Formed in 1995, covers-only band, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are something of a punk-rock super group. With members of NOFX, Swingin’ Utters, Lagwagon and the Foo Fighters, it’s easy to see why they’re as popular as they are. So far they have recorded five albums, a number of 7 inches and a live record. With nothing to promote at the moment, they’ve come to Liverpool just to treat us to some punk covers, which is very nice of them.

The night kicked off with Manchester’s The Guilty Pleasures, who played their self-described ‘politically inspired, new-school punk rock’ to a sparse crowd of early comers. Their set started well, with a good, tight intro, followed by some energetic songs but, with no crowd interaction, little stage presence and nothing between each track except for the odd ’thank you’ and ’nice one’, the songs seemed to all merge into one and appeared to lack any real creativity. The band have supported a large number of big punk bands and have a warm-up slot booked with Anti Flag coming up, although with a flat and bland performance like this it’s difficult to see why.

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The same can’t be said for Useless ID, whose infectious riffs and catchy choruses made their lack of crowd interaction of no relevance as each of their songs felt fresh and interesting. They got the growing crowd bouncing and cheering which is never an easy task for a support act and their 40 minutes flew by. The band formed in Haifa in 1994, and are easily amongst the best Israeli punk bands to grace the stage of the Liverpool Academy. They broke through into the west with a split album with the Ataris in 1999 and with a set like this it’s clear to see they’re going in the right direction and are going to get bigger and bigger, as long as they keep pumping out the awesome pop-punk anthems.

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The crowd were suitably warmed up, so it was time to bring on Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. On this tour they have almost the original line-up, Spike Slawson of Swingin Utters, Fat Mike of NOFX, Joey Cape and Dave Raun of Lagwagon and Chris Shiflett’s brother, Scott, filling in for the Foo Fighter. As is the custom with the Gimme Gimmes, dressed all in matching Hawaiian shirts, they played a drunk, sloppy set that appeared under rehearsed and thrown together at the last minute. And very entertaining it was. The band were clearly having a great time and so was the rammed crowd. Spike, on lead vocals, had told us earlier that he feels the applause and cheers that the Gimme Gimmes get are more for the songs than for the band, but this wasn’t the case at all. They could have played any song and they still would have had the crowd eating out of their hands as their performance is so energetic and interesting they make every song their own. Spike owned the stage, acting up like a real diva, informing us all of his extreme dislike of The Eagles, and introducing each song with, “This next one’s a cover”. Fat Mike, being the lead singer of NOFX, is used to having the lime light, but slots in perfectly next to Spike. The pair riffed with each other between songs and Mike even managed to drink most of his White Russian whilst playing his bass at the same time, which, I can tell you, in no mean feat. Even watching them stand around whilst waiting for guitarist Joey Cape to get back from two unscheduled urination breaks was exciting. They played a countless number of catchy punk cover songs that lasted for well over an hour but kept the crowd gripped for the entire time, returning to do a three song encore. This was the band’s first time in Liverpool, but hopefully it will not be their last.

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