Two men, both called Ben, one guitar, one set of drums and a bunch of very nasty songs. We must be watching WINNEBAGO DEAL. Reared on a steady diet of Black Flag records, Winnebago Deal attempt to bludgeon the throng gathered in the Astoria into submission. There is no room for subtlety nor any real melody, this is all about riffs. Stoner riffs, brutal riffs, thrash riffs, riffs of all shapes and sizes as long as they’re loud and hard. Ultimately however without a bass player and no real variance of pace or sound they have little to keep the attention over a sustained period of time.
Which is not a criticism that you could level at th EIGHTIES MATCHBOX B-LINE DISASTER. Introduced by an unidentified American who rails against todays US election result culminating in a call for revolution (um, we’re English, I don’t think we’re the ones who need the revolution) 80’s Matchbox finally take to the stage. Looking like Tim Burton’s vision of a rock band, all mad goth hair, drainpipe jeans and low slung guitars they meander into ‘The Man of the Way of the Staff’ the closing track off of their new ‘Royal Society’ album. It’s a slow start but this is quickly remedied by following it up with ‘Celebrate Your Mother’. Taking this slice of demented surf guitar as his cue to take the first of many leaps into the crowd, Guy McKnight screams into various faces ‘I want to fuck your mother’ whilst being passed around the front of the crowd. Nice.
During ‘Psychosis Safari’, McKnight is back in the crowd and when returned to the staqe takes it upon himself to demonstrate how many press ups he can do (about 4). There is no doubt that the man isn’t the full ticket. He switches between classic Joey Ramone legs apart poses and spends so much time in the crowd you have to constantly crane your head to keep up with him. The band continue to knock out their own manic take on punk and psychobilly, most impressively on ‘Puppy Dog Snails’, the twisted nursery rhyme from the new album. It’s impressive on record but live it’s a gothic (as compared to goth) masterpiece.
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Unfortunately a decent slice of tonight’s set fails to reach such dizzying heights. Some of the new found subtlety is lost in their crashing approach to their songs and they veer too easily towards chaos at almost every opportunity. During ‘Mr Mental’, Guy McKnight's back in the crowd once more but this time he manages to lose his microphone so that the majority of the song becomes an instrumental. Shame as it’s one of their best moments.
When they do get it together it’s gonzoid fun the whole way. First encore ‘Rise of the Eagles’ is dark and dirty yet ultimately comical, complete with presidential lectern and McKnight's hair slicked back and shirt and tie donned. He ends the song writhing on the stage as the band kick the shit out of that glorious rumbling bass riff. The set finishes with a couple of their lesser songs from the first album which kind of sum up the night.
Tonight the band were great but their set was badly paced and they ran out of steam towards the end. When they did hit their stride however they’re a match for anyone else out there. Altogether now ‘I wanna fly like an eagle / I wanna sing like Sinatra / I’ve gotta date with disaster / I wanna love like a mother’.
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