Thanks to The Bierkeller’s rigorously-applied ‘let two in every five minutes’ door policy, I only caught the last few bars of The Pedestrians’ performance. Sorry lads, I’m sure you were super.
Leeds trio BLACK WIRE appear to have fallen into the same post-punk vortex as so many of their eighties-born peers. Their influences, whilst being immediately apparent, are at least cool – Joy Division, Siouxie and the Banshees, Bauhaus – and they make an exciting, edgy racket. Black Wire look good too, having adopted a style I’m going to christen RetroArtGoth. Honourable mention goes to bassist Tom Greatorex’s psychobilly quiff revival, though I’d sound a notion of caution regarding vocalist Dan Wilson’s recreation of Ian Curtis’ spastic dancing, which veers uncomfortably into tribute band territory.
JEFFREY LEWIS is mining a less-tapped seam. Accompanied by his brother Jack and, like Black Wire, a drum machine, NYC’s leading cartoonist rock star’s set reminds me of the unclassifiably weird neo-psychedelia produced by the likes of Bongwater and The Butthole Surfers in the late eighties and early nineties. He flips through a sketch book during his first number, showing his Robert Crumb-like cartoons to a crowd that appeared evenly split between the adoring and the bewildered/angered. In these days of perpetual revival, it is a rare and thrilling to see an audience of any significant size being challenged by difficult, sometimes dissonant music. So thanks, Jeffrey Lewis, for pissing off the Kaiser Chiefs fans.
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From the farthest outposts, we return to the middle of the road with Green Day’s new favourite band, THE CRIBS. The Cribs are ok, if you are a fan of meat-and-potatoes Clash-style punk, tailor-made to fill the void left by the implosion of The Libertines. The crowd LOVES it, going mental throughout, stage-diving, moshing and generally acting in a manner that that reminds me that I really shouldn’t wear sandals to gigs. I couldn’t imagine spending quality time with The Cribs’ recorded oeuvre, but when this sort of stuff is played with such style and vigour, it seems churlish not to get lost in the pop moment.
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