The Subways - Inside Out, Darlington, 7 June 2011

I'll make no bones about it and make a bold statement about this gig straight away:

BEST GIG THIS YEAR SO FAR HANDS DOWN.

In fact, I'll throw an imaginary blogger's gauntlet down and challenge any (like they'd even read this!) of the bands for whom I've got tickets for the duration of the year to impress me as much as The Subways did on Tuesday night.

If you don't know them already, this is the song that you might just recognise:

There -- now, have I got your attention?

Now then -- a word about the venue:  Inside Out in Darlington... took us about an hour to get there after work from Newcastle.  What a cool little place!  Couldn't believe my luck when I rocked up to the car park outside and saw how TEENY TINY it was -- and I knew right then we were in for a good night.  While we waited for the main event to start, we spent a happy hour or so outside:

I Tweeted this picture of the back of the bus to @billysubway saying, "I can see you!!!"

I was twitching to hear some new material -- following the band on Twitter I knew that they'd recently finished recording and they didn't disappoint - they played three tracks and if they are anything to go by, it's going to be a cracking collection of tunes come September.

What I really like about The Subways (I've seen them once before in 2008) is that it's obvious straight away that they live to perform.  Their on-stage presence and energy is so palpable; they are three people truly living their dreams and it takes about 4 seconds into their set before you can't help but get carried away on their buzz.  Their vocation is unmistakable; they will make sure everyone has a great gig experience -- from the school kids' parents at the back, to the partying students whose Tuesday nights are barely distinguishable from any Friday or Saturday, to the too-cool apathetic girly-girls dragged there by their wanna-be-rock-star boyfriends... to me -- trying not to think about the fact that I was already in high school when most of my concert-going-comrades were born.  But the band made, for me anyway, the whole experience so transporting; sure, they only have a couple of records, but they are both  real track-for-track hard hitters, and Tuesday night's (shortish) set was one punchy/poppy/punky/jumpy/bangbangSMACK after another and I couldn't give a monkeys that I was pogoing a little more than my 35-year-old knees deemed necessary.  Lots of between-song banter as well, which I totally love.  Add all this to the fact that Inside Out was about the size of my back garden... I was one happy lady -- even if it kept me up way past my bedtime on a school night. 

I shot a little bit of video -- it's surprisingly not too distorted despite my filming it on my iPhone... it's about 30 seconds of one of my favourite tracks from The Subways first record - 2005's "Young for Eternity" -- a 'hidden' track called "At 1am" (which is supposed to sound like this):

Anyway -- eleven out of ten from this mama... now if you'll excuse me, I've got sleep to catch up on, and the good books of my husband to get back into, who -- bless his cotton socks -- had to handle our two boys all on his own whilst I was gallivanting round the North East letting loose the repressed rock chick he married a hundred years ago. 

CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEW RECORD!!!  Roll on September.