Another great evening at the famous London punk pub!
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, so the turnout could be better this evening, but there’s no faulting the choice of bands; all of whom have clearly drawn influence from punk, but twisted it into four very different styles.
Openers Heather The Jerk combine lo-fi, fuzzed up punk-pop tunes with a somewhat self-deprecating sense of humour (hey, the clue’s in the name!). Heather herself is that rarest of beasts, a singing drummer, and nails all her vocals without missing a single beat. We can’t help but wish more folks had turned up early enough to witness the gloriously melodic likes of ‘Parasite’ and ‘On My Way’, but the band give it their all anyway.
“We’re stupid men with stupid hats and beards, moaning about stuff!” That’s the singer/bassist of Gripper Lee, and he’s being a bit hard on himself and his band, not least as the targets of their ire include small-town racists and a certain very powerful orange-faced buffoon. Their sound is heavily reminiscent of 80s-style post-punk, delivered masterfully with no little panache, and with grooves, solos and tunes as great as on ‘Do You Feel Lucky, Punk?’ and ‘Pale Blue Dot’, they simply can’t fail tonight. Check out recent album ‘Hymn For A Godless Universe’, it’s superb.
A tough act to follow, but San Vito just about manage. Described as ‘speakeasy punk’, they boast an impossibly cool, bequiffed singer/guitarist, and they make great use of quiet-loud dynamics: you know that it will never be long before the sparse, Lynchian soundscapes will be punctuated by furious guitar histrionics. ‘Cold Teeth’ and the closing ‘Room Two Five’ are standouts in a set of pretty much wall-to-wall gold, and not even some mid-set guitar gremlins can derail them.
Headliners Baby Tyler Band throw everything they have at the wall during their 18-song set, and both they and we are delighted to discover that most of it sticks. The Wisconsin quintet play raw, unfiltered garage punk with almost hardcore intensity, and with all due respect to the musicians, it’s their livewire frontman who commands the attention. He lurches around on and off stage, at one point ending up on his knees with the microphone in his mouth as the band rip through a teeth-rattling ‘Good Motivator’, and we’re left amazed at how on earth he keeps up such throat-shredding screams night after night. Seriously, go and see BTB as soon as you can, before they spontaneously implode (or something like that).
Cheers to Shake Some Acton for having us, and for giving us another great reason to leave the house on a Wednesday evening! Check out details of their future gigs via the link 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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