As stated in a previous post, I was trying to think of somewhere I could send my dad for a live review and it just so happens the wonders of Peterborough beer festival had the answer. Featuring several of his favourite things - ground hops in a liquid format, pub games, ‘crumpet’ and Oliver Reed t-shirts (okay not that), why not let the master brewer review some of the bands? So off he went to sit on a stolen chair, in the middle of the entertainment marquee, with the back of the festival programme to scribble on and half of mild.

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Bands - King Kool, Plastic Soup
Venue - Peterborough Beer Festival
Cost - Fiver
Date - 23rd August
Beer - loads

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The rather crowded stage was set halfway down the long side of a very large marquee. The audience of about sixty people were aimlessly scattered on the large grassed area in front of the stage, with enough open space to park several full grown blue whales.

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King Kool

This was a duo made up of Dan Donovan and Joe Mason. The blurb in the program describes them as quote: “Kicking breed of art garage rock” - whatever that means. The singer was dressed in black reminiscent of Johnny Cash. Unfortunately, that was where the resemblance ended. I endured three songs as the vocalist seemed to be in competition with the drummer in a ‘who can be the loudest’ match. I could not determine any distinguishable words as Joe, the exuberant gum-chewing drummer, drowned them out. The singer to show his virtuosity played a harmonica and short solo on the guitar when the drummer took a breather. The patrons were offered CDs at £7 each. Amazingly none of the paying public rushed to buy a copy. To me, the overall sound was akin to being interned in a forty-gallon drum with several bricks and rolled downhill.

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Plastic Soup

Comprised of four exuberant performers, this group enthusiastically belted out three numbers with the volume and musicality of a jet engine. The lead vocalist wore trousers that appeared to be made from the skins of four Dalmatians. The first number seemed to be called ‘Plastic Soup’, with the singer who appeared to have watched a Mick Jagger video, attempting to copy some rocking moves. The rest of the numbers were a cacophony of sound that assaulted your ears harder than a bailiff banging on a door on rent day. They left much to the imagination as to what the lyrics were about, as the vocals blended into a wall of noise. The low frequency bass made your teeth vibrate enough to give white finger to your lips. (I don’t get this at all – Ross.)

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Links

King Kool
Plastic Soup

Peterborough Beer Festival

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Intro - Ross
Words - Mad Mac

Band - Arnocorps
Support - Thirteen Wolves, Dagobah
Venue - Dublin Castle (should be re-christened ‘The Dublin Living Room’ - it’s tiny)
Beer - niceessshhh
Cost - Tenner

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Considering I’d been waiting for this for a good 2 years, I wasn’t actually that excited until I got to the venue and attempted a mid-air handshake/arm wrestle with Holzfeuer (lead singer of Arnocorps) - fucking win. They must be the nicest band ever. I swear to god, they spent most of their rehearsal time talking to fans, shouting the words “GOOOOOOO!” getting photos taken, calling people “godamn heroes!” and drinking. Anyway…THE GIG:

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I caught the tail-end of Dagobah’s set, which was unfortunate as they sounded pretty good. A Skate-punk, thrashfest that I wouldn’t have minded hearing more of in the future. Unfortunately the next support band, Thirteen Wolves, I could have done without. It was a bit like watching that ‘band’ who cover all the songs on Guitar Hero. Except it wasn’t like Guitar Hero where you fuck-up the ‘Sweet Child Of Mine’ solo, turn the console off and play Gears of War instead - you carry on, trying vainly to keep in time before your fingers fall off and you end up planting the over-sized controller in the tv screen. I’ve never been so bored in my entire life at a gig (well, save for watching The Kits or this awful death metal band I had to endure at Esquires once. *Shudders*) It was a cock-rock horrorshow that I could have done without really - so bad in fact my friend tried to fit her fist in her mouth at the title of one of their tracks, which I think was some garbled nonsense about a wizard. Normally, comedy-Warhammer-lite shenanigans would be up my street, but really….no…..just no. Plus, they kept pronouncing Arnocorps wrong. (’Arno-core’ for those uninitiated) There was a big cheer from the back of the room when they announced their last song - thank fuck. Possibly the worst band I’ve seen this year.

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As the opening bars to Little Richard’s ‘Long Tall Sally’ kicked in, a great cheer rose up from the audience, proving that 1950’s rock ‘n’ roll is still popular with the kids (considering it was featured in the opening scenes of sci-fi action horror Predator.) As the closing bars tell us to “have some fun tonight,” the band everyone has been waiting for troop on to the stage - Arnocorps are here.

Sadly, it’s a disappointing start. What should have been a glorious action adventure rock ‘n’ roll fest was hampered by the terrible attitude of some over-zealous fanboys who’d probably had one too many beerskis and had been watching tales of heroic action the previous night. Get the fuck off the stage you epic twunts and let the band play. Do you actually think I want to see you hurling your sweaty forms into the crowd, possibly braining me with your oversized feet as you thrash about like an epileptic on fire? No, I don’t. Suffice to say, ‘Predator’ was nearly ruined due to this, however it’s kept together by vocalist Holzfeuer’s display of crowd safety and terrific showmanship in keeping things in check. I probably sound like a miserable old bastard for saying this really. I know you should have fun at a show, but really there should be a line drawn between ‘having a laugh’ and ‘being a world-class cockend.’ I have to say though, the sight of everyone singing back the lines “what happened Dillon? You used to be someone, I could trust? TRUST!” was particularly heart-warming.

Some may say that Arnocorps are a slight one-trick pony. Sure, most of their songs follow along the similar pattern, but what they lack in variety they make up for in volume and on-stage banter, spliced with their film-heavy lyrics and reckless attitude. They plow through their most well known songs to start wit. ‘Terminator’ is greeted with rapturous applause; the steady drum and bass build up erupts into the well known chant of “Nice night, for a walk? Nothing, clean right?” Soon all decorum is lost as the Dublin Castle turns into a whirlwind frenzy of air-punches and Schwarzenegger quotes. ‘Commando’ goes down well with Holzfeuer asking the audience what they had for breakfast (the answer is always ‘Green Berets’.) ‘Collateral Damage’ is run through flawlessly and is possibly my favourite track of the whole evening – pure, adrenalin filled punk rock with a sooth-as-silk bassline and a terrific vocal chant at the end.

“Only sing this song if you believe it about yourself” Holzfeuer says. He shouldn’t be worried though, everyone in the room is hanging off his every word and the cry of “I’m Ballsy! I’m a stud! I don’t take shit from everyone!” is echoed back at the giant Florida/Austrian with gusto. “This is a goddamn, anthem of our generation” he bellows and there’s no disagreeing with him, or the band on that one. During ‘True Lies’ they pull several troops on to the stage to act as the ‘Arno-chorus’, an act that is later repeated during the ‘this song will never end’ saga of ‘Running Man’(everyone and I mean everyone, is encouraged to run on the spot), which had bassist Toten Adler crowd surfing on a guitar case – a prospect that was both amazing and slightly worrying at the same time, especially his near head-plant from the make-shift surfboard. Once again though, several chumps ruin certain moments by yelling incomprehensibly down the microphone, only to be ejected from the stage by the man-mountain of singer. At this point, the stage invasion is getting incredibly tiresome, but the band battle on with a rousing rendition of ‘End of Days’, possibly dedicated to all the choir boys and to all the goddamn heroes out there, ‘Last Action Hero’ delivers the upper-cut of uniting everyone in a frenzy of bonding, unity and brotherhood under the Arnocorps banner of valour and bravery.

Other set pieces, aside from chucking people off the stage include drummer Gellend Adler’s drum solo and wet t-shit competition (he’s undefeated, even again the rather striking young lady who took up the courage to challenge the power-house stickman.) They even manage to run through several new tracks (‘Kindergarten Cop’, ‘Red Heat’ and another about us Brits that I can’t remember the name of, but damn it was mighty fine.) The ending though, is disappointing. Instead of a thrilling version of ‘Total Recall’ they play ‘Eraser’ perhaps the weakest track on the album. Promising to “mix up their set” for the rest of their tour, Arnocorps exit, from what has been a night full of mixed emotions – some good, some bad but on the whole, ballsy to the max.

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Links

Arnocorps
Arno-Myspace
Anticulture

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Words - Ross Macdonald
Photos - Jason Kahl

Band - The Night Marchers, duhh!
Support - The Kits
Venue - 100 Club
Beer - ouch.
Verdict - Whhhoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

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Ahh Speedo, is there nothing he can’t do? The man’s a tour-de-force of pure rock, there’s no denying that. His CV boasts the very cream of rock music, from his time in the mathy pioneers Drive Like Jehu, rock ‘n’ rollers Rocket From The Crypt, surf punks the Sultans and the barbed frenzy of Hot Snakes. Now he returns with The Night Marchers and boy are they something.

Before the main event, there’s the supports to get through. I’d arrived late at the venue, which I wasn’t to bothered about. However, what did tick me off was the only support band of the night decided they’d be late as well - thanks. Once The Kits finally started, I began to wish they hadn’t even bothered. I’d have much preferred to listen to the DJ spinning dad-era rock ‘n’ roll all night. Imagine the most un-offensive, watered down garage rock imaginable. Got that? Right, now add a hideously high bass tone and drown out all the guitars so only the piss-weak solos can be half heard, and add in vocals that sound like they’re being shouted at you in another room through a wasps nest. Yeah, I pretty much thought it sucked. Big time. Even Speedo seemed to agree with me: he left during the second track.

After some more ‘best of the 60’s volume 2‘ and several more pints of wallet-raping beer, The Night Marchers blasted their way on stage. Tommy Kitsos’s driving bass heralded the first song of the night in the form of the hip-shaking rock ‘n’ roll of ‘Bad Bloods.’ Just hearing Speedo’s “HUH!” as the song picked up was music to my ears. It’s a brilliant opening tune, with a terrific driving chorus and melody. Superb. From this outset, I already knew tonight was going to be a memorable musical treat. No disrespect to the other band members, but Speedo has the kind of stage presence that leaves you mesmorised. You’re drawn to his every word, laughing at his sarcastic and scathing humour, loving the quiff…if you were to look up the words ‘rock n’ roll’ in the dictionary, they’d be a picture of him giving you the thumbs up.

Faster than Speedy Gonzalez on Redbull, they launch into a raucous rendition of the first track from ‘See You In Magic’; the ever pleasing and chugging riffage of ‘Closed For Inventory.’ The Night Marchers might just well be the perfect band of Speedo’s that you can enjoy without being battered to death in a windmill of flailing limbs. Those of the glasses wearing nature like myself, had nothing to fear in terms of losing their precious eyes to a misplaced fist then to several misplaced feet as their only source of seeing power is ground into a fine powder. Despite this, everyone and I mean everyone was having the time of his or her lives. ‘In Dead Sleep’ ploughed it’s noisy furrow through everyone’s ears; it’s dark, menacing tones enveloping the 100 Club, whilst the joyous pop-rock gem of ‘I Wanna Deadbeat You’ brought on the first biggest sing-along of the evening (and perhaps my closest chance to hearing what a Rocket From The Crypt track would sound like live.)

The jaunty strut of ‘Who’s Lady R U?’ confirmed just how brilliant The Night Marchers are live. The gloriously riff-heavy bass work that slides into the hook-laden chorus is a joy to hear, as is a rousing rendition of the summery guitar-driven pop of ‘Jump In The Fire.’ At one point, Gar Wood started using his guitar as a ‘rifle’ to shoot members of the audience, wearing a smile that was so big it looked as if his head was about to fall off.

The highlight of the set though was the ridiculously brilliant 1-2 punch of ‘Scene Report‘ and ‘Fisting The Fanbase‘ two tracks that did not feature on ‘See You In Magic’ but should have. ‘Scene Report‘ throws itself around like as Tasmanian devil on fire; the energetic guitar work being put through its paces with real gusto - terrific slice of punk rock. Unfortunately my brain was knackered by beer and my only memory of the last track, was that it rocked. HARD. Possibly one of the best songs I’ve heard this year, seriously. With no encore (and rightly so, the only way they were going to top ‘Fisting The Fanbase’ was by playing it again, possibly faster) The Night Marchers left the stage like the sweaty gods they are.

My only regret is not seeing them on the other 2 London dates before, but then I’d have less money than Northern Rock and be visiting this website everyday. Goodbye.

Sounds

If you fancy hearing what The Night Marchers sound like, click below to listen to ‘Closed For Inventory.’

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Links

The Night Marchers
Vagrant Records

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Words - Me
Pictures - Marc Jeeves

On Saturday I made the always fun trip to London and attended RoTa at Notting Hill Arts Centre. Despite it being a free gig, I still had to pay the £13.55 for the pleasure of visiting the big smoke, but still, it’s a day out and seems better than sitting on the Internet all day arguing about whether Peep Show has turned shit (it hasn’t) and trying to do Doom 2 speedruns (almost impossible.)

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The first band, An Emergency wasted no time in doing exactly what they said they were going to do at the beginning of their set: “play fast and loud.” An Emergency are a three piece, consisting of 2 guitarists and a drummer who proceeded to thrash out 30 odd minutes of danceable punk rock, interspersed with light comic banter in the form of a short debate about the merits of Marathon bars changing their name to Snickers. They seemed even more jagged and angular than when I last saw them; like 3 hedgehogs filled with starch wearing jumpers made of razor blades. Those looking for the missing link between Dischord’s Q and not U and San Diego’s Hot Snakes would do well to listen to An Emergency. Energetic, packed with boundless enthusiasm and quality punk rock that you don’t see much of nowadays.

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After that spirited performance, Jonquil took to the stage, a band I knew very little about. In comparison to the frantic mess of exuberance I’d just witnessed, this collection of musicians were a concise arrangement of different sounds and styles that complimented each other beautifully. At times their sound ranged from drunken sea shanties (see ‘Lions‘, a jaunty 2 minute romp) to wonderful melodic, layered pop music and of course, gang vocal chants which I love like a fat man loves cake.

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With the afternoon nearly over and much gassy,watered-down beer consumed, This Town Needs Guns took to the stage. It’s easy to see why this oxford quartet is so highly regarded in indie circles. Their tight, tappy emo rock falls into the similar vein as Kinsella types, American Football and Owls. With this type of guitar rock making a considerable dent in the music scene (see Pennines, Tubelord for further examples) This Town Needs Guns are currently ahead of the pack. Despite their dubiously long song titles (‘Want To Come Back To My Room And Listen To Some Belle & Sebastian?’ which prompted the light-hearted heckle of “you emo bastards!” much to the amusement of everyone, including the band.) they were an impressive and elaborate set of musicians, even though I felt both guitarists were trying to play different songs at varying speeds at one point. They ended with a blistering rendition of ’26 Is Dancier Than 4’ a fine performance and a solid end to a great afternoon of music.

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Links

An Emergency
Jonquil
This Town Needs Guns
Big Scary Monsters
Try Harder Records
Faux Disc

Band - Alec Empire
Location - Camden Dingwalls
Damage - �15

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Now that Alec Empire seems to have gone all ‘Vice magazine’ electronica on us, has he put his days (or ‘Nights of Violence’) behind him? Well, no not really. He’s still just as abrasive and caustic as before, albeit in a different format and style. Want to know more? Read on…

Obviously the success of “we’re a joke band, lol!” (Test Icicles) and the glowstick appreciation society (Klaxons) has had an effect on the first support band of tonight. Mixing standard indie-rock with a keyboard backing is hardly original at the moment - at least they didn’t have the same ‘um-tss um-tss’ drumbeats that seems to be associated with every-fucking-electronic/rock crossover band ever. Still, the drummer did well trying to hold his microphone, sing and play at the same time, whilst the 16 year old-looking guitarist and bassist spent most of their time with their backs to the audience, looking at the floor and generally making me feel incredibly irritated.

After some confusion (”OMG, ALEC EMPIRE IS ABOUT TO START!!!“) everyone that has working ears is left really fucking disappointed. Now - noise music is a tricky one to actually appreciate. Okay, I get certain amounts (Lightning Bolt, some Wolf Eyes, SunnO))) some other stuff) but really, bands that think they can peddle the kind of crap the second support act strained out, should be blasted into the sun. Four guys just standing about creating incredibly dull drone for about 30 minutes makes me want to walk into traffic. ‘You’re shit’ someone shouts during a quiet period - got it in one, sunshine.

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Anyone with preconceptions that Alec Empire has lost his edge should be taken outside and given a swift hiding with a keyboard. Okay, so he may not look/act like the noise terrorist he used to be. (According to reports of his Reading Festival performance in 2002, he was asked to cut his set short after nearly destroying the speaker system, but carried on regardless) - Instead, he has the air of a sophisticated and elegant frontman that smacks of both pretension and authority.

It takes a while for things to really kick off however; the new songs are warmly received “New Man’ in particular begins the first phases of a mass dance-off and many attempts not to crush the fearless photographers perched on the edge of the stage. other notable highlights from his new album include the punk-electro-lite ‘Down Satan Down’ and the sombre sounding ‘On Fire’. As the first notes of “The Ride‘ kick in, it’s like an electrical current has been passed through the floor. “Addicted to You‘ follows, heralding the biggest crowd sing-a-long of the night and a crush-potential of 9. Oh but it gets better. As “Kiss of Death’ bludgeons the eardrums, I’m exposed to what Digital Hardcore is all about. For the rest of the song, many others and I are used as human pinballs, bouncing from person to person in some nightmarish arcade, backed by the loudest electronic-thrash punk ever.

In some places, his withering German drawl is lost in the wave of dischordant sounds from Nic Endo’s keyboard and the razor-sharp guitar riffs, but this is made up by the blast-beat drumming and cavalier attitude that Mr Empire exhibits. Even though I don’t mind fake encores, perhaps the decision to leave and then come back on again just to play ‘1000 Eyes’ proved a big anti-climax. Anyone hoping for a rousing rendition of ‘Everything Starts With A Fuck‘ or the breakc0re-noise of ‘Gotta Get Out‘ was left dissapointed. Still, a strong performance from a musician who isn’t afraid to diversify his sound and still be incredible.

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Links

Alec Empire
Digital Hardcore
Myspace

Band - The Horrors
Support - Crystal Castles
Venue - London Astoria (or G-A-Y for short)
Cost of the beer - �3.50 for a bloody can!

“Most exciting band since the Sex Pistols“….. this is what was thrown at me at all directions when I heard that ghoulish pasty faced-harbingers, The Horrors were going to be performing as part of the NME shockwaves tour. How could I resist? As you may have read from my review of their last album, I thought that even though I wasn’t convinced about the hype they were getting, I still really wanted to see them preform.

After a sack full of delayed trains we sadly missed Mega-Drive electro lovers, Crystal Castles but all this was forgotten by the solid sweaty wall of people all holding their tight trousers and expensive beers in antici…………….pation for the ghoulish 5-piece to slide out from the expensive biscuit filled depths of their dressing room and blast us away.

The lights went off and the the air filled with screams of teenage girl which made The Horrors spring straight onto their instruments. I put one foot in front of the other ready for a grand night of dancing….. But instead there was a slow dribble of loud noise that hummed across the sold out night over a 5 minute period….

Ok maybe they are just “setting the atmosphere?”…

Another 5 minutes passed and still the fart-like noises were humming out, but now with Singer, Faris Badwan “Rotter’ shouting haphazard cries that I am guessing were part of a song.

Then just as I was thinking about how shite this night was going to be, they suddenly kick up the tempo with my favourite track from Strange House named count in fives. The crowd also woke from their hibernation and stamped, kicked and danced to the 3 minute hit. Then as I was in a mid-dance they shuffled back into a slow “improvised” noise session with a sloppy version of Draw Japan.

Like being in the Tate Modern looking at a white wall I felt that I should be understanding and enjoying this display, but they were smelling a little like tripe. Even the mass crowd had turned to stone again and fans around me were shouting about the nice weekend they had going to Whipsnade Zoo. Whipsnade Fucking Zoo?! Everyone should be busting moves until they collapse!

For a while I was amused by the circus themed keyboard player Rhys ‘Spider’ Webb spinning around on the spot like a hypnotized puppy, but after watching this for about 10 minutes while Faris stared at a large rubik cube I was ready to get my coat.

As predicted the last song was gloves but it seemed that everybody including myself was ready to leave….. Which is possibly why The Horrors suddenly left, lights came on and it was time to get my coat.

A lot of sad faces from the true fans (which all had amazing hair may I add) as they only played for 45 minutes and didn’t come back for more..

Band - Cutting Pink With Knives
Support - Ice Sea Dead People, The Smoking Hearts, Scream! Shout! Say Nothing
Venue - Club 85, Hitchin (old haunt)
Cost - �5

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A chance to see 4 bands for 5 quid in the day-glow tastic walls of Hitchin’s Club 85 was too good an opportunity to miss; so I headed on down for what proved to be both an exciting and disappointing night (more on that later).

The first band, Ice, Sea, Dead People (terrific name) were a pulsating wave of furiously noisy art-punk that fell into the same realms of catchiness as the common cold and Les Savy Fav. Incredibly tight in some places, but wildly out of control and abrasive in others, this Bedford trio deserve a much higher billing nest time they play. The intense barrage of ‘Hence Elvis‘ (the bands debut single) is a strong reminder that the spirit that Q and not U left is not dead yet. Erratically excellent.

If Ice, Sea, Dead People ripped holes in people’s ear-drums with their rhythmic slabs of condensed aural-battery, George Street’s The Smoking Hearts stamped all over the remains in steal-plated boots. Like receiving an unexpected fly kick, they blasted onto the stage and started pummelling their dirty punk rock into the audience’s ears. Vocalist “Rodd Lethal’ (ho, ho, ho) had obviously been to the Matt Caughthran school of “how to be an insanely brilliant frontman.’ His attitude, stage presence (or lack of, as most of the time he was dancing around the floor like an electrocution victim) was full of venomous fire; whilst the riffs chugged out like Winnebago Deal covering songs by The Bronx.

Hertfordshire’s Scream! Shout! Say Nothing were next, fusing earnest sounding post-hardcore with huge anvil-like choruses. Vocalist Ben Davies seemed to shift from a bile-spitting monster to a crooning heart-broken shell of a person at the drop of hat. His tendency to be everywhere at once was both charming and worrying i.e. rolling around on the floor amidst several enthusiastic dancers. I felt that in some places they were slightly lost to most of the audience, who seemed to prefer slamming into each other during the heavier parts and not doing much else during the really beautiful parts (which drew to mind the sound of a young Isis and even *Shels!) Overall, they should be pleased with their performance - it was passionate, incredibly tight and any band that sounds similar to Secondsmile gets my vote.

Cutting Pink With Knives have always been a favourite band of mine, particularly live, so naturally I was delirious with joy when they came on to the stage. For the short time they played, they didn’t disappoint. Splicing material from their two most recent long players, “Oh Wow!‘ and the stupidly happy “Populuxxe‘ they were in fine form (despite faulty microphones at the beginning); vocalist Eddy spent most of his time running around the bemused crowd, whilst bassist Alex threw himself from stage to the floor like some kind of schizophrenic weeble. It’s blink and you’ll miss it, pop-grind - in 5 minutes, 5 songs have been played and they plough on and on, battering you into submission with programmed beats and intense screams of delight. It’s like a pack of kids in a sweet shop! “Coasts‘ is a particular highlight, as is the noise-riot of “Fuck You I’m The King of France’, whilst “I <3 Structuralists‘ and “My Head Is Full Of Teeth‘ sound simply gorgeous.

However, due to the incredibly stupid and intimidating behaviour of one particular drunken patron (who it also appears was responsible for several other incidents during the gig), Cutting Pink With Knives were forced (for their own safety) to cut their set short. It’s a great shame when the actions of one person can spoil such a brilliant evening for everyone else.

(Expect another review of CPWK when I go see them supporting the rather awesome Cadence Weapon in a few weeks, oh yeah!)

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Links

Cutting Pink With Knives
Scream! Shout! Say Nothing
The Smoking Hearts
Ice Sea Dead People

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Words + Pics - Ross Macdonald

Being a trooper, I managed to make it to two gigs in one night. EFFORT! Not even the opposite ends of Camden could stop me from being present at Tommy Flynns first, before sprinting (ok, ok fast walking) my way across the drug ridden streets of goth central to the Barfly. So, what happened? Well….read on!

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Band - Mr_Barbs
Location - Tommy Flynns, Camden
Date - 2nd Feb

It wasn’t long before Chris Barber (aka, Mr_Barbs) took to the stage, acoustic guitar in hand and the nervous tension he claimed to be haemorrhaging nowhere to be seen. You have to hand it to the guy, after all this is his first gig and having a faulty guitar lead when you’re only 15 seconds into your first song is something that can crack your composure, but not someone like Mr_Barbs. A quick change over and the music resumes. How do 20 odd minutes of melodic acoustic rock sound? What makes Mr_Barbs stand out from other performers is how well crafted and memorable his tracks are. In this respect, he strongly reminds me of Hereford’s Gossamer Albatross and the combination of harmonica and guitar gives the proceeding a nice Green Day-era “Walking Alone‘ feel.

Tracks such as the lonesome sounding “Thursday‘, contain some nice tongue-in-cheek humour, especially in the line “and I know that it isn’t very long, but I’ll sit and write another awful song…” and the subtle romance of “Now I Know What I Know‘ are conveyed well tonight. Altogether, a solid performance from a promising young act; the kind of first gig most bands/solo artists would kill for.

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Links

Myspace

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Band - Gay For Johnny Depp
Location - Camden Barfly

Fuck me - bands like Gay For Johnny Depp should be locked up. No band should be this pant-wettingly good. They’ve probably made some kind of unholy pact with Satan, despite the fact vocalist Marty Leppard is dressed as a vicar on this, their last gig of what has apparently been one tremendous tour. I read in an interview about another band the singer and guitarist are involved in, called God Fires Man, in which the vocalist stated that the camptastic four-piece have probably only “practiced 5 times in the last year” in comparison to his more “serious’ band. From the furious racket they made tonight, you’d be scratching your chin thinking “that sounds like bollocks mate.” They open with “Cumpassion‘ and already the guitars are squealing like someone’s been fisting a pig and the barfly is laid to waste in 2 breathtakingly short minutes. After that, the New York queer-machine set about killing music in the best way possible. Blast-beat slabs of noise-punk are scattered like a machine gun set on automatic fire and thrown down some metal steps.

Ultra-swearothon anthem “No Teeth, Thumbs Up‘ encourages the audience to chant the words “Fuck You! I Want To Fuck You!“ as loud as possible (Shirley this rivals Limp Bizkit’s “Hot Dog‘?) Whilst “Sex In Your Mouth‘ encourages us to praise “Johnny” as much as, ahem; possible. It should be noted that vocalist Marty Leppard has an incredible stage presence (his enthusiasm for performing gives nods towards Matt Caughthran from LA bruisers, The Bronx). When he’s not trying to hump his band mates, the mic-tech guy, various parts of the stage, he dives into the audience in an effort to violate anyone and everyone around him.

Set highlights include a wonderfully scrambled version of “I Hate Our Freedom‘ as well as a totally barbaric run through of “Fucking Isn’t Cheating‘, which sends the assembled Johnn-fanboys at the front into a tornado of frenzied excitement. Gang-chants of “IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD!” unite everyone as a powerful force of anger, love and pain. The scuzz-hardcore rage of “Kill The Cool Kids‘ ends the agonizingly short set in total chaos, with yours truly laying on top of the aforementioned singer screaming the words back at him. No encores (”we haven’t got anymore songs!“ - Leppard) but that’s not important; what is, is that Gay For Johnny Depp are one of the most exciting, hilarious and entertaining bands I have ever seen. Proper balls-in-your-mouth rock action.

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Links

Gay For Myspace
Official Site
Label

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By Ross Macdonald

Band - Down I Go
Support - BATS, Adebishi Shank, Thrown To The Wolves
Venue - Cross Kings Pub, Jester Bar
Damage - �4!
Drinks - London Pride (it’s yeasty!)

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I actually couldn’t think of a good pun for the title, except for ‘Going Down in London‘ but I felt that was to risqué. So you’ll have to stick with the long-winded one above, got that? Good. Let’s get down to business.

The Jester Bar in Cross Kings is tiny. It’s slightly smaller than the ground floor of my house, but much narrower and those suffering from claustrophobia shouldn’t stay down there for more than a minute. It’s small, cramped, dingy and akin to being trapped inside a very garishly painted coffin and it’s about 10 degrees to warm. Saying that, not only was it completely devoid of a stage (brings back memories of Hitchin’s Club 85) it was quite a quaint and cosy venue, even if it did resemble Homer Simpsons‘ basement.

First band, Thrown To The Wolves are an interesting prospect; featuring two vocalists, (one who sounded like an angry Andrea Zollo and the other screaming as though he’d consumed Dani Filth’s voice box) doom-laden riffs and a giant of a bass player, they ploughed through an impressive set of Baroness-esque heavy rock, coupled with jagged guitar noise and guttural roars. Terrifying and strangely warming at the same time; parts of their set were akin to having your head split open by a bass drum. The only disappointment was the lack of merchandise - note to Thrown To The Wolves; get in a recording studio and get these songs on tape; promising stuff.

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This is a review of the set performed by a band called Adebishi Shank.*

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Deviating somewhat from the barbed metallic attack and instrumental meanderings, Irish 5 piece BATS decide to the put fear of god in everyone with their hyperactive and unhinged post-punk noise, which you can’t help but smile at. A furious triple-layered guitar attack from a really promising act; with the set highlight being the handclap/chant of “BATS spelled backwards is STAB‘ (audience participation is a must) before launching into another murderous blast of noise punk.- fucking brilliant, please come back soon guys.

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At half 10, Down I Go saunter on to the stage (or rather the area where the instruments are kept) and begin their last set of 2007 (the band are taking time off from touring to record their 3rd album, “This is Tyrantcore.‘)

“Apparently someone from a magazine is here to review us” says vocalist Pete, “So we better play well!” However, a cry from the back of the room indicating said person has “left” resorts to much laughter and amusement from both the band and assembled crowd. After a quick run through of how the set is to be divided (Dinosaurs, Disasters, Robots and Tyrants) they rip straight into “Fight By The Volcano‘ like a Velociraptor stripping flesh from Robert Muldoon’s mutilated body (look up Jurassic Park on Wikipedia for this reference.) It doesn’t let up from here; after 3 more dinocore treats, including a brutal version of “The Hunt‘ (head banging should be made compulsory) we reach the disasters.

Notable highlights include the schizophrenic “A Wasp In A Jar‘ (Great Plague), “Time To Sell‘ (Stock Market Crash) and the wonderful “Sticky Nightmare‘ (the sight of a room full of people screaming “It’s a sticky nightmare!‘ as loud as they can is quite a spiritual and hilarious experience.) “Stay At Home And Die‘ rattles eardrums to the point of bursting, drowning the crowd in waves of thick guitar sound and crunching bass.

The set closer; “Turkmenbashi‘ has now become a staple ending to their live shows and you really couldn’t ask for a better track. As the song winds down; everyone is encouraged to sing as loud as they can 5 simple words: “Turkmenbashi, father of the Turkmen!‘ They respond in thunderous volume, drowning out the band completely. Never have I felt so united amongst such a group of strangers (save the 3 friends I was with); tremendous.

This is possibly the best small gig I’ve been to this year - I very much doubt I will find 4 similar bands, all playing the same night, for �4.

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I remember reading a particularly interesting post on a message board once that said “British rock music was dead.‘ I would quite like to have taken that person in a headlock and thrown him into the crowd and then defy him to repeat said statement. British/Irish/Scottish/whatever rock isn’t dead; you just need to get off your arse and discover it and not sit around watching the same old mind-numbing toss that’s on MTV2 all day, complaining that music is going to the dogs; it’s not. Rant over, go listen to all these bands now, this is an order.

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*(Can you see what I did there? Anyway, Adebisi Shank utterly blew me away. An instrumental 3 piece that had more effects pedals than all the bands Justin Pearson has been in. Whilst their drummer demolished his kit in the best way possible; i.e. hitting it repeatedly, the masked bassist and live-wire guitarist proceeded to play some of the most mesmerizing and intricate rock music I’ve ever heard. It fell somewhere between a more vicious sounding Battles and an even more disturbed version of Baltimore’s rowdy rebels, Oxes. Erratic time changes, coupled with the strangled squeals from the guitarists pedals, the trio pulled off one of the best performances of the entire evening - utter chaos. Fast, incensed and incredibly danceable Adebisi Shank are a fantastic live band, essential listening.)

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Links

Down I Go
BATS
Adebisi Shank
Thrown To The Wolves
Undergroove Records

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By Ross Macdonald

Band - Angelspit
Support - Ego Likeness and Ayria
Venue - electrowerkz
Damage - �10
Drink - Cans of Lager!

After seeing such a strange crowd response at The Locust gig last month, I was wondering if a new “trend” was emerging where you just stand and stare at the band like a hypnotised ferret until it is all over. However all of this left me as we entered The Electrowerkz in London.

As this is a electronic/industrial music hotspot everybody was dressed to the eyeballs in all the right gear, from the Cyberdog clothing, to the UV glowing welders goggles. Of course I was dressed for the part, equipped with my glow sticks, ready for a good night’s dancing!

First up were Gothic Electronica duo Ego Likeness. After a vast amount of thick smoke poured from the stage that would have choked the cockroaches in the sewers below, EL sliced through this with a eerie ‘Evening London!‘ and then followed by firing in some dark and heavy Electronic beats.

Rather then having more Ibiza thumps then was needed to knock down a building, Donna Lynch used her beautiful voice with Steven Archer’s riff-tastic guitar to give a fine tuned and well performed 30 mins; cEvin Key would have loved it!

It was fantastic performance and we just couldn’t stop dancing! They received a positive reaction from the crowd as well as myself and I wished Ego Likeness could have played that little bit longer!

The problem was that this was the first gig in about 5 years where I haven’t taken a camera, so this is a first and the last time that Keep It Fast will be using live pictures from another source (if you click on the pictures it thanks the correct person for taken them!)

As soon as EL stepped off the stage, the crowd were getting very excited for the next support act. electro industrial Canadians Ayira. Not knowing about this band myself I was feeling the excitement and anticipation from the assembled cyberpunks. Even though the 4 piece had all the right gear, (even a nice set of electric drums on pink scaffolding) the energy seemed to dissipate and they didn’t grab my attention compared to the previous act.

I took the time this time to meet Steve Archer and agreed to do a interview, which will be up very shortly!

As the dust settled from the crowd dancing for all they were worth, Angelspit quickly appeared from yet more stage smoke.

This industrial electro duo where completely in the right place, dressed in their pvc cyberpunk gear and was greeted by much cheering and swinging glow sticks to boot!

They cut to the chase and got down to business, biting into the microphones Atari Teenage Riot style-shouting, which rippled neatly into their programmed beats and guitars. The impact was intense with everybody showing off their bizarre moves - twisting their bodies into a variety of shapes.

As destroyx melted and twisted her vocals into one of the many LED flashing computerised objects on the stage, Zoog got his hands on (or near) the almighty theremin! Now everybody has heard them on pre-recorded tracks, but it does take skill to make it sound good and Zoog has the power. Mixed in with the hydraulic timing, the thumping beats he produced erupted from the speakers, like some b-movie noise explosion.

But then disaster struck!

The Laptop that produed most of their music decided to ‘blue screen of death’ and didn’t care that endless fans were watching. But Angelspit improvised whilst trying to fix the machine by using groin tactics to set the theremin off and simply stated:

“This is a fuck up and has never happened before!”

Before anybody had a chance to wonder what would happen next they sprung back into life! With such live performances as “100 percent” and “Vena Cava” which really did make the crowd go wild, these were a team that love their music with a burning passion and deserve to show their creative exploits to the world.

As they left and the dust once again settled, they chilled out and met the crowd. The Electrowerkz just seemed to get started as more people began to appear, and important signs such as “will not serve alcohol after 5am“…. 5am?!?! Surely you might as well just be 24hr!

Angelspit are still touring and are coming back to England very shortly for a couple more shows. Click here to find out more!

Also Keep It Fast have interviewed Zoog in the past which you can read by clicking here!