This show is part of the Launch weekend for "A Long Way to Nowhere": The Full Uncensored story of The Parkinsons Documentary that has its Premiere in Leicester Square today (14.12.15.). This night was a joint promotion between our good friends The Dirty Water Club along with Garageland and was broadcast live on Trashcan radio.
This was my first visit to The Finsbury pub that is now the closest pub to Manor House since that legendary pub got converted into an Organic Supermarket. As a venue it's a really cool pub with great beer and cider and a good sounding back room with a decent sized stage.
First on where Plastic Propaganda who had come from Hamburg to play their first ever London show. They looked dead cool and like they ought to be a Psychobilly band but were actually an agit punk band with bags of attitude. Their opening song about Poor People had the sort of male/female vocal dynamic going on that reminded me a bit of X mixed in with The Voidoids and a touch of The Nuns and Nina Hagen and when the girl sings a bit like The Slags.
The song about being Too Brave was pretty cool as was a plea that we all need a Generation Of Our Own. Finding out the coolest looking member of the band the guitarist was called Julian was kind of a let-down but it was also his birthday so for one day we let him off.
They only played one song in German, Menschen Dieser Stadt and that really seemed rather angry. Seeing as both my grans always told me I should be a Mensch without understanding the rest of the German lyrics I wasn't sure if the song title was ironic or not. I think it was Infra-Red that had the most Nina Hagen feel to it of the set and it was followed by a pro-refugee song that liberally spat bile at all the racist idiots.
Propaganda Superstar really seem to be about the absurd times we are living in today. They closed with what they described as being "the band's big hit" and was another spiky song filled with angst and a bit of bile to leave us wanting more. They are certainly worth seeing live if they get to play near you.
Next on were Scraps who I knew I had seen before and thought it was at a Some Weird Sin night but that turned out to be Table Scraps rather than Scraps. Anyway, I had seen Scraps earlier this year, opening for The Crunch apparently and they play rather urgent and dare I say slightly scrappy punk rock.
They opened with an instrumental which launched into a manic song about being Dried Up that was followed by the very KSMB sounding Shot You Dead that during which the bass player nailed a great sound. Yes they got repetitive quite quickly but when the singer screamed "We Don't Care!" repeatedly we knew he meant it. Oh, and I like the song about Assholes.
But the real stand out song of the set was the one about how the central character had lost his home and been thrown on the streets. It's a great song that had the right amount of desperation in it. The singer did a great swallow dive-style stage dive during (I think it was) Don't Waste My Time that came near the end of a frenetic set. They are good fun live but their songs didn't really stick in my head that much and other than recognizing the band members when I saw them I hadn't remembered anything about seeing them in April. Never a good sign in the long run.
Well if you've ever seen The Parkinsons one thing is for sure - you wouldn't forget it! I can still remember loads about the first time I saw them at The ICA opening for Suicide in 2001 and it's always a riot whenever they play.
Since their last London show, the drummer has had a sex change and is now the prettiest member of the band. She kicked off the set by laying down the beat as intro while the boys sorted themselves out ready to launch - eventually - into Bad Girl. That was the cue for the sold out crowd to go mental and as ever it didn't take Afonso Pinto (or Al Zeimer if you prefer) to launch himself into the audience as we all shouted "She's a bad girl" repeatedly.
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Primitive was every bit as primitive as it needed to be with Victor Torpedo splattering his guitar licks all over the place as the drummer's smile growing at the madness in front of her. Pedro Chau's bass rumbled the riff to Too Many Shut Ups as he seemed ready to beat his bass on Afonso's head as he once again disappeared into the audience.
I think Angel In The Dark was the first song to add Keyboards to the normal insanity and they were played like a good 60's Fender Rhodes type sound although not on a Fender Rhodes. It was also about as tender as anything The Parkinsons ever do and Afonso's grin as he stalked the stage was great.
In The Wee Hours (or whatever the next song was called) went by in a blur of Victor battling with Pedro to keep them from dissolving mid-song as the new drummer kept a solid back beat going. Back To Life (or is it Go Away?) was next, full of Afonso making clear we should go away while of course lapping up the love of the crowd, who happily welcomed his stage diving.
Bedsit City was the highlight. It ought to be just total mayhem everywhere as we all sang Streets Of London over and over again. I didn't recognise Body & Soul (and no it's not a Sisters Of Mercy cover) which came next in this sonic whirlwind.
Nothing To Lose seems to be the band's credo and as ever the sheer exuberance of the performance leaves me with my jaw on the floor. This is the sort of band Iggy wanted to influence: all raw power and loose playing. No Idea if the next song was called Little Toys or not but as Afonso asked "Don't it make you happy?" well I can only concur, as all around me were people smiling.
Girl From Another World was greeted like the old classic it is and it was a great, frenetic version that prepared us for City Of Nothing. A this point, the place went even more nuts than it already was with lots of stage divers all over the place. Good Reality was sort of what we were experiencing, only now Afonso introduced the new drummer and Keyboards player to us. I wish I heard the names to credit them properly especially the drummer as she was brilliant throughout.
They closed with a messy and brilliant version of I'm So Lonely that had some more stage diving and other madness to go with it. They seemed to be trying to self-destruct to end the show, but either way by the end of the song and the set the place went nuts. Who needs encores when you have devastated yet another audience with 100 % pure punk energy like The Parkinsons always have. I look forward to seeing the film of the band's story later tonight.
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