We arrived early enough to catch most of Botox opening set at this sold out Shake Some Acton night at The Lexington. This new London based 4-piece were good in your face Punk, the first song we caught in full Anyway I Can saw Tommy Botox dive into the audience and sing most of it while careening around the mosh pit and throwing his best Iggy/Stiv poses. Undead In N6 had a great speedy guitar solo from Paula Botox who did a very cool Poison Ivy guitar slash or three.
I guess the next tune was Ain't No Wicked with Tommy gyrating and flinging himself all over the place with Rafa Botox keeping everything together with his solid bass playing. Are You A Baby was next taunting someone for always bitching and moaning over the caustic Rama lama punk. I guess Paul Kersey Is Thirsty was the song about what you've done with your mind, its gone gone gone, they got speedier before closing with I Wanna See Your Corpse that isn't as bleak as you might expect, they went down well with everyone who got in early.
Next on were the ever dependable The Witchdoktors who came raging out the blocks with Tie Me Up In Chains played nice and speedy, before planet Andy told us I Like Your New Tattoo that has a searing solo from Tony Major on lead guitar. The classic No Pain No Gain was next with super solid drumming from the bands current super star substitute drummer Martin Parrot. Jack Hammer had a perfect Jack Hammer beat and great guitar interplay between planet Andy and Tony, with the current bassist (Sorry I don't know who he is) helping to drive this juggernaut on. Was the next song Push Together? Either way it was spot on, brisk as can be taut rock & roll. After one of Planet Andy's classic intros for another song, it was time for some Happiness something a Witchdoktors live set usually guarantees.
It was time for a song off the new album they are in the midst of recording, which of course is one whose title my notes make no sense of, it sounded cool, totally in the vein of the bands normal material. Black Sack took them back to the bands roots and this was a good brash version. I'm Sick was totally driven by Martins super punchy drumming and the mickey taking at yet another wrong song intro, second time lucky Planet Andy introduced us to Voodoo Eye that was monumentally good. Every Day Is A Holiday apparently when you play in a band as tight as The Witchdoktors always are. They closed with a great version of Neat Neat Neat that broke down into a verse and chorus of Human Fly before they left us all wanting more and looking forward to the new album later in the year.
Soon enough it was time for The Darts US to bring the bands current Nightmare Queens world tour to The Lexington, for the first night of the UK leg of the tour, having been playing at The Bearstone Festival in Croatia on Friday night. The show opened with the band coming onstage individually as Christina Nunez bass line kicked things off, being joined first by Rikki Styxx on drums, Becca then added some Gretsch guitar before finally Nicole Laurenne added some Farfisa organ and they went fully into Photograph a proper horror punk classic. Nicole made sure we understood there really is a Thin Line between love and hate on Thin Line that isn't a soul cover, but an imperious full on romp of a garage rocker.
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Spy Girl had some great one handed Farfisa action, Nicole rocked that organ hard while singing. I'm sure there were plenty of volunteers when Nicole asked us to Slay Me, this was totally overdriven Garage punk. Get Spooky was introduced with the first ad for the new album, with them promising us that it is Halloween every day for The Darts US in the black clad world they inhabit. Nicole introduced the next song as being New I guess it was called You and had a great reverb heavy Gretsch freak out from Becca. Boys were discussed on the next song whatever it was called, it was dark and intense.
Nicole assured us all that we needed to do Zumba to No Love, who could argue that they make perfect exercise class music. Pour Another was dedicated to the bar staff at The Lexington, we all needed another drink to make it a great Saturday night out. Nicole then told us The Darts US are preparing to record the bands next album in a two-day session in Los Angeles later in the tour and that Apocalypse will be one of the tunes on the album, it sounded mighty good and in tune with our rather dark times.
Up In My Soul had probably the best Farfisa freak out of the night, with Nicole tipping the organ on its side to get it wailing properly it was brilliant. Dreaming Crazy was properly lust filled and full-on bass attack, Ha Ha Ha we needed to sing along to Are You Down and most of The Lexington joined in happily. After we all sang along, it was time for us all to dance along to the bands own dance craze single Midnight Creep most of us made a decent fist of it, certainly could have gone worse.
Liar had a bit of a grungy garage edge to it before they closed the show with My Heart Is A Graveyard which was a bit of a sombre closing number, no matter how much fun it sounded, they left the stage right at curfew so didn't get the encore they more than deserved.
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