Yes the incredible Parkinsons are back in London to make sure that there is at least one totally essential gig to be at on the night we leave the European Union, who better to be with than a Portuguese band that formed in Somerstown Kings Cross in a venue filled with as wide a variety of nationalities as you could wish for at the always great Some Weird Sin club night at Nambucca.
We arrived later than we intended too due to some hassle with the trains and so missed a good bit of Trash Culture's opening set, by the time we got in the 5 piece were stripped down and going for it with some full on kinetic energy coming off of front man Cunha who seem to spend almost as much time in the audience as on stage as they made a good frantic racket while singing about The Last Time it was a great ramshackle sound.
I Wanna Die was fast frantic and pretty emphatic distillation of the state of despair many people find themselves in and they really seemed to be making sure no one would forget seeing them play. No idea what the last song they played was but it had loads of energy and some great guitar playing to go with Cunha's antics on and off the stage to make sure they got a good cheer at the end of the bands set.
I have a vague memory of having seen The Sly Persuaders once before, but the only thing I had remembered about them was that they were a sharp dressed band and tonight was no different as they all looked rather well turned out in mod style suits, they opened with Dead Men a fast keyboard driven song that was good and angst ridden.
Sensational saw Lee switch from Keyboards to Guitar and they started to speed up even more on this Mod punk song. Johnny is a great punchy list song. Essential had a good bit of Gang Of Four style guitars on it and yes I thought that even before hearing about Mr Gill's sad demise.
Another Attack has some great lyrics about the crap state our world is currently in and seemed rather timely. Musically they didn't vary too much but Wild For The Night seemed to up the bands ante a little bit and they were going down well by this point anyway.
Black River is as much as I could tell not about salmon fishing in Scotland, but another angsty angular slice of mod inflected punk. They closed with the full on and pretty great Faustus that made sure we knew they were running away from something awful just not sure what. They went down well and are worth seeing once in a while.
After the break and with Nambucca rammed to the rafters it was time for The Parkinsons to prove they are still just as insanely brilliant as they were the first time I saw them 19 years or so ago.
Right from the opening blast of Primitive it was clear The Parkinsons were ready to blow our minds like normal as Afonso Pinto (or Al, Fonzi etc) started to stalk the stage as he told us it was a long road to nowhere.
Victor Torpedo let rip and was jumping around like a madmen for most of Bedsit City one of the bands homages to there adopted city of London and I think Al dived into the crowd for the first time as the venue became one big dancefloor.
They then started playing some of the bands new songs the first of which I think is Living For the City it was just as intense and full on as usual with Pedro Chau delivering another taut bass line in his super cool Ikara Colt t-shirt while all the madness went on around him.
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I think Heart Of the Sun was the next blast to our systems and Victor seemed to be levitating while playing his guitar and current drummer Ricardo Brito was trying to drum like a true delinquent.
I think it was Bad Wolf that saw Al crowd surfing and being carried through the crowd while singing in normal Parkinsons fashion. It Doesn't Matter seems to sum up the band's philosophy apart of course from the fact that they really do care about putting on an insanely great show.
Al gave us his thoughts on Brexit day before they played New Reality that just crushed its way into our brains as they flew about all over the place. Al then asked if we were ready to Walk the Walk well no one does it quite like The Parkinsons but the whole place was certainly along for this rollercoaster ride.
New Wave was announced as being a slow song that actually means it was played at about 150bpm or so which by there standards is a bit on the slow side. Not sure who Al Doesn't Want To see Again but the bile he spat out while singing it was incredible as they never stopped crushing us.
Al asked if anyone liked Heavy Metal and was upset that anyone said yes before, they played Heavy Metal at a rip roaring speed metal pace. Bad girl was dedicated to the bands favorite film director Caroline Richards and was a sing along riot like always.
They then blasted us with a great long version of Scientists or as it's normally known Lonely as Al went and climbed on top of the speakers to sing out the lyrics of how happy he is to be alone it was just as brilliant as ever.
City Of Nothing had a false start as Ricardo mucked up enough for Al to stop the song and then start it a second time this time it was damn near perfect. They then closed with a wild full on version of Angel In The Dark that left everyone wanting more of course.
Yes they barely left the stage before coming back for the encore that opened with a coruscating version of Burning down and then they let rip on a truly mad version of New Wave complete with Victor handing his guitar to a stage diver, Afonso going loco in the audience thrusting his microphone into among other fans my own face to sing the chorus badly and then he managed to dunk the microphone into a pint of beer as the insanity continued and he crowd surfed and tried to sing into the now not quite working mike and they left the stage to the fans they handed there instruments too as brilliantly messy an ending as ever.
As ever The Parkinsons are still one of the greatest live bands around. Very few bands have as much energy and insanity as this lot still do.
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