Angry Amputees, Highbury Garage, London
Gig at the Elektrowerkz, Islington, London.
Burnout Entertainment are making a name for themselves in London as the guys who know how to make a show in a squalid little venue in a sketchy London backstreet seem like a party and a damn good one at that. Tonight was no exception and as I entered the venue (which I’ll come onto later) I was handed a packed goodie bag, it contained items such as; CD samplers, buttons, more stickers than you could find to stick places and a nice flexifit cap, it really doesn’t get any better than that in fairness and it all came in a nice white Safeways bag…treats. So the venue, well it felt like a squat gig in an abandoned warehouse; very industrial feeling but I liked it a lot, there was plenty of character and the place transforms into an all night Goth club at midnight. So it would appear we had all the settings for a good show… and that it was.
I missed THE CHERRYBOMBERS, but I caught most of CATCF’s set. I’d heard of these guys but never heard them aurally until tonight. They played set of blisteringly aggressive punk rock which had large doses of ska, hardcore and metal thrown into the mix. With these sorts of influences along with the competent musicianship they appear to have they could turn into a very good band indeed. They looked a little unsure of themselves at points, particularly when the singer wasn’t screaming down the mic, but other than that I was fairly impressed especially with the NIRVANA-esque ‘drop your instruments and leave them feedbacking as you leave the stage’ routine. (6)
It’s always a pleasure to watch THE BOMBJACKS play even when they’re off form. The latter part of the previous statement was untrue of tonight’s performance; they were great. Although they’re far from being the most energetic band you’ll see, they’re ‘mid paced rock’ is played so tight and naturally it makes up for it and what’s also good to see is that they looked like they enjoyed playing as much as the crowd enjoyed watching them; this is true of frontman Ben especially who was on especially fine form tonight. The best way to describe his antics and humour is probably by imagining Jim Carey fronting a band; occasionally mad cap and random, but always managing to pull it off hilariously. Classic stuff. (8.5)
HITECH JET are a band that can do no wrong for me at the moment, and it has been brought to my attention by members of band themselves that I review them rather favourably; my response to that? Stop playing so well when I watch you! Seriously, these guys are starting to make me think they don’t have off days as every time I see them the force and power of their set leaves me in awe. They previewed some new material which was up to the usual HTJ standards; i.e. fucking good and I really can’t wait for the new album. HTJ really get into playing, what I mean there is they always give 100% when they perform, even the slippery metal stage didn’t hinder them too much tonight, especially not when they were making use of the large monitors in a stadium rock manner. Another really solid performance. (8.5)
I’d heard a lot of hype regarding the ANGRY AMPUTEES tour, but prior to this I must admit I didn’t know much about them so I thought I’d stick around and check them out. I’m glad I did as they were impressive. AA don’t mess about with any stupidly named ‘sub-genre cores’, they just served up a large slice of a straight forward gutsy punk rock pie which went down like a tasty treat. A lot has also been said about female fronted bands; I don’t see the problem myself, especially not when vocal duties are carried out with as much guster as can be mustered. Although, AA don’t really score that highly in the originality stakes as a lot of riffs sounded used and at times songs merged into each other, on the whole they proved tonight that familiarity can work and it work well. (7)
All in all a great show, I saw some amazing music played, saw some new bands, checked out a new venue and got a new flexifit baseball cap for free! In reality what more could you want from a show? TV screens showing the Japanese cult classic Battle Royal perhaps, I shit you not, to top off what was already a good show, there were TV screens positioned on metal beams about 8ft off the ground near the back of the venue, very cool indeed.
Mike
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