I went to see PWEI in Birmingham. There was no support, just a lot of very excited 20-30 something's in Poppies shirts and the odd add for Gorky's. About halfway through the nostalgia-fest I began pondering on how badly the music had actually dated. I'm sure it didn't sound like this! But I'd just been listening before the gig and it did! Maybe it's because it's been eleven years. The chord changes are clumsy, the sounds are 'of their time' and the only song in the main set that I felt really survived the test was 'Their Law', mainly courtesy of the Prodigy's greatest album. That's not to say I don't still think 'Ich Bin Ein Auslander 'is a great song - it helped me survive the evils of other teenagers - but some of it did feel a bit laboured. Back then I used to think it was aggressive and punky, but not any more. Maybe it was always like that, and the fact that my teachers thought everything was satanic helped.
The encore broke my reverie, as PWEI brought out all the real punky songs like 'Beaver Patrol' and 'Def Con One'. With classics like this how could I be so cynical? Mind you, it cemented the truth - as all punk gigs do - that nothing ever changes in shouty 3-chord (if you're lucky) punk music. When PWEI did this, it was nostalgia, and in ten year's time the kids will still think it's raw, edgy and original to strip music down to angry shouting basics. Occasionally of course, you get some really good songs.
Three encores and a two-hour set coupled with sharing the feeling of being fourteen again with a packed crowd certainly more than made up for all my cynicism. It's a shame they're only reforming to pay the bills.