I guess you’d call this a low key gig. Low key as in it’s not a Punk in Drublic promotion and therefore lacks that power of the internet and flyposting medium. Let’s face it, if you don’t frequent The Dudley, you’re not gonna see the posters on display by the bar, and if you don’t read the link2wales forum, you would never have known tonight’s gig was on.
Take Instant Agony’s vocalist Hocky; he was on a daytrip to Rhyl from his native Birkenhead, perusing the record shops of the locale, thought he’d have a pint at his old stomping ground and found some of his old buddies setting up for a gig.
Low key, means low in numbers, probably half of the usual crowd – most will be saving their pennies for the forthcoming punk onslaught in Blackpool. The punk girls far outnumbered the punk boys tonight and it gave them the opportunity for a bit of pogo-moshing without fear of being crushed by some 14 stone tattooed beer monster!
They’ve played countless gigs in their short existence, picked up some very favourable reviews along the way and I’ve somehow managed to miss every performance so far. So I was well pleased when a text from Global Parasite came through this afternoon to announce they had been added to the bill. And I was pretty pissed off to arrive there as they were playing their penultimate song! What I did see and hear was fast churning punk rock being sweated out in a screaming frenzy not too disimilar to The Cox; there again two-thirds of GP were The Cox.
Stuntface (top pic) are a very busy band these days as Wayne attempts to continue the cause he holds so dear to him. The number of gigs they play is as relentless as the way they play them. With a new LP ‘Pain Is Only Temporary, Glory Lasts Forever’ in the offing (their 3rd), The Dudley’s intimate setting allowed them further opportunity to target the audience with outstanding and invigorating tunes such as ‘TV Told You So’ and ‘Every Dog Has His Day.’ And on the dog subject, when guitarist Harry Kari broke a string, his replacement guitar was the same colour as a dog’s dick!
With everyone chin wagging in the beer err… yard, it looked as if Holland’s Noctophyle (pic above) would be playing to me and Stuntface, which wouldn’t have been very nice on their 3rd visit to the UK, but the live room was nicely filled by the end of the opening song. This is hardcore psychobilly – and very fucking loud – imagine The Cramps but with 2 punk guitarists, no twiddly bits, with a Stray Cats singer and Sham 69 solos…! Hard to imagine eh..! But this is sleazy rock’n’roll that turns into speedcore then back into the Cosmo Jones Beat Machine.
Image wise, you’ve gone from the sweat, scum and shit that is Stuntface to the clean-cut smoothness of Noctophyle – but that’s as far as cleanliness goes – this is dirty knicker wetting spunk rock. Good enough to wish they were ours to keep as our own. In fact I might just convert the garage to house them.
Lead singer-bassist Freddel carries a great charisma on stage; this is not your typical run of the mill 3 chord same old same old bollocks – its a wall of guitars that’s tremendously exciting and makes you wanna rock and roll!
What a fucking superb band.
