I’ve been meaning to do this as 10 years ago I began a musical odyssey the likes of which had never been seen before or since. I suppose it began when I passed my driving test in 2005, opening up a world of new possibilities for someone who lived in the middle of nowhere their whole youth. This was the first gig I hit up entirely of my own volition and over the course of the next 5 years I’ll hopefully keep doing this for memorable gigs and albums but I’ve gotten pretty bad at the blog game the last few years.
The Rifles // The Subways
So it was Freshers’ week at Bournemouth University where I was studying law. Both were nothing to write home about. However I bought tickets to this gig at the start of the summer and had been listening to the Subways debut album in my car constantly since I passed so I’d been looking forward to this night.
I chose to go on my own as I did 95% of the gigs after this one. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember The Rifles particularly and still only know the name 10 years later, I didn’t really know what a support band was and didn’t appreciate that they were always an opportunity to see great bands before they were topping bills. Like I say though, this was my first real gig so give me a break.
I swear there was sweat dripping off the walls after this gig and my ears were ringing for the whole of the next day. They tore the place apart, everyone there was having a great time and I’d just gotten a taste of my future.
10 years and three albums later I would see The Subways again, at my favorite festival 2000 Trees. Singing along to these songs again was perfect, everything that happened in those 10 years forgotten for one night.