The
Camden Underworld is one of my favourite venues; it represents
everything that a music venue should, great sound, good views,
excellent atmosphere and it always has brilliant bands from all over
the world. This trip to the Underworld (which amazingly was my first
since seeing Gnarwolves in December) featured a band from France, one
from America, one from England and one all the way from Australia. It
was a bit of an international punk rock summit.
The
first band on the bill were Maladroit from Paris, France. After
checking the out for one of my Euro Punk blogs last year I was quite
excited to see this four piece live and I have to say that I was very
impressed. Playing gruff pop punk reminiscent of bands such as Dear
Landlord and Red City Radio. As you would expect from a band like
this everything was done at 110%, whether it was the pounding of the
drums, the relentless strumming of guitar strings or the passionate
vocals, Maladroit held absolutely nothing back. Speaking of vocals it
was brilliant to learn that the band use two vocalists, something I'd
never picked up listening to them on my iPod. Having more than one
singer adds so much to a band, especially live. It gives the band
more than one focus point, more things on stage to watch and can give
more of a feeling that you don't know what's going to happen next.
Next
up was the band that in all honesty was the act I was most looking
forward to seeing,from Milwaukee, America it was Direct Hit. In my
humble opinion these guys are one of the most underrated bands
around, playing some of the most intense and fast pop punk music
around. With songs about Satan and Sci-fi lyrically they are also one
of the most unique bands going. I've seen clips of Direct Hit playing
live on the YouTube and I've always been impressed with the ferocity
that they play with but experiencing it in the flesh was something
else. The band played a set so fast and powerfully and to my ears
never missed a note, an impressive feat. Direct Hit played a set
largely taken from their last album Brainless God but did throw me a
couple of older songs as well as a brand new one from an upcoming
release which sounded as good as anything they've ever done. The
highlight of the set for me was hearing Werewolf Shame, that was the
song that really made me fall in love with Direct Hit. Hopefully they
will be back in the UK again very very soon.
The
final support came from long running UK pop punks Mike TV. After
getting over the initial disappointment of them not coming on stage
to the acapella intro from their excellent last album Sausage
Hospital we were treated to an incredibly fun and entraining set. The
set was mostly comprised of songs from Sausage Hospital and it was so
good to hear them live after listening to the album so much. Live
they were perfect pop punk songs, it sound like they had a bit more
edge to them than you do recorded and I loved that. I don't believe
that there is a single band on the planet who can do harmonies as
well as Mike TV. As a fun surprise they played a couple of old
Pickled Dick songs including the bonus track from debut album
Pandamoanium which was done completely acapella and sounded
outstanding. It was also fantastic to hear classics such as Ship Ahoy
and Salamander played live, for me it was my first time hearing them
and put a huge grin on my face. I thought the crowd had quite an
interesting mix of people in it for Mike TV. It seemed to be either
long time fans who have followed the band since their Pickled Dick
days or people who had never heard of them and didn't really have any
idea what was going on. I think that by the end of their set though
they had managed to get the majority of the crowd on their side. Mike
TV don't play anywhere near enough shows so having the opportunity to
catch them live is always a very special event.
Speaking
of special events, the opportunity to catch headliners Frenzal Rhomb
live in London is an ever rarer occurrence. The Australian punk rock
legends were returning to our shores for the first time in eleven
years! You could really sense the anticipation within the crowd as we
waited for them to appear on the Underworld stage. As soon as they
did the front of the crowd area was just a pile of bodies going
absolutely nuts for the band. I must admit I was kind of surprised by
just how popular Frenzal Rhomb were considering how long they hadn't
been away. I was so impressed with just how good they were live.
Starting out with the hilarious Russell Crowe's Band the set-list is
mixed with classics from the bands extensive back catalogue as well
as some newer songs from their last two albums Forever Malcolm Young
and Smoko At The Pet Food Factory. It was a really enjoyable set of
fantastic punk rock songs. There were no thrills to the set, just
good old fashioned punk rock songs combined with some excellent
between song patter. Let's hope it's not eleven years before they
come back to London again.
