Vibrators - Dominion, Ottawa, 6/5/2006

  by Andrew Carver

published: 23 / 5 / 2006

intro

The Vibrators appeared on the punk scene in 76, and, contemporaries to the Sex Pistols and the Clash, have continued to tour the world ever since. Andrew Carver watches them play an energetic show at the Dominion in Ottawa

The Vibrators appeared on the punk scene in 76, contemporaries to the Sex Pistols and the Clash, and, despite brief breaks in their tenure, have continued to appear in seedy dives around the globe. When I walked in through the front door of the Dominion, opening band the Rookers were well into their set. The quartet features four-man shout-a-longs, tributes to working class pride, patriotism and other careworn Oi! themes. They had already generated an enthusiastic mosh pit and at least one member of the crowd forayed on stage to grab their lead singer and bellow along into his microphone. Their set done, they vacated the stage for Montreal’s Ventilators, a young band dressed in black jeans, black band shirts, black studded belts, black shoes and black caps. The Ventilators' street rock was flavoured with a metallic sound, and a certain sense of fun. Their set was a bit bumpy, with breaks between songs stretching a little longer than necessary, but the band was obviously enjoying themselves, as was the audience. The Vibrators then took to the stage. Original members Knox and Eddie the Drummer (a.k.a. John Edwards of Inmates fame) have been joined by bassist Peter of Finnish rockers No Direction, a man who wears his love on punk rock on his sleeve (well, actually he has a tattoo of leopard spots, a bare-breasted pirate wench and a Confederate flag – same thing!). In addition to such venerable favourites as ‘Baby, Baby Baby’ (which they had the audience sing the choruses for), ‘Disco in Moscow’ and ‘Judy Says’ there was a raft of covers - the band recently completed an album of punk rock covers for the Cleopatra label, and did bang-up versions of Ramones’ ‘Sheena is a Punk Rocker’ and yhe Clash’s ‘White Riot’. Their biggest response from the oi-ed up crowd came from ‘Troops of Tomorrow’, the tune adopted by the Exploited as the title track for their 1982 album. Knox has become an expert at wringing tortured noises from his Telecaster and has incorporated some of the early 1980s more hardcore sound into his own, and his fiery playing was a super complement to Eddie’s hefty drumming and Pete’s nimble bass-work. Despite an extensive run through their back catalogue they never slacked off, and gave the enthused audience a superb show.

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