D.O.A tearing up Shanghai.... Introspective trances.... Near-broken cameras.

Expectations were high on this cold night in Shanghai. The support band had just finished and around 200 people, huddled together in their coats, sip Yuyintang's watered down Tiger, eyes fixed on the stage, waiting. 

Joey Shithead looks exactly how you would expect him to. A 40 year old dude in a sawn-off denim jacket. His face aged, wrinkled and long. The other two guys had fared better, that much is obvious. He steps up to the mic: 'We're D.O.A, and we're going to fuck you up'....

... At least, I think that's what he said. You see, to be honest I was having a piss when D.O.A came on because, as usual, I had drunk two pints during the support band to try and get myself in the mood.  I was trying to take pictures for this gig. I had to try and get at least two decent ones for my girlfriend's website review. I had a new flash but no idea how to use it. When I get nervous, I have a few beers. Life is a lot easier after a few beers. 

So the pit exploded almost as soon as D.O.A started, and I was caught in the middle, fumbling with the fucking thing, trying to throw elbows at the same as adjusting my settings. But although I spent most of the time trying to get decent pictures, the gig was fucking awesome, and anyone who missed this because they couldn't brave the cold, well, you missed out bad. The Canadian three-piece stormed through what must have been two-dozen songs, covering classics like Fuck You, Police Brutality and Marijuana to a crowd that didn't drop a beat. The place was a sea of elbows, fists and sweaty faces - both local and foreign - screaming the words, urging them on. 

D.O.A took me back to the first time I heard real punk rock. When I was 13 or 14 and some older friend put Conflict or Exploited on. I remember feeling a buzz down my spine, a tingling in my neck, an excitement which, years and years on, I have never lost when I hear bands who have fury and passion. I treasured those LPs, and still today I have them in a box in my Mum's loft. I've been on a lot of highs in my life, but it doesn't matter what you drop, drink or do, nothing beats real loud rock music that you relate to... 

There are only four or five times that I have felt that buzz like I did on this night in Shanghai. Iron Maiden in 2003 at Donnington, surrounded by my best mates. Pennywise in 2001 at Docklands, my first gig. And, of course, watching Neurosis in the pissing rain at Hellfest 2007 with my friend. Stoned and soaked-through. He turned and told me he felt like he was having a religious experience, and as that brutal, crunching wall of distortion swept us away, I totally understood.  They are moments you won't forget, moments you listen to music for.

And yeah, despite the weather and the shit beer, D.O.A was one of those moments. Perhaps I have just missed punk rock, missed the attitude and the anger. But it was a belting gig. Whether or not their presence in China contributes to the progress of punk rock in this country, I'm not qualified to say. But we can only hope. If nothing else, in a world where most music - punk not excluded - stands for fuck all, for 90 minutes or so D.O.A made this bitter old punk rocker very happy.