On a particularly unpleasant Saturday in London we decided to spend the evening in one of our favourite basements, seeing one of the bands we missed at Rebellion this year, alongside a couple of other new up and coming acts, the evening opened with the band who looked like they were headliners on the posters, Bones Of The City a new "Young" three piece notionally from Fun City who opened by raising their Pink Flag with a gritty take on Stay Glued To Your TV Set that had a speedy urgency to Richard England's guitar slashings, They then took us on a trip to Crescent City that made Bourbon Street sound like a rather dank place with some clattering drums from James Sherry. MIA was just about recognisable from the neo-shambolic way they spluttered through this Johnny Thunders classic.
Richard was throwing barbs at us that he was born this way playing speedy punk guitar as Michael Bayliss rumbled away on bass, while throwing some great Stone Face stares at us. Did they really want us to Put Your Hands On Me as it sounded more of a threat than a sorry FYO. Not sure what he'd done but Raoul Must Die was played like it was the bands next big hit, full of anger, bile and passion.
I think they were Sorry Sometimes about Michael having to ask what the chords were, with much joking and banter from the crowd after the false start, on the second attempt it sounded like they all sort of knew the song, just not necessarily the same song, they are clearly at the forefront of the new wave of Shambling. On The Strip was dedicated to Las Vegas but had they really re-worked a Paul Nicholas classic or were my ears deceiving me again. They closed with the bands theme song Bones Of The City that made it clear they were in love with this cities ripped backsides as much as anything.
After the break it was time for The Charlemagnes who we managed to miss at Rebellion this year, it must have been quite a set, as they were playing this show as a three piece, after the bands other guitarist fled the band for the wilds of Norfolk afterwards, Ben Harding was last seen disappearing into the broads while turning Three Colours Red, so that for tonight The Charlemagnes were a power trio who opened with Buried Alive being powered along by Chris Fox's bass with Mar K Moon doing his best to play both his and Ben's parts like Richard Lloyd does when playing Television songs.
3rd Gun seemed to miss a little of the intensity the other guitar would give it, but it's still mightily angry at that greedy girl, The band were pointing fingers at Ben and seemed to have some abandonment issues as they sang about the River that was powered by David Jones drumming, he's not to be mistaken for any other drumming David Jones'. The bitter twisted nature of Antagonist might have had extra barbs thrown at the missing in action Ben Harding, but they don’t hold a grudge and will welcome him back for the right fee, they were soon taking Friendly Fire mainly from audience members shouting at them about not being snotty enough for snotcore.
Chris then claimed that Ben would be getting his Just Deserts about now in the Norfolk broads, they were not bitter about his desertion honest, Mar K did his best to make his guitar explode on Volcano it just needed more distortion before they dedicated Hope & Rancour to tonight's totally friendly venue, it was more for the fools roaming the streets like latter day crusaders. Sugar Island was introduced as being about Empire and all the horrors it brings with it, this was a properly snotty neo fraggle take on it. Possibility City was the song that most of the audience could just about sing along with, before Chris made clear that they had Legitimate Concerns that the people currently claiming to have Legitimate Concerns really don't know what they are on about, the Legitimate Concerns brought this set to its conclusion.
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Then finally it was time for The Lone Sharks the 4 piece from Bath, who feature Marc Thomas who I last saw in the Milk Monitors many moons ago, they apologised for not getting the memo that is was power trio night, before opening with I Don't Know Anymore that featured Mark Thomas on lead vocals, this fiery foursome got going.
Typical I think had the first lead vocals from Malc Herrstein when he wasn't busy striking poses, while shooting crisp shards of guitar noise at us, that appeared to kill his pedal board, the soundman was trying to get it working and changing leads as they went into Sign Of The Times that wasn't the Prince tune but still sounded rather familiar.
With Malc now playing plugged straight into his amp Fireside might have lacked some reverb and distortion but Andy Ounsted made up for that on the other side of the stage. Panic Attacks was the first song off the bands Firing On All Four ep that they played and it seemed perfect for our fraught times, it might also have been the song that Andy took lead vocals on, but I forgot to note who was singing what. Wrong Place Wrong Time had a great dirty riff to power them along and make sure no one accused anyone of being a grebo.
They then got all fairy tale on Hansel & Gretel that featured a brilliant concluding drum solo from Dave Jones, who was not to be confused with David Jones from The Charlemagnes and this Mr Jones would probably win in a drum battle. They were soon Missing You that ramped up the guitar action and also had more of Dave Jones incredible drumming that was becoming more of a focal point as the set progressed.
The one song they played not on the setlist was Days Of The Week it fitted into the groups punchy punk sound nicely, before we got Supply And Demand that had similar sentiments to the Hans Eisler song of the same name, but was less doomy, before they closed with Leaving Here which may have been purposely written to encourage us all out the door at the end of another cool night down at the Hope And Anchor, now if I could just remember who I saw the Milk Monitors playing with back in the day at either Klub Foot or The Barfly I'll be happy.
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