Well I finally get to see this local band play locally enough that I walked to the gig in what used to be a no go area after dark and in a pub that used to be the sort of place you walked in one door and out the other with what you needed. This wasn't booze, incidentally.
But these days what used to be the Branson family run Portobello Docks area has cleaned itself up enough to be pretty safe to walk around at night and The Retro bar is now booking in bands on a regular basis. It's the sort of place that has posters for The Damned supported by Wilson on the walls and some cool decor making it somewhere worth hanging out.
Before I review them, a little question for all you music nuts out there: where does the name TAURUS TRAKKER come from? I may answer this at the end of the review or you may have to figure it out for yourselves if you don't know already that is...
Having been introduced to the drummer Alison Phillips before the show I'm almost certain the last time I saw her play live would have been with UT back in the late 80's so it's good to see her play again.
They opened up with West London Rock & Roll which of course described perfectly where we were and what they play. They began as a trio with Martin Muscatt's vocals sounding almost identical to the new album Building Ten and thankfully just as clear as all of Taurus Trakker's songs have lyrics that need listening to, full of Muscatt's stories of life in West London.Like trying to explain just how temporary the tattoo you've just got is over a good blues punk tune that has Martin trading licks with the Bass player (who I assume is Peter McDonald) who also played on and produced the album.
We then got a couple of new songs the first of which Racket You Trust could be a could explanation for the sort of Heartbreakers meets London Cowboys sound the band have. In fact you can trust that the tunes will be memorable enough to stick in your head afterwards. Now I'm not sure if that was the first tune to feature David Wright (ex-X-Ray Spex) on Saxophone or if that was the next new tune Wild Woman In a Small Town - a great song title and a pretty damn great tune as well. Many of us have met women who would fit that description and are glad to have done so for the most part.
Bag For Life seemed to be darker live and that is possibly helped by our current location being the sort of place that the characters in the song might have hung out in. Building Ten had some great sax breaks in it as well as the wicked lyrics that explain exactly why you don't want to go to the place in question and might prefer building three. Whatever Building Ten really is or was I'd rather not visit it, but it sounds like Martin may have worked there.
In this time of floods in the middle of a drought, 21 Miles To A Water Pump is a song for our times for sure, especially as the closest water tower to the venue has been converted into offices in recent years. Still I love this song and it's been stuck in my head since the gig and just won't leave. I love the way they get the message of our western privilege across while making sure we think about those people who don't have fresh clean water on tap.
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Although there weren't many young men present, Young Man's Troubles are familiar to most of us. It speaks of being in situations where the only way to make enough money to escape your surroundings is to do bad things like dealing drugs and it's a salutary tale. The propulsive drumming and kicking riff that accompany the lyrics along with more of David Wright's sax licks really make you feel for the young man in the song.
They made us all feel lucky to be able to see them pretty close to where the song Lucky is set (at the Notting Hill Carnival) and as this is certainly part of the route I usually wander through the carnival, I sympathise. Most of us who have been to carnival for many years know all about that point when it starts to get dark and the atmosphere changes. It's when I like to be gone from the carnival and not dodging the flying bottles. The song had a couple of great instrumental breaks and used the sax to build the tension in the story.
We will all at some point be Long Gone but when you sing about it in such an poignant way I wondered who was long gone and what happened to them. I'm sure that when I get to hear this song again a few more times the full story will be more apparent and another good tale would have been told, especially as the band had played at a tribute night for the not so long gone Poly Styrene earlier in the week.
They finished the set with a great version of Gambling Blues that took me back to the days when I would have gladly spent half my day gambling when I was meant to be working, chasing the buzz of the game and the realization that you have lost far more than you can afford to. A great closing song.
They were soon called back for an encore and they gave us a good 5 minute instrumental blues jam with a kicking riff and the four of them trading licks and cooking it up a storm. It said thanks to us as we wanted to thank them for a great night of West London Rock and roll.
So where does the bands name come from? I'll leave you with a clue that it's to do with Bob Dylan.
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