Third Punk Rock Outlook gig with popular bands and an exciting new band is a success!
Reading, Berkshire, UK has a very lively Punk scene – it may be known for the annual Music Festival, but during the rest of the year, there are numerous Punk bands playing at our great venues. One of these, Launch Control, puts on gigs to showcase local talent at east-of-town-centre bar The Outlook.
New writer Hannah was at the third of these shows, along with Punktuation! editor Ruth (who has been to all of them!)
First up were local Reading pop punk band Almost Aliens. They wowed the crowd with their music and an inflatable alien, which had its second outing at this gig! The sound was great, the songs were enjoyable, and they are lovely guys to have a conversation with.
They played a couple of new songs, one of them being ‘My Friends Come First’, which is on their recent EP release ‘The Summer And The Pride’.
Next up we had another local Reading band, Skinhawk. They have only been together 2 months, so very new to the scene, and this was their first ever gig. They are Hardcore and Nerd Punk, they were very loud and heavy. They were the first band to start a mosh pit in the crowd, who they interacted with a lot. (I was particularly impressed by their bass sound – Ed.)
They played 5 songs – all were enjoyable. Their next gig will be on the 28th October at Purple Turtle, Reading.
Of course it can’t be a Punk Rock Outlook gig without the hosts themselves, Launch Control. Their singer Lee Switzer-Woolf is very energetic, going into the crowd and involving himself in the mosh pits. They are all absolutely lovely, friendly guys, and have incredibly fast songs which the crowd responded really well to – mosh pits, circle pits, and lots of jumping around!
They played their new single ‘Attention Economy’ which is out on all streaming sites.
And lastly we had Rage DC, a very well-known Punk band within the scene. They had a stand in drummer, Kenny Stevenson (usually behind the kit with Anabollic Steroids), who played with them for the second time at this gig and did extremely well doing so. The crowd loved them. They were loud, energetic, and overall an absolutely incredible band to watch. They played a couple of new songs including ‘Fuck The Man’, which was a limited edition single brought out with Tony Smith, owner of Sounds Of The Suburbs Record Store, London. It is available on Spotify and other streaming sites. Their next gig will be on the 2nd November at the Holroyd Arms, Guildford.
Main Photo Credit / All Photos: HANNAH CALVER
Follow Launch Control on Their Socials:
Need more Punk In Your Life?
Chaos and hypnosis: A night with the Brian Jonestown Massacre
It was my first visit to the fantastic Albert Hall in Manchester and what a gem it is. Proving to be the perfect backdrop for
Album review: rising punks Winona Fighter’s debut ‘My Apologies To The Chef’
Based in Nashville, Winona Fighter – frontwoman and multi-instrumentalist Coco Kinnon, lead guitarist Dan Fuson and bassist/producer Austin Luther – formed after Coco moved there
Album Review: MC16’s debut ‘Machine Code’
Musically, MC16 are a short sharp shock of classic punk rock – a whirlwind of snarl and bite, mixed with a ragged melody and street-wise
Six of the best – 12th February 2025
New single and album releases from: Dead Rituals & Francis Moon – ‘I Could Have Been Your Nowhere’, Bloodtrust – ‘Silent masses’, No Good –
Album review: Fight Back Mountain – ‘Death & The Miser’
The cheerily-titled ‘Death & The Miser’ is the third album from Fight Back Mountain, and if lyricist/guitarist Anjelica Aquilino’s musings on the state of life
Album review: Bite Me Bambi branch out on ‘Eat This’
Los Angeles, CA band Bite Me Bambi release their highly anticipated new album, ‘Eat This’ on 14th February. Branching out from their ska punk roots,
I’ve been going to gigs since I was 18 years old, and have loved them ever since. They are my second home. I enjoy discovering new bands, meeting punks of different ages, and learning more about the scene. I sing, play guitar, and learning the drums. Punk for life!
Did you know that we are 100% DIY? We run our own game. No one dictates to us, and no one drives what we can or cannot put on our pages – and this is how we plan to continue!
