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
Follow Shake Some Acton on Their Socials:
Need more Punk In Your Life?
The Scuts release gritty digital EP ‘No Profit’
The third of a trio of releases The Scuts have written about the scourge that is modern day capitalism, ‘No Profit’ dropped on 1st December
Album review: 1978 punks The Inflatable Dolls get around to releasing their debut LP!
They say it’s better late than never – and in the case of original punks The Inflatable Dolls from Dungannon, Northern Ireland, this has proven
The Baboon Show & The Meffs at FZW (Dortmund) and Skaters Palace (Münster) Jan 2026
On the last 2 days of January, The Meffs ignited the fire, The Baboon Show set it ablaze – here’s the lowdown on their sold-out
Album review: The Damned – ‘Not Like Anybody Else’
The Damned have always been partial to a cover version. Recorded in a blistering five days of emotion and creative fire at Revolver Studio, Los
LOUD WOMEN support Resonance FM with fundraising live compilation album!
Female and non-binary music champions LOUD WOMEN are releasing a special compilation album via Bandcamp featuring exclusive live session tracks from some of the most
Punk lifers The Casualties share first new music in eight years with ‘People Over Power’
NYC punks The Casualties have broken an eight-year hiatus with their blistering new single ‘People Over Power’, the band’s first release via Hellcat Records. Starting
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!
