7 July
2012
I hadn’t been to a gig in ages, I mean a proper loud and messy gig; I also hadn’t been to the Jolly Roger before, so took the opportunity to combine the 2 on Saturday for a night of heaviness courtesy of Dead Lucky, The Bone Collectors, The Pits & The Dollfins.
The Jolly Roger’s an interesting place – festooned in pirate decor and complete with an isolated gaming area around the back, it’s visited by some odd people. It’s cool though, in that alternative, kinda dodgy way.
Saturday saw not only an impressive line-up of bands, but also a mini art exhibition, featuring psychadelic naturalistic paintings, trippy black and white drawings and quirky illustrations, all of which were really cool.
The first band up were The Dollfins. I recognised 2/3 of them from Beach Party, and their sound was pretty similar too – retro surf punkiness courtesy of 2 guys and a girl, for which I think they chose a great band name.
Up next were The Bone Collectors, who tried to open with their new music video but unfortunately some technical issues prevented them from doing so. They’re always cool; it’d been a while since I last saw them so their sound seemed to be a bit heavier, which is always good in my book. Last time I saw them, their song about the end of the world stuck in my mind and the same was true for Apocalypse this time round – very cool track. I did miss the sax though…
The only one of the DJs nextdoor I (briefly) witnessed in action was Wind-up Wanda, cranking her gramophone and churning out old sounds, a nice idea.
While Dead Lucky‘s music is not what I’d choose to listen to at home, being at one of their shows is an exhilarating experience. The Jolly Roger showed its teeth and the whole floor shook violently as hair was unleashed and thrown back and forth, spilled beer flooded the floor and a proper moshpit errupted.
The band literally spilled off the stage and seemed to spend more time in the thick of the crowd than up on their platform, pretty much taking the ‘in your face’ approach to a literal level. The experience left me deafened and a bit disorientated but damn, was it exciting.
Unfortunately for The Pits, issues with the monitors meant they started later than they should’ve meaning there was not a huge crowd left by the time they did so. It also meant they couldn’t hear themselves properly, something for which they apologised in advance but I thought they sounded alright – but even if they didn’t, a bit of messiness probably just added to the vibe of the self-described ‘three piece rock ‘n’ roll disaster’.
All in all a very loud, slightly odd and highly enjoyable night.
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Dead Lucky | The Bone Collectors | The Pits | The Dollfins
