Our Alex Goose was at the London Brixton Queen’s Head on a Saturday night to see a packed bill of fiery punk goodness!
For a genre most often associated with youthful rebellion, punk certainly does sound good in older hands. This year alone from Slam Dunk to Rebellion and countless other gigs/festivals, we’ve seen many a veteran band play with the kind of conviction and energy that belies their age, and although none of tonight’s bands are what you could call spring chickens, they’ve all managed to hone their craft without sacrificing the inner fire and sense of discontent that fuels all great punk bands.
If there was an award for hardest-working limb tonight, it would go to the right hand of Pardon Us’s guitarist/vocalist Morgan Brown. He’s got serious chops, but for those times when only some trusty power chords will do, the Johnny Ramone-style ‘buzzsaw’ attack comes into play.
The Liverpool trio come across as the missing link between Snuff and Hüsker Dü on the likes of ‘Charter City Blues’, and that’s a great place to be for both them and us. Be sure to check out the recently-released (and fabulously-titled) ‘Dig Your Own Grave (And Save)’
With his blue shirt and red guitar strap, Dealing With Damage vocalist/guitarist Ed Wenn has something of a (most likely unintentional) postman vibe going on tonight. And boy, can he and his band deliver the goods.
‘We Make Bombs To Feel Safe’ sounds even more brooding and ominous than on record (the record in question being this year’s superb ‘Use The Daylight’), whilst on the flipside of that coin, ‘Bigots Vs The Mad Professor’ is a scorching blast of hardcore punk.
This is anthemic stuff and we can’t recommend it highly enough. Oh, and kudos to bassist Paul Grier for playing a Rickenbacker, because in Punktuation’s mind, Rickenbacker = Lemmy. RIP Mr Kilmister, hope everything is louder than everything else up/down there.
Spoilers’ guitarist and drummer are wearing Face To Face shirts, and indeed, at times the Canterbury quartet are reminiscent of Trever Keith’s crew if they had a tendency towards short, sharp bursts of breakneck-speed melodic hardcore.
These days, too much so-called pop-punk lacks any real bite, but these guys play it as it oughta be, and recent record ‘There Or Thereabouts’ deservedly gets plenty of airing. Throw in some bizarre between-song banter about pasty consumption (trust me, you had to be there), and it all makes for a triumphant end to the evening.
Oh, and we won’t sign off without doffing our caps to South London Punk Collective, for putting on three great bands in Zone 2 for only a fiver. Here’s to the next one!
Photo Credits: Clare Dowse
Follow Spoilers on Their Socials
Need more Punk In Your Life?
Live review: Chelsea / Desperate Measures / Rage DC at Facebar, Reading 28/08/26
Tonight, the indomitable Mannie of Shake Some Acton heads west to bring together local, national and international Punk bands to entertain us; Rage DC, Desperate
Shake Some Acton gig #172, London Hope & Anchor, 2nd Sept 2026
Putting on small-scale gigs mid-week can be a somewhat daunting task, but Shake Some Acton seem to have it down to a fine art. Ok,
Album review: Slaughter and the Dogs are on ‘White Heat’ in this long-awaited return!
Guitarist Mick Rossi and his cohort of punk rock veterans have a new album coming out, ‘White Heat’, the first under the Slaughter and the
EP review: BE N!CE reveal ‘It’s Getting Harder’
London four-piece BE N!CE return with ‘It’s Getting Harder’, a six-track, fan-funded and independently released second EP. BE N!CE sound like a band finding strength
Album review: Southpaw (UK) map out their ‘Longitude’
Norwich DIY Punks Southpaw are back with their seventh album, ‘Longitude’. Sharper and more direct, the new songs mark a small but significant gearshift yet
Bad Wolves honour Dolly Parton with their version of ‘Jolene’
Joining millions of fans around the world mourning the sudden passing of the Queen of Nashville, this is the perfect rock tribute from Bad Wolves
I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
Did you know that we are 100% DIY? We run our own game. No one dictates to us, and no one drives what we can or cannot put on our pages – and this is how we plan to continue!
