the last 15 minutes of Billy Bunter before Vibes did 45 minutes to round off the day. He played several of his tunes with Wishdokta and ended the set with "Obsession (Musics So Wonderful)" and "Sing It Loud". 

There was an after party happening in the same place which we were all welcome to stay on for but I opted to go home. DJ Vibes himself didn't stay on either because I saw him getting on the same tube as me.

An enjoyable event and I should be back for another.