It's the first time I've been to the Dirty Water club at the Shacklewell Arms rather than in its spiritual home of the Boston Arms and what better way to spend Eurovision Saturday night than in one of the hippest most multicultural neighbourhoods in London seeing a line-up of Spanish, Swedish and English bands. The Swedes have been out eating Turkish food as well.
First on are ANO who are also playing only their second London gig which excuses them the ramshackle nature of their fizzing energetic lo-fi punk. Their singer sounds like Pauline Murray but damn they get the place going with lyrics spat at us about how she doesn't wanna do all sorts of things before asking us if she can give us any more. Well I hope so.
With the drummer way back in the alcove the band are bouncing all over the place and as most of the audience are Spanish she is soon shouting "Arriba!" between songs. It was a decent set from Ano, who are promoting their demo cassette Shit Just Got Real, available from "http://anoano.bandcamp.com/">Ano at Bandcamp for just a couple of quid.
We completely missed the Ricky C Quartet who were on next as we were in the other bar talking to The Plastic Pals and other friends. Sorry Ricky.
Obviously we make it back into the gig room in time for our pals TH PLASTIC PALS who are playing the last night of their short UK tour to promote their second album Turn The Tide available from The Plastic Pals online and previously subjected to a rave W&H review.
It's good to see them back again and they open with John Barry: a good tasty version with the guitars sounding mighty fine from the outset. It goes straight into Hanging In The Louvre and by the time they have finished that the room has filled back up and the dancing has begun.
The Final Remedy is the first of the new songs that I hadn't heard before and it sounded great with the trademark Plastic Pals Paisley-tinged power pop delivery going down a storm so no-one was too preoccupied about what was happening in Malmo. It was much more about whether anyone was going to be left standing still. A Turn Of The Tide was anchored down by Bengt Alm's ass and Olov Oqvist's drumming as Hawk Soold and Anders Sahlin let rip on the guitars, meshing and soloing and making sure we avoided any rip tides.
The Sweet Spot seemed to be somewhere in the centre of this sweaty back room of a pub that was going mad dancing and moshing to this excellent song from the new album. She's Going Back from their previous LP Good Karma Cafe was next and sounded much tighter and more focused than the last time I heard them play, though with an atmosphere like this, it's infectious and it was just great.
They dedicated a new song to, among others, PJ from the Dirty Water Club, Gurbs, whose hacienda they were camped out at and my good self. The new song is Going Back to Clerkenwell where they had played the night before, a really cool song about wanting to get back inside the familiar surroundings of The Betsey Trotwood or down to The Apple Tree.
During the set closing double treat of Polythene Pam and Between The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea, we see the night's first attempt at crowd surfing which was a bit unexpected as the surfer is touching the lights as he goes. It was a good way to end a cracking short set.
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After the break it was time for the night's headliners who have come over from Toledo in Spain just for this gig and appear to have brought a fan club with them. The Hollywood SinnersThe Hollywood Sinners Facebook pagecome on like a raging garage punk Ramones meets the Cannibals, trying out for Holy Cobra records.
The place goes mental for them from the moment their singer starts shouting about how he's A Wild Child, in between songs they mainly speak Spanish and most of the banter from the audience is also in Spanish. There She Goes had rocket fuel behind it as the crowd surfing begins to get underway. I'm not sure what his baby did exactly but the song he's singing is frenzied raw psych punk firing on all cylinders.
The first song they sing in Spanish really makes the place go mental; the energy in that room was incredible. I think it was during a song I have down as Do The Eye that we saw some guy crowd surfing on his back and downing a pint of beer at the same time which I can't recall seeing done before. Way to go and no wonder they are now chanting "Come On Now" and it's like the whole room are ready for anything to come from them.
The set is just a blizzard of energy and the sweat was dripping from everyone as I tried to figure out what they were singing about. That's All She Wrote may have been it, it didn't really matter what the songs were they just had us in the palms of their hands and no matter how dumb and demented the songs sounded they just kept coming at us rapid fire like the Ramones used to. Just like the Ramones as the set went on, the songs blended together a bit Na Na na How Wow and Yeah It's All right being shouted at us and the guitars and drums being played seemingly faster and faster. as the crowd surfing seems to increase, another pair of legs are lurching towards our heads at the back.
By the time they close the set with I Wanna Be Your Man, I feel exhausted just watching them but damn they are thrilling live. The audience screamed for more and soon enough they were back to scream at us about how She's My Girl and I sure hope she likes hot sweaty psych punk as then she'll have the ride of her life.
They finished with a song about being ready and yeah, they are ready to rock, no doubt about it. If you get the chance to see these Garage rock monsters take it with both hands as they are a truly viscerally thrilling live band.
So on the night I have to say Dalston's own Eurovision was won by Spain, even if they did have to import most of the audience to tip the voting in their favour in proper Eurovision style!!
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