Our favourite melodic post-punks return!
We’ve said it before, but as much as we enjoy the odd trip to Brixton Academy and the like, small gigs are where we at Punktuation feel most at home. Tonight, we’re back at the Water Rats for an ace four-band bill, and it’s heartening to see a decent sized crowd, considering the heat (and World Cup).
“Has anyone here ever taken it too far?” Your Favorite Leech frontman Mikey is clearly willing to take things as far as necessary to – quite rightly – make us damn well pay attention and listen, including jumping onto a speaker and also into the crowd for a bit of call-and-response action. The taut grooves and scratchy guitars of ‘The Arabian Sun’ and ‘Aim For The Heart’ really do it for us, and they’re delivered with no little charisma and conviction. Ones to watch for sure.
A tough act to follow, but Trainwreck just about manage it. They inject a welcome dose of grunge into proceedings, with songs like ‘Dead End’ and ‘Talk Down’ infused with fuzzed-up guitars and smouldering with a sense of resentment. They truly catch fire on the closing ‘Peach Fuzz’, and – as with all the best bands – leave us hungry for more.
The Neversheds have truly come to entertain us; throwing out a few beach balls into the audience and even handing out miniature bottles of booze during a mid set ‘hydration break’. The tunes are pretty catchy too; particularly the punk rush of ‘Invention Of Radar’, and they’re even joined by Catwoman (you had to be there!) for a welcome romp through the old Blondie favourite ‘Maria’. Great stuff.
Explode The TV are clearly in a playful mood tonight, throwing a handful of covers into their set, including a superb rendition of David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’. The shimmering guitars and post-punk grooves of their own songs are just as compelling, though, with frontman Bentley cutting a magnetic figure as he leads his band through the likes of ‘Catching The Rain’ and ‘Everything Points To You’. Oh, and they get the crowd dancing like never before. A superb end to a great evening of new sounds – cheers to all involved!
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.
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!
