We arrived at Rockaway Beach #92 at the Hope & Anchor just after The Cynz went on stage to find it already packed for this legendary New York band who are fronted by Cyndi Dawson who was wearing a skintight PVC jump suit while singing about a Superfan and Henry Seiz was going off on guitar, this was hot power pop rock.
Countdown to my Evolution was super speedy fun driven on by Dave U. Hall's crunchy bassline. Cyndi let us all know what upset her about those Men she was singing about. The clear pain of Woman Child flew by us at a hurtling speed of Patrick Carpenter's muscular drumming. Leave me Alone was a desperate plea for some overly handsy bloke to just go away.
Most of the band's songs are about love gone wrong and none more so than on Heartbreak Time that had some bitter twists of the knife for another loser in love who needs to walk away. They then covered You're gonna Miss Me Baby by the 13th Floor elevators and Henry really let rip on the guitar.
My Fathers Gun had some wry imagery, as they kept the pace up and everyone was having a blast, Cyndi was then singing about her Quick Fix Man and the trouble and joy he brings. Cyndi then introduced as a cover we should all know, that I really didn't recognise the song You Own Me didn't matter as it sounded as great as the rest of the set. I think they closed with Little Miss Lost that was a prefect close to a great opening set for a band that almost everyone I spoke to thought should have been main support.
After the break it was time from X-Ray love the latest band to feature Mark Thorne, who if rumours are to be believed may well be the next Stiv Bators in the Dead Boys, thankfully in X-Ray Love Mark was the second guitarist a role that suited him, they opened with Hey You a nicely wayward brawl of a tune.
Sha La La had cool backing vocals and crunchy guitars for Ella's Salem 66 style vocals, Small Song felt like they were holding on hoping for a good outcome, On My Stereo was good fun as the guitars flew in odd directions.
Another Time and by this point in the set my eyes were fixed on Ella's amazing silver spider hand brooch, that looked incredible as she slashed at her guitar, in all sorts of no wave ways.
Clyde was introduced and being about Bonnie & Clyde and the doomed relationship they had. Brave the Cap kept the weird druggy almost noisenik guitars going in several directions at once like they were bag people re-born or some other long lost No wave band.
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Daryl was bouncy and slightly mysterious for how things had gone wrong again, they closed with New Sensations that sadly wasn't a Lou Reed cover but was about the next high they were always chasing.
Next on were the always brilliant Marc Valentine band who opened by taking us High & Low and just as full of Power Pop energy as usual, Skeleton Key had some super fiery guitar from Richard Davies, the energy they generated during Strange Weather was great, with the band seemingly kinetically sparking in this Islington basement.
Marc may have said the next song was Last Train Tonight but it really wasn't, yup totally caught this reviewer out, A trick he repeated telling us the next song was about coming to London and living on the Finchley road, no matter what they sounded great.
NY UAP was a new song apparently written last week and already sounding like another cracking song. I Wanna Be Alone was as poignant as usual with Richard's guitar line wringing all the emotion it could.
Break My Heart Anyway made clear another relationship was wrecked and they needed to ham it up and cover it in keyboards. 3Am Anderson Drive has that late night up to no good glamour down pat.
They then finally played Last Train Tonight as they hoped we would all be able to get home safely before closing taking us on a trip to the Swiss Launderette that really should be a hit what a great set.
Of course with Timmy Derella's help they came back or barely left the stage for an encore that my scribbles make incoherent unlike they song they played before closing the night with the magnificent Jinx Of Finchley Road a dark tale of living in bedsit land to end another brilliant night at Rockaway Beach.
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