Me and some mates totally fell in love with Civic’s modern approach to Australian Punk Rock when they played a show at Hamburg’s Hafenklang 4 years ago. Just missing the famous and sold out Get Lost Fest by a couple of days they had to face a well below capacity club upstairs, nevertheless delivered in full style and their energetic set made it to the top of many “show of the year” lists in 2019.
With their 1st, brilliant album “Future Forecast” only being released after this tour they were not able to promote it due to the pandemic. So it took another 2 years and the release of their 2nd album “Taken By Force” to see them hit the road again and making their way to Europe in May 23. With no gig planned for Hamburg and the only German show in Berlin, I decided to grab the opportunity and travel to the UK to see their shows in Manchester and Leeds as well.
The below is a summary of the tour report that I wrote for OX magazine (issued OX # 169 August/September 23). I try to keep it as brief as possible, hoping that the videos speak for themselves, still helping to convince the one or the other to go and see their guaranteed great show at the Hafenklang on Sunday 26th of November at 20:00, which is already selling very fast anyhow.
21.05., Berlin, Cassiopeia:
Spring time in Berlin, nice and sunny, my wife Natali and our friend Anja joined for this show. Probably 250 people attending, very respectable for a Sunday night. CIVIC kick off with “Born In The Heat”, the band and their charismatic singer Jim McCullough taking the stage by storm.
Compared to their gig in 2019 as a five piece, including lead and rhythm guitar, it is now down to lead guitarist Lewis Hodgson only to create the wall of sound that is the driving force behind CIVIC’s sound, influenced by classic Australian bands such as Saints, Radio Birdman or Celibate Rifles.
As “Born In The Heat” from their new (Rob Younger (Radio Birdman) produced) record “Taken By Force” tends to be one of the more melodic songs in CIVIC’s 14 song setlist here’s a good example of a song showing the much faster and louder side of CIVIC, “Selling. Sucking. Blackmail. Bribes” from their Anti Fade/Total Punk “7” released in 2019.
Sorry for the pretty blurred image that’s caused by the stage fog the Cassiopeia crew loves to use far too much, making it hard at times to see the band on stage. Quite annoying and completely unnecessary, especially if a band has a lot to offer on stage and can do without any special effects, just as CIVIC does. Apart from that nuisance Berlin’s treated with an encore tonight, unusual for a CIVIC show. 90 seconds of “Nuclear Son” from their 1st “New Vietnam” mini album, what a blast!
25.05., Manchester, Castle Hotel:
What I love about travelling to shows is discovering new places. The Castle Hotel in the city center of Manchester is an extremely cool pub estimated in 1776 (!) and CIVIC’s going to play in the backroom with a capacity of only 80 people. Needless to say that it’s sold out.
Support for tonight is BRUISE CONTROL, and I really enjoy their wild garage punk set. Beast of a singer, and the band would be a great addition to Hamburg’s Get Lost Fest. As soon as CIVIC’s kicking off their set the crowd is going crazy. Setlist doesn’t change much, it’s the same mix of 50% songs from their earlier releases and 50% songs from their new album, i.e. the majority of “Taken By Force”.
A fantastic album and instant classic, with songs switching between more melodic ones such as “End Of The Line” (dealing with Jim’s memories of his time spent in Germany as a youngster (Leipzig, Berlin)) or even radio compatible hits like “Blood Rushes” and fast new smash hits like “Fly Song” or “Time Girl”. Here’s a nice rendition of the latter:
Once again it proves: the smaller the place the better and more intense the crowd response and atmosphere. Here are 2 more of the great early songs, “New Vietnam”, the title track of CIVIC’s first “12”, and “Just A Fix” from their 1st proper LP “Future Forecast”:
The other great thing about travelling is meeting people, and tonight I get to know Jim & Polly, a nice couple from Glasgow respectively Dublin. They’ve come to Manchester especially to see the CIVIC show and just like me, they plan to move on to Leeds tomorrow to see their next show at Hyde Park Book Club.
I also get to talk to guitarist Lewis and hand him a copy of OX magazine #166, where CIVIC made it to #1 record of the edition with their new album “Taken By Force”. We also talk about Hamburg and the incident that inspired the song “Hollywood Nights In Hamburg”. It was Lewis who got attacked with pepper spray while standing in front of a pub in Hamburg’s red light district having his phone robbed. Asking if this is the reason CIVIC’s not playing Hamburg on this tour he ensured me that it’s not and he doesn’t have a problem visiting Hamburg again.
26.05., Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club:
As I hadn’t been to Leeds before I take a rather early train. Train ride from Manchester is only a little more than an hour. A surprisingly nice city, I really enjoy walking around, and as usual I also have to visit a record store. Noise Is For Heroes is a really great store, offering a very good collection of fair priced punk & hardcore records. If you’re into vinyl make sure you visit the store run by Chris from Geoffrey Oi!Cott, extremely nice guy too, highly recommended!
Hyde Park Book Club is situated in a rebuild, old petrol station in a quiet, nice part of Leeds. Before the show I take the opportunity to talk to bassist Roland who’s sitting at an outside table. Soon after we are joined by singer Jim and drummer Eli.
All around great guys, and they share quite a bit of information with me. Jim & Roland are driving trucks for the same company back in Melbourne if they’re not on tour. But as they really mean it as a band and want to make it big eventually they’re constantly touring: Australia as soon as they’re back from Europe and the US in October.
They’re also planning to return to Europe in November (includes Hamburg on November 26th) and probably even moving to Europe with the band as it’s much easier and cost saving to tour from here. I’m 100% sure that CIVIC will make a name for themselves as one of the best live bands around in no time if they’re playing Europe regularly.
Jim also tells me that they have a number of songs written for a new album plus they’re going to release a compilation of their earlier material, the “12” and “7”’s (that’s out by now and should be sold at their shows, named just like that: “New Vietnam And Singles”)
Civic (Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds, 26.05.2023 (c) Frosch 2023)
Tonight’s show is going to be the best of the 3 shows, a good mix of people, young & old, going crazy. Especially the young ones can deal with Jim’s playful aggressiveness pretty well and pogo like there’s no tomorrow.
Jim surprises me by dedicating “Radiant Eye” to me, their “7” hit song and already one of my top 100 songs of all time. Good thing I shot a video and got this moment recorded for replay:
A little further on into their 45 minute high speed set one of Lewis guitar strings breaks, right at the start of “Time Girl”. That doesn’t stop my favorite band of the 20’s to continue their set and tear the place down, just watch Jim tearing at the broken string while they finish the set with “Fly Song”, devastating…
I have some more time before I need to shoot off to main central station to catch the last train back to Manchester, so Jim and Lewis join Polly, Jim and me outside of Hyde Park Book Club for some pints of beer. Meeting new friends and get to know the band you like so much personally, there’s nothing better to wish for and well worth the trip to the UK.
PS: Jim gave me a CD copy of the “Taken By Force” album to pass on to a fellow Australian living in Hamburg. Mission accomplished just recently, also asking him to visit the show at the Hafenklang coming up soon… Let’s see if he can manage to come round, Dirk is going to reveal more details in his show review of the Hafenklang gig soon…
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