It's been too long since I last went to a Some Weird Sin night and as usual this one didn't disappoint with a great bill.
On first were RETROFUTURE: a Spanish trio of lo-fi ramshackle, almost-but not-quite there keyboard-led off-centre madness. The opening two numbers sounded like they were trying to cross the Bush Tetras with Babes In Toyland with hints of Add N to X. These women seemed to be on a mission to confuse and confound us with bi-lingual inter-song banter, much of it about how they don't do mash potatoes. That seemed to be an in joke between the band the fans who had shown up for them.
The song about a New Drug was quite intoxicating and sounded like it would make you rather schizoid. As they introduced the next song as being about how they want to kill you, this may just be the consequence of messing with Spanish girls, of course. Either way it was under-rehearsed and rather messy. Did they need to play songs that had only just been written? I don't know, but by the end of the band's short set, I was wishing I had waited a year of two to see them as they may well develop into a far more coherent band than they currently are.
Next on were DRESSMAKER. There's a bit of buzz about them at the moment and I wanted to see if they lived up to it. Oh hell, yes they did with a great incendiary set that started in a welter of noise after which the singer barged onto the stage and told us they had come all the way from Hackney!! Wow, they'd travelled 3 (or was it 4) miles to get here, the heroes that they are!!
Before they launched into a song about being from the Future, yes a future where they would be signed to a 21st century equivalent to 96 Tapes and we'd all be going on about how the Chat's Palace scene was the most crucial musical vortex of our generation or something like that.
They cranked the feedback up for a song about how She Bleeds which attempted to make our ears bleed and made me certain they hadn't been Dressmakers at the Burberry factory on Chatham Place but more like in one of the sweatshops on Well Street. This was followed by a new song and it was a short sharp blast of noise and angst that had a bit of an Extreme Noise Terror influence to its 20 seconds duration.
They may have introduced the next number as The Underworld. Either way it was full on distortion and contortion that could have been the soundtrack to being chased through the Pembury Estate trying not to get mugged again. It was an exhilarating thrill of a ride followed by as song about Getting It Together that was sleazy enough to have been about trying to pull in the pub on the corner of Morning Lane and Ponsford Street that used to have the dodgy Strippers. Is there still a pub there? I'm not sure.
They then blew our minds with an incredible, feedback-laden version of Be My Baby featuring the singer careening through the audience and getting the singer from Retrofuture to attempt some harmonies with him among the noise. It was brilliant and messy and all over the place like they'd just staggered out of the All Nations on Martello Terrace and couldn't see straight.
No idea what the last song was called, but it conjured up a vision of the band trying to get back to Hackney from Highbury corner in a Warriors Style through the badlands of Canonbury and DeBeauvoir town. Can they make it past the Holly Street estate in one piece and how to get through Dalston unmolested? All the while the drummer kept up his powerhouse of noise as the band made their escape from the Buffalo Bar one by one leaving only the expiring guitars and the dying embers of feedback. A great set and I need to see Dressmaker again soon if they can once again escape from Hackney.
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Finally, and over 2 years after I first reviewed TERMINAL GODS' debut single, I finally managed to see them live as they always seemed to clash with other things. Still it was well worth the wait.
They opened with a short version of Wipeout to make sure everything was working before Robert Cowlin stepped up to the microphone and the drum machine kicked in for a real dark version of White Light White Heat. The real shock though was that they weren't all dressed in black. I'll forgive no leathers in this heat but not flowery shirts! You're a goth band! Black is the colour of your hearts and the sound you make is like the Sisters Of Mercy if they could actually deliver a decent live set which the Terminal Gods did with ease.
A tweak or two of the drum machine dials and they were pounding through the next song. It re-worked Be My Baby into a dark goth tale of devilment that was followed by Electric Eyes from their debut single: a song I could sing along to having heard it that much including on my I-pod at work only a few days earlier. It sounded better live than on the single. Only just about, perhaps, but a close run thing.
I'll not claim to know any of the other song titles as they pulsed through the set. The drum machine worked well as the guitars splintered off it and the next song sounded a bit like Balaam and the Angel or the March Violets. But we were in old school goth territory and they sounded great. The song about running away from the flame was pretty intense and was probably Lessons In Fire. The backing vocals added to the intensity of emotion they were getting across.
They might sing about Cold Lives but they had a real warm sound and the guitars could have been from an early Sisters of Mercy 12" so it was no merciful release when Cowlin told us they only had one more song to play. It was a pity as I'd have happily heard a lot more. The last song about killing was suitably dark and foreboding and it also showed what a great deep voice Cowlin has. A terrific way to end an all to brief set.
This was yet another great night out at Some Weird Sin and as ever the club also delivers great music between sets and afterwards too.
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