This was our first visit to this new local music venue, it's good to have another music venue I can walk to from home. The venue is situated at the top of Shoot Up Hill, that seems more than appropriate as a place to see The Primevals play. The club is on two levels with the cocktail bar upstairs and the stage and club downstairs, it is a good small space with some great posters and gold records on the walls, I feel I will be going here regularly.
On first were The Phobics who were tonight a 5 piece who'd come all the way from Deptford Fun City to see how ramshackle they can be, they opened with the poignant My Best Friend Has Died that had Tom Crossley repeatedly telling us there was nothing left to say as the band all seem to stay in time on this one.
Brand New Jag went screaming across the room like it was out of control, as the beat got faster as it went along. Tom introduced Gentrification emphasizing how the song affects us all, which as we were only a couple of hundred yards from the closest Million quid plus house or dreadful council estate really hit home nicely.
Another World saw the first set of daggers being thrown across the stage from Jeff Wallace towards Moyni but they just about kept it together.
As always Don't lay Your Flowers On My Grave was dedicated to the memory of Johnny Thunders and was the high spot of the set. I Can Tell had a good power pop edge to it.
Then things fell apart on Give It A Go as they sounded like they had all come up at once, but on 5 different drugs, truly all over the place as Moyni was certainly playing a different tune to the rest of the band, they tried to sort themselves out by playing Get your Act Together next, as Jeff tried to get Moyni to play in time with the rest of the band, he just about succeeded.
They then went all 80's indie on Hang Ten as they surfed a tidal wave of emotions and less steam seemed to come out of the band's collective ears on this one. They may have managed to find the Path of Love once more, as accusations flew as to who was more of a Nearly Man among these reprobates that came complete with some backing vocals by Moyni.
They were about ready to rev things us and get the tyre's screeching with some Burnt Rubber before they dedicated the closing number Lipstick to Mimsy one of the bands superfans.
After a short break it was time to once again welcome The Primevals onstage in the bands current 6 piece line up of Michael Rooney, Martyn Rodger, Tom Rafferty, John Honeyman, Paul Bridges and Ady Gillespie who had travelled all the way from Glasgow to take us back to the glory days of the 1980's.
They opened by paying tribute to Tom Verlaine with a very cool instrumental version of Little Johnny Jewel with Michael Rooney joining the rest of the band onstage as they went into The Drop all about the perils of what happens once you've reached the top and the almost always precipitous fall afterwards; They sounded great as a Death rock Cocktail garage rock band.
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They shimmied and shook down that Sonic Pathway that was far safer than going down Wayne Kirkham Way on the other side of the bridge is at this time of night, as Michael started shaking his tambourine for the first time tonight. The guitars took us off to a mature place for The Older I Get that had some sage advice and was just mesmeric as we all agreed that they know less now than they did before.
Prairie Chain saw John Honeyman switch from his keyboards to playing maracas as they went down down down to that place on the Prairie once more. They then played a suitably monumental version of Spiritual The Primevals song that's always guaranteed to be stuck in my head for days after hearing it.
Hard Working Man certainly described all the band on stage, who never let up throughout the set this was just wonderful driving garage punk. Gimme Gimme Some Action is a proper call to arms for a good Saturday night out that it seemed we were all guaranteed by this point, with new songs like this sounding every bit as good as the old classics.
You're Not Hear Now was a song for those we've lost along the way and shook the room with some acid dripped licks and marauding maraca action. Different Person seems to describe someone who changes after a drink or pill or two into a whole other beast.
Way Beyond Tore Up is full of sadness and regret over losing someone very close to you. That was followed by a really cool cover of The Saints classic Know Your Product that made clear that we are all brainwashed some of the time, a great end to a great set.
They came back for an encore That opened with them shaking some action to Hey Sister before they finished the night off with a great version of Saint Jack that I always took as being a tribute to Mr Kerouac, that left us wanting more and also wanting to come to more gigs at this cool local (For me) Bar.
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