Does It Offend You, Yeah? w/ We Smoke Fags + AutoKratz @ Bedford Esquires, 15/09/07

I saw Does It Offend You, Yeah? supporting Hadouken in June, and they were awesome to the point of almost upstaging the headline act. Now on their own UK Headline tour, I saw them in Bedford on Saturday and they did not disappoint. With their own brand of electro-punk they totally rocked the tiny venue that is the Esquires, they actually brought the roof down.
Unfortunately, the bouncers were clearly not in a good mood for some reason, and I was thrown out of the venue twice. Somebody had thought it might be nice to hang a million glowsticks from the ceiling, and understandably perhaps, everyone was trying to reach up and grab them. So when some of the more enterprising people decided to jump on each others shoulders to pull a few glowsticks down, an evil evil bouncer decided to send us out. The scum. It was OK in the end, because after taking off my glasses and hat, and changing shirts with a friend, I managed to sneak back in.
As well as this, there were two "dancing-related injuries" over the course of the evening. One of them was my mate Kalyan, who (the poor, poor bastard) managed to dislocate his shoulder someway through the first song of the first act, and was ambulanced off to hospital.



But anyway, onto the music. The first act was 'electro skunk rock' three-piece, We Smoke Fags. Quite what their name can mean in a literal sense since the smoking ban is dubious - I, for one, did not see them smoking any fags. Despite the injuries sustained by the crowd, they put on a solid set, kicking things off with the excellent 'Eastenders', and finishing off with their amazing, singalong-even-though-you-don't-know-the-words stomper, Lust Puppet.

DOWNLOAD: We Smoke Fags - Eastenders
DOWNLOAD: We Smoke Fags - Lust Puppet



After an interval during which they turned all the lights on and I spent most of hiding from the security in a corner, wonky electro outfit autoKratz stepped in. All their songs were reeallly long, and a bit repetitive, but they were kinda fun. To be honest, the music sounded more like it was more suited to some kind of drug-fuelled illegal rave in the centre of Berlin, and the crowd weren't all that keen, but they kept the momentum going for a half-hour set.

DOWNLOAD: autoKratz - ReaKtor


At about 9.45, Does It offend You, Yeah? took the stage. They were completely wicked-awesome. Even the song that I thought was boring in mp3 format (Doomed Now) was good. I saw all the songs, except the final reprise of 'We Are Rockstars', because the prick recognised me from earlier and decided to chuck me out again.

DOWNLOAD: Does It Offend You, Yeah? - We Are Rockstars (Kissy Sell Out Remix)
DOWNLOAD: Does It offend You, Yeah? - Battle Royale