Page 52 - Black Velvet Issue 93

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PATENT PENDING / ETERNAL BOY / SWEET LITTLE MACHINE – BIRMINGHAM O2 ACADEMY 2, 22.04.17
With a new covers album under their belts that includes the Spice Girls’ ‘Spice Up Your Life’, Long Island’s top pop-punkers, Patent Pending, are
back in the UK to spice up our British lives.
Opening band Sweet Little Machine don’t look particularly punk, but it definitely comes out in their music. They know how to get the crowd partic-
ipating and get everyone to sing along to ‘We Used To Own These Playgrounds’. It’s “repetitive as shit,” they say, as the chorus repeats ‘We used to
own these playgrounds, we used to own these streets’. Songs like ‘War’ have a similar grittiness that the likes of Rise Against possess, while ‘In God
We Trust’ begins with catchy ‘na na na na’s and sees vocalist/guitarist Alex Lantrua get off the stage and walk into the crowd. Their solid set gets the
show off to a fine start.
It’s Eternal Boy’s last show on the tour, as Boy Jumps Ship take over from Newcastle onwards. With songs like ‘Awkward Phase’ and ‘Katie’, the
three-piece from Pittsburgh, PA play a bouncier 90s-style pop-punk and are a self-proclaimed product of the Drive-Thru Records era. The band are
influenced by Blink-182 and as such, they even perform a cover of ‘What’s My Age Again?’ They have a little way to go to be on the same level as
Blink-182, but they are a fun band to watch and listen to.
Not quite as fun as
Patent Pending though,
who would almost break
the Fun-ometer if there
was one in the room.
Their set includes a
crowdsurfing competition
between frontman Joe
Ragosta and Joe Harbu-
lak of Eternal Boy, a wall
of hugs, and frequent trips
off stage and into the au-
dience by Joe. It’s not
every day we see a front-
man tell everyone that he
hasn’t taken his Ritalin for
his ADHD and make a
crew member go and get
one from his bag so he
can take it mid-set. He
does massive high jumps
every three minutes (or
thereabouts!) and the
band’s set is so packed
with energy that it’s no
wonder the room gets hot
and sweaty in no time.
‘The Whiskey, The Liar,
The Thief’ has a pirate-in-
spired Irish folk rock vibe
(not our favourite song of
the set), while long-stand-
ing favourites like ‘Psycho
In Love’ and the bouncy
‘Anti-Everything’ never get
old. The band also play
their mash-up cover of
‘Wasted/Wake Me Up’
from their new covers
album, ‘Other People’s
Greatest Hits’. There are
moments of seriousness
in the set though, such as
when Joe introduces ‘One
Less Heart To Break’, an
anti-suicide song, and
gives a heartfelt speech.
Later in the set, there’s
another sentimental mo-
ment, when the band
choose to play ‘Second
Family’, an emotive song
that is enough to bring
tears to your eyes or a
lump to your throat.
“You’ve got a home and
you’ve got a song,” Joe
sings. And so do the band
when they come to Birm-
ingham, and all of the UK.
YYYY
SBV
Joe Ragosta (Patent Pending)
Photo By Shari Black Velvet

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