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Review: 'MEN THAT WILL NOT BE BLAMED FOR NOTHING, THE/'
'London, Highbury Garage, 14th November 2014'   


-  Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'

Our Rating:
This show was the triumphant return of Andy Heintz to the stage and as such the show's title was Kicking Cancer's Arse as Andy has spent most of this year fighting against throat and mouth cancer and has now been given the all clear to return to doing what he does best: fronting great bands.

This show was packed out as it should be and we got in with plenty of time to see THE CESARIANS who, as ever, don't disappoint with their heady brew of down at heel cabaret sleaze rock. Singer Charlie Finnke seems to have done a lot of hard living since I last saw them play as he looks about 10 years older but as he still sounds as great as ever it don't matter much.

From the opening song they are a great mix of brass and blues with some excellent keyboards. They played quite a few new songs off the next album including the wonderful Odd Pop that had several breakdowns where the 4 women in the band sang some fine harmonies. They sort of sounded out of place and yet a perfect fit at the same time; a neat trick.

I liked the skewed love song Thats All She Wrote )or whatever it's called) that had the crisp trombone parts that got the Garage swinging. As ever the Ballad of Raoul Moate was a show stopper: a great twisted song about a twisted man. I think that was followed by Deathstar before they closed with another keyboard led-song which had instrument changes aplenty so they had two violins and two guitars for the finale whose title I'm not even guessing at. Either way I look forward to hearing the new album whenever it arrives as it's already been 5 years since the last one came out.

After the break The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing came on to an ecstatic welcome from the very dressed up crowd and opened with Victoria's Secret that had almost everyone singing along. Well except the three women who were hell bent on talking through the entire show in front of us. It was a minor miracle as Andy Heintz not only looked almost the same as usual but he sounded just the same. Phew!

Doing It For The Whigs went down a storm and they had that low slung sludge metal punk sound down. It was as sludgy as Megadeth and almost as scary but not as scary as the Margate Fhtagn who was once again ruining our trip to the seaside in our very own charabanc.

I think it was Marc Burrows who introduced the first new song, Inheritance Powder, that sounded just as good as the old stuff and again had that sludgy metal sound to it. Miner had good split vocals and some of Andrew O'Neil's nastier growls.

Was it Bedlam next? I think so and it sounded as great as ever as did Charlie, the band's paean to good old Charlie Darwin that had almost all of the Garage singing about the Origin Of The Species. The next new song was about there being No God and No Afterlife. I wish I could read what goes in the middle but the spider has taken over my notebook and my quill must have split. Still it was easy enough to learn the chorus that most of us were singing it by the end.

Gin was the tipple of the day and the next song as we all need to know about Mothers Ruin before My Heintz gave us some timely medical advice on The People's Common Sense Medical Advisor as he asked us all repeatedly how many times a day did we masturbate? Well it's bad for the health apparently.

Rats Lice & Fleas was the next new song and I hope none of those things were present in the Garage as they contemplating needing to cover us in Lye to make sure still the new album will sound great judging by all the new songs. The next one had some great drumming from Jez Miller before they gave us the tale of Boilerplate Daniel a song that always gets the crowd moshing.

Etiquette was next and with its central theme of Manners Maketh The Man was the song that finally pushed me over the edge to tell the girls who couldn't go 20 seconds without talking to shut up and listen. To the credit of one of them she did apologize after the show but still just listen to the music, would you. Is it that much to ask?

They closed out the main set with another song whose title I can't decipher. The audience went mental and they soon came back for an encore and Andy Heintz came on wearing his Cancer treatment mask which was incredibly brave and moving. They opened the encore with an old Creaming Jesus song (sorry I don't know which on) though it did sound familiar. I last saw them play in about 1991, but either way it sounded great and good to hear him sing one of his old songs.

We then got Goggles which is almost the steam punk theme tune and of course we all like a girl in Goggles and that led into a rampaging version of Jesus Was A Cockney: a right rollicking sing along it was too. All that was missing was some barrelhouse piano before they closed the show with Brunel and we all sang along to this great tribute to Isambard Kingdom Brunel and all his fine works.

This was a totally triumphant return to form and I can't wait for the new album whenever it comes out. There are also rumours of another gig in London before Christmas that will be a must see. Welcome back Andy Heintz!
  author: simonovitch

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MEN THAT WILL NOT BE BLAMED FOR NOTHING, THE/ - London, Highbury Garage, 14th November 2014