Before this show I have to be honest and admit I knew nothing about opening act Kid Carpet, this meant that there was a bit of a wtf moment when a lone man appeared on stage started to play some kind of dance orientated indie. Luckily his lyrics proved rather wacky, fitting in nicely with ethos of headliners The Presidents of the USA, and ultimately he proved a decent entertainer, after all it must take courage to stand up on stage by yourself throwing weather symbols around and singing about putting on an anorak because it looks like rain over pre programmed beats.  

After several songs from Carpet he made way for Japanese rockers Electric Eel Shock who, after some mime fishing by singer/guitarist Aki Morimoto and an intro of ‘Iron Man’, moved into ‘Suicide Rock ‘N’ Roll’.  For those in the audience that had not heard of the band before, songs such as ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Can Rescue The World’ and ‘Big Mistake’ let everyone know what they are all about. With their fun approach they again have some resemblance to The Presidents Of The United States Of America and they certainly managed to do enough to get the audience on their side, especially with their cover of ‘Iron Man’ played at breakneck speed definitely helping things along.  If nothing else Electric Eel Shock set the evening up nicely for Presidents but, before the headliners could make their presence felt, it was time once again for the return of Kid Carpet, this time with more songs and strange additional musical toys, that look like they have been made by Fisher Price.  Humour is very much at the forefront of this man's show and ‘No Sleep Til Bristol’ and his version of ‘Jump’ were well received by the Birmingham audience.

The Presidents Of The United States Of America never fail to be an entertaining live spectacle.  With a new album, These Are The Good Times People to promote, much of the set was made up of new material. However no matter how many albums the band release  it will always be the material from the band's debut that gets the crowd enthused the most, and this was to be no exception. New songs, ‘Rot In The Sun’, ‘Ladybug’, ‘Sharpen Up Those Fangs’, ‘Love Is Flame’, ‘Ghosts Are Everywhere’ and most definitely ‘Mixed Up S.O.B.’ saw the band recreating much of the fun and catchiness of songs from the band’s debut but the early inclusion of ‘Kitty’ helps get everything going and then ‘Dune Buggy’, ‘Bol Weevil’, ‘Lump’ and ‘Back Porch’, which included some interesting lyrics about a recliner made of roast beef, helped maintain full crowd entertainment.

‘Zero Friction’, ‘Lunatic To Love’ and ‘Some Postman’ also found their way into the set but the end of the show was always going to be made up of the early material, so ‘Peaches’ and ‘Kick Out The Jams’ brouth things to a close and cue mass clapping and foot stomping, it was time for the obligatory encore.  This time around PUSA treated Birmingham to their cover of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ before ‘Candy’ and finally ‘We Are Not Going to Make It’ closed out the night, with the latter strangely enough turning into looks like we made it. The PUSA are most definitely about fun and it shows every moment theye are onstage, perhaps this was best epitomized on this occasion when the band took the time out mid set to explain to a child in the audience that there would be some swearing throughout the set, and that their father would have to explain why it is OK to use bad language in rock music - bet he loved that one. And that in a nutshell sums up PUSA.

Darren Brushneen