This was my second visit to Liverpool and the last one was at the dawn of the nineties; the place has changed a bit since then. We found EBGB's on Seel Street a couple of days before the gig to make sure we found it. I have to say it's a great basement venue with arched brick ceilings that are a touch low in places meaning it was easy to bang your head on the ceiling at times.
The venue reminded me of both The Rock Garden and Happy Jacks but is also a good modern equivalent of the original Cavern but without the current iteration of that venues reek of being a tourist trap, this place was all about the music.
We missed almost all of the first bands set of thrash metal and were soon enough waiting for Desperate Measures NZ to come on, as we got our second chance to see the current UK Line-up of Desperate Measures, the first time being at Rebellion in Blackpool a couple of years ago, the current line up is original singer and songwriter Eugene Butcher alongside Ricky McGuire on bass, Mick Gaffney on Guitar and James Sherry on Drums. They opened with the primal Stooge like blast of Scars & Memories from there new Rinsed EP and in this confined environment they felt and sounded like street walking cheetahs blasting us with napalm hints of Radio Birdman.
I loved Gaff's strafed riffing as they ripped into the bowels of a stolen city as Eugene made sure we all knew he was coming for us as they got good and dirty, while still being more that grateful that they were allowed to be out and about on tour once more while also glad to be out of London playing for all of us.
Hells Angles had a great biker punk metal feel to it with some great in your face drumming from James Sherry that then leads into a properly apocalyptic song about world war 3 that really feels like the end of life as we knew it. Eugene then told us the next song was about life in lockdown and was soon singing about Flowers In Your Door (Probably the wrong title) and making us all feel lucky to still be ok and able to go out to great gigs once more.
They then took us back to the bands roots as Gaff had to change guitars as they went into the bands early classic 1984 taking us back to Christchurch in the 80's and sounding properly hardcore before finishing there fast and furious set with a great version of I Wanna Be Your Dog that left us wanting some more and more than ready for The Professionals.
The current line-up of The Professionals are Paul Cook on Drums, Toshi on Bass, Rich Jones on Guitar and Tom Spencer on guitar and vocals, by the time they come on EBGB'S is packed to welcome them on stage and the band look suitably hopped up on red wine and Tapas and ready to blast us with the band's legendary thoughts on Payola, with Rich Jones really sounding great as the band's latest lead guitarist.
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Going Going Gone went by in a blur with Tom Spencer really getting the place going before they went into the lead song off the bands excellent new album SNAFU the succinct Easily Lead that had a properly nagging bassline from Toshi.
Tom was elucidating about another Dream on The Magnificent as Paul Cook's precision drumming nailed things down nicely. I'm not sure who they were putting on a pedestal during Rewind, but it got the crowd moving a good bit.
Tom then told us the next song off of SNAFU was about Cookie accidentally getting totally trashed after eating some Hash Brownies his daughter had made, that he thought were just normal Cookie's, the song he wrote about it Spike Me Baby was great fun with some good imagery based on how out of it he was.
They then pleased that part of the crowd that always want Cookie to still be a Sex Pistol as they rampaged through Silly Thing. They spent most of the next song building towards the Crescendo it's about.
Tom then asked us all to take our Hats Off and show them the respect they deserve for playing such a tight and enjoyable set. By now they were more than ready to Kick Down The Doors with an adrenal rush and splenetic guitars and Toshi looking almost as bouncy as he does with Ginger in Hey! Hello!
Cookie then showed his softer side as he and Tom explained that the next song was about his taking Steve Jones mum's ashes to Los Angeles so that Steve could look after his mums' ashes properly and the song itself M'Ashes was as close as they come to having a tearjerker, a nice tribute and also a wonderful act of friendship on Paul's part.
They were soon back to their normal cheeky selves on Monkeys before getting close to having a full-on pit going, if there had been enough room on the bands classic 1-2-3 that was a perfect sing along set closer.
They thanked us all for coming but rather than knocking their heads on the wall going off stage, they took the applause classical style on-stage, before closing the show with a brilliant version of I'm Not Your Stepping Stone a song that for me is still one of the best Merseybeat songs ever by those lovable mop tops Paul Revere And The Raiders it was a perfect way to finish a great show.
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