The first event put on by Falkirk's very own 'Go For It Collective' is a festival with 7 bands from Scotland, England and Ireland and is nicely timed for my birthday!
As promised we get our free CD on arriving at The Engine Room and enter through the doors as to what must be the hottest, most humid place on earth and there's a band just on.
They play rousing punk which would appear to be mostly about drinking, fucking & drinking, drinking and has a good few 'oi oi oi's' thrown in. It turns out that this is the aptly named Home Brew.
The crowd expands further to greet local band Turtlehead, who are certainly very popular here and it's no surprise. They play fast, melodic punk with highly original and entertaining lyrics.
Live, they are a huge blast of solid melody and Brian, the singer, makes use of every inch of available space to kick out the jams! With that classic MC5 song getting the same Turtlehead makeover as 'Video Killed The Radio Star' allowing them to fit in perfectly with their own classics.
Joe Ninety arrive on and their singer/guitarist is also the guitarist from Home Brew. He enjoys some banter with his 'old' friend (the drummer form Home Brew) in the crowd and mentions the heat and being worn out with already playing.
Both singers claim to be suffering vocal problems, but they sound fine to me with their melodic dual vocals giving their songs an uplifting edge. Their casual approach and apparent lack of enthusiasm taking nothing away from our enjoyment, it's just a fact that they have good tunes.
Other local band Shatterhand are up next. They are very energetic, with the singer bounding around the stage as if he's trying to keep warm and express the sentiments of the songs with every muscle in his face at the same time.
The guitarist is also the guitarist from Turtlehead. They play an amazing version of the Dead Kennedys 'Police Truck' and if I hadn't already been impressed then that would finally have done it. Shatterhand also have a very solid home support, with their sound being a good variety of styles and paces with touches of ska that don't seem forced, chugging guitars and did I mention they played 'Police Truck'?!
One Car Pile-Up play fast; all riffing chords, expressive vocals, drums at double time and enthusiastic back-up vocals. There's a guy at the front dancing around defying the heat and the singer tells him he can help out on vocals if he starts flailing.
But there's no flailing, he even manages to jump around and pull the most animated expressions ever, throughout their lively set. 10 out of 10 for all the bands ignoring the oppressive heat and still giving it their all.
Mixtwitch hail from Ireland, not that you could fail to notice from their banter, "Go on, wit ye now", and aren't happy until they've enticed the kids right in front of their faces to jump, dance, push each other in a friendly way and generally fall over the band. The spiky-haired singer tells some tall tales of haggis massages and finishes off a very entertaining set with dropping his trousers, but I'm sure he was just overheated.
Last band tonight is Consumed, from the hugely influential Fat Wreck Chords label, and their bassist is also the guy from One Car Pile-Up. Either the UK has a shortage of decent punk musicians or these guys have just got way too much energy.
The kids still manage to dance and the two smallest just keep pushing from the back and shoving the crowd into the singers face and knocking his mike down but no one really cares.
The singer entices the front rows to do 'the dying fly' as they play 'Twat Called Maurice' and many flailing legs take to the air, but happy with their 2 minutes of rest they get back up and dance like crazies until the end of the set and the end of the first, and from where I was standing, hugely successful 'Hey Suburbia!' festival.
