It was the day before Valentine's Day, so we indulged our love of loud and fast music!
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, but it’s hard to care too much about that schmaltz-fest when we’ve got one hell of a Valentine’s Eve lined up, with three excellent bands at one of London’s legendary punk pubs. That said, we’re amazed that the Hope & Anchor is still standing after last month’s triumphant sold-out Deaf Devils gig; the Spaniards do, after all, have a reputation for utterly laying waste to just about every venue they play. But anyways, I digress.
As with life in general, why over-complicate things musically? You could never accuse Johnny Moses & The Electric Motherfuckers of doing so. As ever, sharply-suited bassist Paul & drummer Pat knock out taut grooves for Johnny himself to sprinkle fleet-fingered ‘77 punk magic over, and they play with all the confidence of a headline act. It’s all great stuff, but we especially like that ‘Special Brew’, with its madly catchy riff, boasts even more verve and vitality in the live setting. Check out their excellent debut album ‘I’m Electric’, it’s wall-to-wall gold.
Tonight, Haddonwood is a one-man band; with their bassist having had to take his wife to hospital (hope she’s ok, guys?), it’s left to singer/guitarist Dave and his drum/synth machine to entertain us. And my goodness, does he rise to the occasion – with a strong set of songs, plenty of humorous quips and a Jason Voorhees hockey jersey (it’s in context!) to boot. In ‘Shake’, he has a genuine gold-standard horror-punk dancefloor slayer, and a closing cover of the ‘Monster Mash’ classic leaves us all with grins on our faces. If this is Haddonwood-lite tonight, we can’t wait to witness the full band live.
Some folks are just born to play punk rock, and in German quartet The Gee Strings, we have a whole band of them. Ingi Pop and her band barely pause for breath as they rip through a 20-odd song setlist that recalls the confrontational attitude of the Pistols, the melody of the Ramones and the swagger of the Heartbreakers. Occasionally, some of the tunes kind of blend into each other, but it’s hard to dwell on that when Ingi has charisma to burn, and when their guitarist plays his solos as if he’s being chased by fire. By the time they close with Slaughter & The Dogs’ ‘Situations’, they’ve roped in a few folks down the front for backing vocals, and they quite rightly depart to raucous applause and cries for more.
Cheers to all the bands, and to Shake Some Acton for putting it all together! Check out details of future SSA gigs on the links below.
All Photos: ALEX GOOSE
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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.
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