November Subverse was a kick-ass Subverse as usual, though a bit odd. There were 2 stages set up in the Underworld; the usual stage, of course, but on top of that part of the bar area had been made into a sort of gig-in-a-bedroom, complete with bed!

The normal stage looked like I'd never seen it before: lit up with bright green fairy lights and adorned with skulls and hair and fake fire lamps. Once Spit Like This came onstage it all made a bit more sense as their horror-glam-punk-rock music blasted out of the speakers. To me they sounded a bit like Wednesday 13, but with their emphasis on grooves and plenty of style there's always room for their kind in rock. When was the last time you saw a band cover a Rocky Horror Picture Show song live? I
rest my case.

I didn't hang around the main stage to watch Dragster, as from where I was standing they sounded pretty awful. The less said about them the better.

All the while we were waiting for Linchpin to set up in the bedroom-come-stage. Once the cacophony from the other room had ceased, Linchpin hit the stage. Linchpin played an excellent set packed with new songs. It was a very short set, but they treated the gathered crowd to new material like Make Me Break Me, Jump Jump and Take All You Can (complete with crowd participation), along with Artists and Raptors from their first album. Their edgy pop-punk songs are really great, it was a shame that there wasn't much dancing going on in the crowd. What are you waiting for? Go listen to them!

Zombina and the Skeletones were a pleasant surprise: usually female-fronted punk bands either sound out of tune or girly, but they were tuneful, punk and entertaining. It's not every day one wanders into a room to find 4 men and a girl wearing skeleton costumes singing a song about murdering love rivals (I think I missed a couple of songs from their set). The acapella version of Prom Night was amazingly well executed and their horror-punk songs also bounced along energetically. The band threw around fake heads and even instigated a dance competition! I can't say I knew much about Zombina and the Skeletones, but they were a great live act and I hope to see them again with a larger and more enthusiastic crowd.

So that was all for another month, but I'll be back!