Good The Bad - Brickhouse, London, 26/2/2010

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 27 / 3 / 2010

intro

At the Brickhouse in London Anthony Strutt in a frustrating evening full of difficulties sees instrumental Danish garage rock trio The Good The Bad play a stormy set to a disinterested crowd

I have never been to the Brickhouse before, although it is the building that is next door to 93 Feet East, which is Brick Lane's best live venue. I get there early as I didn't bother to go home first. That was a big mistake as the doors open late. They are originally due to open at 8 p.m., but that is put back until 8.30 and then finally 9 p.m. I am tempted by the smell of Brick Lane's curry houses, but I had a decent fish and chips so I pass on these nice offers which I get offered at every curry house that I pass. I meet one of the promoters on the door who promises me some wicked DJs, as well as decent bands. I am not that into wicked DJs, but they play a decent set of rock songs, mostly from the 60s and the 70s and which includes the Doors and a good splash of Blondie too. As I queue up I meet a freshly married in L.A. Ian McCutcheon from Mojave 3 whom informs me that his other band band Loose Salute have recorded their second album, but Heavenly, theeir label, doesn't have enough money to release it. His producer of that album, Pritpal Soor's band Flower of Zeus open the evening playing a punkier version of Bloc Party's sound, which goes down well with this noisy crowd Friday night crowd. During their set, I notice a young lady who is constantly dancing, drinking everything that she can get in her hand, and chatting to everyone. She decides that she wants to be my new best friend as she dances in front of me like a mad woman. The couple next to me think that she is my date from hell and stay away. Finally after a while Security notice her and very politely ask me if she is with me. When I say no, they lift her off the ground as she is no longer fit to walk and kindly chuck her out the back door of the venue. I can finally enjoy what I'm here for. After some more wicked tunes, and no go go dancers or face painting as advertised, we get the 60's sounds of Oh!Gunquit, which consists of Wanda Smacksome, Manchine, Dr Zoom and Sam Bam Leadfoot. The latter is the most sexy and cool female drummer that I have ever seen since I first saw Debbi Paterson playing for the Bangles when they were still a garage band at the Marquee Club back in March 1985. Their sound is superior to Flower of Zeus. It has a 60's-flavoured garage rock band sound while Wanda's vocals have a B52s' new wave shouted wackiness. When I meet Sam a few weeks later in Fopp, she tells me that she has another band as well, the Vinyl Stitches, whom are also 60's purists. The audience is very posy and loud, but at least they bother to listen to the first 2 bands. By the time The Good The Bad get on stage, who have flown from Copenhagen to join us to celebrate the release on download of their second EP '005-008' on Stray Cat Record, they are about an hour late on stage. The crowd are now into Friday night and drinking and chatting mode. The band are now just backing music to their chit chatter, which is not good for either them or myself. I'm here to see a great band, who are not getting the respect that they deserve. To try and get the crowd into a 60's groove, and make the gig into a happening we get a modern looking, skinny pole dancer in equally skinny panties. This sounds perfect on paper for this band. She is probably here to promote one of the organisers of the event and to plug the website which is on our wristband, www.sexypantiesandnaughtyknickers.com and unfortunately comes across as somewhat wooden. The Good The Bad are The Adam on guitar; Johan Lei Gellett who is the wildest drummer since Keith Moon and Manoj Ramdas, formerly of the Raveonettes, o on guitar. Manoj doesn't actual appear on the recorded versions which are now a few years old and these were recorded by Johan and Adam alone. The Good The Bad play for 38 minutes, but to their frustation, the crowd carry on their chat and show the band no respect or honour, so they pretty much play for themselves and myself and the few selected people who bother top listen to them. They come on as the DJs finish playing Blondie's 'Atomic' at nearly 11.30 p.m. They are to me totally infectious with their 60's raw garage rock sound and play a primitive beach party style music that would slip easily into an American International Pictures movie without trying to hard. With just their drummer and two lead guitarists they groove a sound that would sound like the Jimi Hendrix Experience, if Jimi was garage based. Their instrumental sound absorbs you and makes your head spin and feet dance. At least it would do if you had the energy or politeness to actually listen. After a while the band do notice this and show their disgust by leaving the stage, which is a damn shame, as they have played here before and I'm sure they went down better. This was still for me a decent gig, but it was a shame about the arsehole crowd.

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