Back at the Hope & Anchor for more musical treats courtesy of SSA!
Fancy a midweek dance, anyone? Well, if you’re at the Hope & Anchor tonight, you’ve come to the right place. Shake Some Acton has done it again with four very different bands, all united in their ability to make us move – no mean feat on a somewhat humid Wednesday.
Johnny Moses And The Electric Motherfuckers play straight-up punk rock n’ roll as it oughta be. Y’know, short, sharp and to the point, with plenty of great riffs and fleet-fingered solos? Sharply-dressed vocalist Paul Von Paulus works up quite a sweat, and that’s understandable when they barely pause for breath between songs (oh, and the air-con isn’t at full strength yet). It’s shame there aren’t more people to witness them at this early hour, but the band don’t seem at all fazed, and crack on like true professionals.
Narcotic Hearts bring grooves as arresting as their colourful shirts (notice a theme here?), and some brilliantly frazzled lead guitar. Purveyors of what they call “outsider pop”, our personal favourite of theirs is ‘Always Do What It Says On The Tin’, which is transformed in the live setting into something truly formidable – music to strut to, no less. They dedicate ‘Do It For The Love’ to any folks in bands (“because there’s no money in it”), and their tight, energetic set is proof enough that they – quite rightly – believe wholeheartedly in what they do. Ladies and gentlemen, the bar has been raised, and then some.
Italian trio Soft Scent are arguably the curveball of the evening, but no less compelling with their synth-based sound. Most of the crowd gathers increasingly closer to the stage as the hypnotic beats and hass-led rhythms of ‘No Wounds’ and ‘Parasomnia’ defy us not to at least shake ourselves about a bit. Call it minimalist pop, call it dark wave, preferably don’t call it goth pop; the tunes are there, and the closing cover of the Grauzone classic ‘Wutendes Glas’ is a winning move.
In terms of genre, The Baby Seals are a slippery bunch. Their self description as “Spinal Tap with tits” isn’t quite on the money, although if we’re talking hard rock, vocalist/guitarist Kerry occasionally resembles a female Angus Young as she attacks her Gibson SG. They go for a great garage-grunge vibe on ‘ID’d At Aldi’ and ‘My Labia Is Lopsided, But I Don’t Mind’, with a brilliantly dirty bass tone straight out of Lemmy’s handbook, but are just as effective when they slow things down for an almost Stooges-esque ‘It’s Not About The Money, Honey’. As you might have guessed from those titles, everything is delivered with a knowing grin, maximum enthusiasm, and the kind of relaxed between-song chatter you’d expect of a band clearly among friends tonight.
Well, if this were a battle of the bands, we’d probably declare Narcotic Hearts the narrow victors – but in truth, there have been no musical weak links on show tonight. Check out future Shake Some Acton gig details 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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