If the scene was a block, Fights And Fires would have been around it a few times. Playing with some of the biggest and best names in punk and making sure that no town is missed out on their quest to spread the good word of the riff, the band’s 10 years in the business has seen them carve out a serious name for themselves. Though real life can get in the way as you get older, the band have never let that stop them from having a good time, and that sentiment has never been more poignant than on ‘Live Life Like A Tourist’.

Openly admitting that there was a point where they lost their passion for music, it’s a relief to hear how focused, reinvigorated and impassioned the band sound on these eight slices of deliciously affecting punk rock. You can feel the sweat dripping off the ceiling as opener ‘Blanquettes Avenue’ gets hotter and heavier with every vital second, while the old school grit of ‘Hard To Dream’ will take you back to much simpler days. It all adds up to a half hour of care free abandon, which is more necessary now more than ever before.

‘Live Life Like A Tourist’ is not only an infectious and thoroughly engrossing album but also a brilliant sentiment to live by; Leave no stone unturned and leave nothing to chance. Laugh till you cry and love till you can’t love anymore. Let no-one tell you how to do anything and never feel like you’re making your way through life in the wrong way.

In many ways, it feels like the sort of mantra that punk was originally built on, and to hear it delivered in such a vibrant and cathartic manner as Fights And Fires do here is an absolute pleasure to behold.

3.5/5

‘Live Life Like A Tourist’ by Fights And Fires is out now on Lockjaw Records.

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Words by Jack Rogers (@JackMRog)