This show is part of the tour to promote Electracoustic Volume 3 album and was a sit-down jazz club affair with Ruts DC playing two sets.
Ruts DC came on to loud applause this legendary band deserve and once Leigh Heggarty, Dave Ruffy and Segs Jennings were seated onstage, beginning the evenings amusing banter, they opened with This Music Must Destroy that worked brilliantly in the stripped back setting with Ruffy's minimal kit helping to keep things nice and sparse.
Segs made clear Too Much was about overindulgence of all sorts. this tune made sure to never get anywhere near an OD of overindulgence while Leigh’s guitar sparkled. Kill The Pain was the first song to get a long intro as Segs explained the songs roots, in a moaning neighbour in Norwood who made the mistake of asking if he thought it appropriate to be singing songs at 1 am, you know the answer she got, before they played a great full-on blast through it.
Ruffy told us about West One (Shine On) that was the last song they wrote with Malcolm and how the bands label refused to let them make a memorializing video for the single, instead expecting them to mime to it on top of the pops, which is why it didn't do as well as it should have done, this version had most of us singing along to the chorus, sitting here in West One we did all shine with them.
Love In Vain or should it be vein as Segs pointed out the songs about realizing that the love you have for that stuff has gone, now you hate what it's done to you, the deeply dubby take on it was brilliant, most of us again sang along with them. X-Ray Joy had one of Leigh's more spectral guitar parts making this sound rather special.
Ruffy then told us about his hard scrabble childhood and his penchant for shoplifting any food they couldn't afford to buy, how he managed to get away with it, the one time he was almost caught in the act, before they played Walk Or Run the song he wrote about the experience. Born Innocent we may have all been, but we all end up playing those mind games as the interplay between Segs and Leighs guitars worked to accent the tale being told.
Soft City Lights was a cool sparse re-working before they upped the tempo with Something That I Said that had the edge of being a classic fave for seemingly everyone in the 100 club. They closed the first set with Leigh switching to electric guitar for a startlingly frenetic take on Bound In Blood something that Ruffy and Segs clearly feel they are after so many years performing together.
After a short break they came back on and Segs got us all in the mood with a short sing along to a chorus of Beat On The Brat by the Ra Moans as he first thought they were called, they explained how Punk grabbed them by the balls, despite Ruffy working in a jazz record shop at the time, that led them into Vox Teardrop that was full of memories of being young impressionable music fans.
|
Next we got the incredible story of their brush with the Ipswich drugs squad, before they became Ruts and how it was turned into Dope For Guns a song that as ever went down a total storm. Leigh was back on the electric guitar for Secret Soldiers that certainly had plenty of bite.
Poison Games was the first song that Segs played bass on as well as Leighs electric guitar after Segs explained how his original bassline was worked up into the song. Jah Wars was dedicated to one of the bands original fans Marina who got up on stage to Bogle to it in a fine style, this had a deep dub edge to it.
Human Punk was dedicated to tonight's promoter Human Punk who are named after the song that Ruffy told us he never liked playing, despite that they played a great version of it.
They then closed with a couple of classics that demanded a bass and electric approach as they brought the house down with Staring At The Rude Boys and an incandescent Babylon's Burning both of which had everyone singing with them.
They came back for a well earned encore that opened with Pretty Lunatics originally written about all our politicians but also a description of the people who are Ruts DC's core fans a bunch of outsiders and Pretty Lunatics of course we all are. In A Rut was a good long version with a brilliant slide acoustic guitar solo from Leigh before it broke down and went into a couple of verses of Keep On Rocking In The Free World and back into In A Rut. They closed the night with Criminal Minds Or shoplifting For Less as Ruffy put it. With Leigh back on electric and Segs on bass it was a great end to a brilliant nights music, we look forward to seeing them again next weekend at Rebellion.
|
