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Review: 'Vintage Crop, Marcel Wave and Public Body'
'Live at the Lexington, Islington.'   


-  Genre: 'Punk/New Wave' -  Release Date: '9.7.22.'

Our Rating:
It was good to be back at an Upset The Rhythm night, as it's been far too long since I went to one, mainly because of Covid. This one was to promote one of the labels current crop of bands the young Australian punk band Vintage Crop with support from the mysterious Marcel Wave and Public Body.

By the time we arrived Public Body only had three songs left, they are a 5 piece from Brighton who were playing geeky indie with a sound that was almost as bland as the band's name suggested they might be.

The first song I heard was Reset My Password that had a reasonably insistent tune, was about all sorts of reasons as to why you might need to change that password once more. That was followed by a rather convoluted sounding song about Radiant Colors. They finished with a new song called No Constraints that sounded like it might have been about Boris' personal credo.

After the break it was time for Marcel Wave who are the harder to search for Marcel Wave, as there are currently two bands with that name gigging at a similar level. This is the one that put out Discount Demos and not the one behind Discretion Guaranteed, not that they were at all indiscreet.

They are a female fronted 5 piece who give nothing away about themselves online, that I could easily find except the one ep, they sadly don't all have matching Marcel Wave haircuts and outfits but the drummer did have a fetching sparkly shirt on as well as the waviest hair in the band. They opened with Discount Centre that had lots of droll commentary about the state of the retail trade and the bands love of a good Discount Centre.

Ready or whatever the next song was called also had some good lyrics and interplay between the keyboard synth guy and the guitarist.

Great British Hits was a good if inaccurate list song about long lost or not so long-lost shops and restaurants, as they wanted to go and eat a Bender in a Wimpy Bar and hadn't noticed that they still have a few locations such as Dorking, Wembley and Pinner to name three, but the point of the relentless march of progress still worked pretty well.

Mudlarks was a song about that ancient past time of searching for treasure on riverbanks, a better hobby than being a Tosher that's for sure. I really liked the song about the Bradford Crater and imagining people living in it.

They introduced Elsie as being about Pat Phoenix and then tried to explain she was a character in Coronation Street for younger fans, the tune itself seems to re-work Peter Laughner's Dear Richard only this isn't about an unwritten suicide note.

I loved the song bout the Limehouse Basin and other schemes to re-generate working class neighborhoods into plush playgrounds for yuppies and other wealthy cliches. Although by this point the bands songs were starting to blend into each other musically the lyrics about Turning On The TV were good enough to keep me paying attention before they closed with a song that asked the question What Have you Done the answer to which for me is to try and search for more info about your band.

Soon enough it was time for the latest new Australian hopefuls Vintage Crop, who compared to some other Aussie hopefuls I've seen earlyish in there career, they pulled a good crowd, far larger than say either The Moodists or The Celibate Rifles did, about the same size crowd as the first Nick Cave And the Bad Seeds gig I saw, although not as many as These Immortal Souls and that's not to compare them musically to any of those other bands, they were however far quieter than Aussie bands usually are, but that was probably more venue limitations.

They opened with 2k Hip Pocket from the bands fourth album Kibitzer that this European tour is promoting, it was a good urgent rush about the downtrodden workers who are marching on the streets to get a better deal. Casting Calls kept up the pace and had some good angular guitar.

Double Slants was the first song that saw anyone dancing at the front and really getting into them, this went down a treat. Hold The Line saw them stuck waiting for some official to pick up the damn phone and talk to them, the anger we all feel at interminable waits was deeply embedded in the fervently angry drumming.

The Ladder was the first song not on Kibitzer they played, it had some good interplay between the two guitarists. The Bloody War had broken out once more as they argued over if they should thank us in French or English between songs, this was played at a frenetic pace.

Whatever you do make sure you don't get Drafted as they need you out there going to punk shows and not fighting senseless pointless wars. The Duke was the first song that the bands singer played keyboards rather than guitar, as they took aim at the crumbling rotten establishment figures like the title character, this song was perfect to hear in a week that saw the British Government crumbling.

This was the second week running that we heard a song about being cold while in a sweat drenched venue, as The North played on that old cliche of how it's cold in The North. Jack's Casino made perfectly clear that you'll be playing by his rules in his house and the way they rammed it down our ear's compliance was a must.

Company Man was another old song that aimed plenty of bile at that shameful Company Man that got a good pit going for it as the crowd was having a really good time by this point. They then got stuck in Gridlock that was far more likely to happen to them on tour in the UK than in the band's hometown of Geelong.

They then closed this very well received set with a good blast through American Living that takes aim at all sorts of absurdly American things before thanking us all and the drummer seemed to want to dismantle his drums almost before the end of the set walking off stage with a ride cymbal in his hands.
  author: simonovitch

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