This is arguably the least likely gig of the year. I never thought I'd get to see the mythical band that is Rocket From The Tombs play live as they had disintegrated some 40 years ago before they put out any records or had any fame at all. It was only because the band members took some of the songs and recorded them with other bands such as Pere Ubu and The Dead Boys that anyone paid any attention to their past. That and the story of what happened to Peter Laughner - one of the least famous but most infamous members of the 27 Club - and the legendary recordings he left behind.
So when the re-animated RFTT with a somewhat re-jigged line-up announced they were playing the band's first ever London show I had to get tickets. The fact it was in a Brewery at least meant if they were crap the beer would be good!
So just to infuriate the band I'm now going to make this personal as this venue now takes the crown of being the closest music venue to my place of birth - approximately 200 yards or so from where Hackney Hospital used to be, which for me is way cool.
We got into this Brewery in a railway arch promoted by Baba Yaga's Hut In good time to choose some local beer and I have to say the IPA I had was really nice. Also we caught all of Luminous Bodies opening set.
These guys have a 2 drummers, 2 guitars and bass line up and play riff driven slightly doomy almost Nordic metal. From the opener (that might have been In Your Head) they really got that repetitive grinding sound going and it was at its most hypnotic when the two drummers played in tandem rather than went off to do different things.
They had a very dirge-y number based around what may have been a Tibetan chant but sounded like the singer was attempting some Tuvan throat singing: almost like they had re-worked We Will Fall by the Stooges. This was made into a fun song by the antics of the drummer who had a very high cymbal that he almost had to stand up to reach. It gave the band a cool visual edge as the bass player - who was sporting a very cool Terminal Cheesecake T-shirt - had this mantra-like sound rumbling along throughout it.
Was that really a song they had about being a Leather Man? I'm not sure but it certainly had a killer riff to it. They finished with a song about Milk of some sort. I'm not sure how seriously we were meant to take them as one of the drummers played with his feet up on the bass drum for part of the song but still they were pretty entertaining.
Soon enough, though, it was time for Rocket From The Tombs and Crocus Behemoth to be led through the packed crowd and onto the stage. They opened with a brash version of Shape Of Things To Come that only lacked enough volume on the microphones so while you could hear Crocus' singing it wasn't loud enough and you couldn't hear bassist Craig Bell's backing vocals at all.
I Sell Soul was urgent and in places somewhat fervent driven along by the powerhouse drumming of Steve Mehlman. It was followed by the first angry outburst of the night by Crocus doing his best to be an irascible old man shouting about his weed box (sorry reed box) that had gone walk about. Hawk Full Of Soul pummelled at us at a fair rate of knots and made a few of us want to give in to the bands power.
They got nice and creepy on I Keep A File On You and your reed box stealing kind, the twin guitars of Buddy Akita and Gary Siperko were paranoid and scratchy enough to raise the paranoia level ahead of Crocus' next rant. As ever the obtuse song titles just kept on coming with Coopy (Schroedinger's Refrigerator) that had a monumental bass line from original member Craig Bell.
|
Muckraker sounded every bit the classic bitter, twisted anti-love song it is with full on cacophonous guitar blitz. A real highlight to hear it live. Then it was back to the new material for Spooky: a dark, twisted take of who knows what that was drilling itself into our brains while in between songs Crocus kept finding things to shout at and not all of them concerned Ted Nugent, who the next song was all about. Yes Nugefinger is a monster update on Soul Finger dedicated to everyone's second favourite right wing scourge after the Trumpanator and it made me want to give several people a Nugefinger.
Then it was back to the classic What Love Is: the sort of song that can make the earth stand still while making a room go nuts for it. So Cold didn't feel cold at all and was actually a pretty hot performance.
As you'd expect, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo was a monster version and a real highlight that led to Craig Bell taking far too quiet lead vocal duties on a great version of Amphetamine so we could Take The Guitar Player For A Ride because as we all know he hasn't once been satisfied. Well I was well satisfied with this version.
Welcome To The New Dark Ages could have been about the trendification of East London but it's much darker than that. Crocus gave us a skewhiff sci-fi intro to Butcherhouse 4 that seems to be a re-working of some Kurt Vonnegut-style sci fi. It was cool, and an interesting song.
No idea what the two songs they finished the set were and by this point who cared? They sounded cool and damn it was Rocket From the Tombs playing!! They didn't leave the stage but waited for us to cheer enough to make them play some more.
The encore opened with Read It And Weep a bitter twisted song to prepare us for the magnificent onslaught of Final Solution one of the bands most legendary songs which sounded as great as ever.
Then The Parking Lot At Rainbows End kept things going nicely but Maelstrom really got the place in ratures. It's a great song about getting the wrong kind of phone call before they closed with the classic Sonic Reducer - a song guaranteed to leave us all with smiles on our faces wanting more from this mythic group.
I still can't believe they finally played London! Crocus will be back next year in one of his other bands Pere Ubu where he will once more morph back into David Thomas.
|
