I headed down to the Marble Factory in Bristol to catch Zebrahead and Patent Pending on their Walk The Plank co-headline tour and it seemed like 500 or so eager fans also had the same idea with the streets outside the Marble Factory having a large queue formed of pop-punk kids waiting eagerly for the doors to open for one of the most exciting pop-punk shows of the year.
Due to interviewing Patent Pending and Zebrahead just after the doors opened I happened to miss the start of Templeton Pek’s set however I have seen the band live a number of times over the past couple of years and from the 15minutes that I saw of their set tonight I could tell that they were still as good to watch as the last time I saw them live.
Up next were Patent Pending a band which I happen to think are one of the hardest working bands within the music industry at the moment as they are forever on tour and make sure to come to the UK for lengthy tours 2 or 3 times a year and when they are not on tour they are busy working on and releasing new material and if you look at their back catalogue you will see for yourself that they have released either a new EP or Album every year for the past 5 years which is a massive achievement for a band which never stops touring.
As soon as Patent Pending took to the stage they unleashed the manic energy they are well known for with the whole band charging over the stage but it was frontman Joe Ragosta who took things to another level by jumping off the stage and into the crowd within 30 seconds of taking to the stage and as the bands set progressed he made sure to take to the crowd at some point through every song of their 12 song set.
The set Patent Pending played was a massive fan favourite set with the likes of ‘Classic You’, ‘Shake Weights And Moving Crates’, ‘Let Go’, ‘Valentine’, ‘Pyscho In Love’, ‘The Whiskey, The Liar, The Thief’, ‘Brighter’ and ‘Douchebag’ going down a storm with the crowd yet for myself and many other it was the awesome ‘Hey Mario’ which was the highlight of the set as the whole crowd started to sing the song louder than the band and acrobatic frontman Joe Ragosta kept doing Mario brick hitting jumps though out the song which were hilarious yet so spot on.
Despite releasing their new studio album ‘Riots Hearts Rebellion’ last Friday, Patent Pending only played one track from the album however they chose a great track to play with the massive chant-a-long ‘Started In My Head’ which had the whole venue chanting “Here we, here we, here we fucking go” over and over again.
One of the things I have always admired about pop-punk bands is how they always have a lot of time for their fans and interact with them so much and tonight Patent Pending were on top form with that with Joe Ragosta talking about his ADHD, and also talking about depression and how coming to music shows and mixing with other music fans really helps people with depression, he also touched on the subject of the shocking events of the Bataclan theatre in Paris by saying that people tried to break into the house of music a couple of weeks ago but they fucking failed as bands are still playing and fans are still coming out and nothing will ever break the music community and as long good people keep coming to shows he knows that his daughter will be safe in the world as the good people outweigh the bad.
It wouldn’t be a Patent Pending gig without their favourite gig Olympic sports of crowd swimming and tonight Joe Ragosta raced guitarist Rob Felicetti and for anyone who has never witnessed crowd swimming before it’s a bit like crowd surfing yet you start from the back of the room and the first one to get on stage wins and Rob won easily and celebrated by jumping all over the stage with the crowd clapping along.
Just before their set came to a close Patent Pending announced that they will be back in the UK got a headline tour in the spring and after tonight’s spot on performance you would be a fool not to head out to one of the shows on the tour when they head back to the UK.
After a 30 minute change around the lights dimmed and ‘Gagnam style’ by Psy was played over the sound system as a light up Psy figure danced around on stage and moments later Zebrahead took to the stage and got the party started with the infectious fan favourite ‘Rescue Me’ which got the already well warmed up crowd buzzing again and energetically jumping along.
Zebrahead continued the party which Patent Pending brought to the stage but they went one better by having their own bar on stage stocked up with Jack Daniels, Stella, Jameson, Jagermeister and various other drinks and keeping true to the pirate theme of their latest album ‘Walk The Plank’ they had three pirates on stage helping out with backing vocals and serving drinks to the band members whilst they played, including their own tour manager Mark who also happens to be Patent Pending’s guitarist.
Talking to Matty Lewis and Ed Udhas before the show they told us that despite having twelve studio albums and various EP’s to their name it is still really simple when it comes to picking a set list as over the years they have figured out what songs are fan favourites and what people expect to hear and tonight’s set was just that a massive fan favourite greatest hits set with only three tracks being played from their latest album ‘Walk The Plank’.
‘Save Your Breath’, ‘Worse Than This’ and ‘Who Brings a Knife To A Gun Fight’ were all played from the band latest album ‘Walk The Plank’ and it is easy to see why these songs were chosen as they went down amazingly with the crowd due to their infectious nature but more importantly they are about getting drunk and having a party especially the pirate punk rock sounding ‘Who Brings A Knife To A Gun Fight’.
For me the highlights of the set came towards the end when Zebrahead blasted out ‘Sirens’ and then returned to the stage for an epic double headed encore of ‘Falling Apart’ and ‘Anthem’ which ended a spot on gig perfectly.
Overall tonight was an absolute blast and easily one of the best gigs I have been to in a long time, both Patent Pending and Zebrahead were fantastic however I think in a few years’ time there might be a slot reversal as I truly believe that Patent Pending’s popularity will rise and they will be headlining over bands like Zebrahead and the band that first brought them to the UK Bowling For Soup.
Patent Pending 5/5
Zebrahead 5/5
Review By Trigger |
