Good The Bad - Water Rats, London, 19/5/2009

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 24 / 6 / 2009

intro

Anthony Strutt at the Water Rats in London finds compelling Danish/Swedish instrumental trio The Good The Bad's uniquely raucous and raw brand of rock 'n'roll

The Good The Bad are a three piece consisting of two Danish guitarists and a Swedish drummer. Johan Lei Gellett plays drums and is also the band's producer, while The Adam plays guitar as does former Raveonettes member, Manoj Ramdas. Tonight they are second on the bill on a hot Tuesday night in Kings Cross,but they quickly win the crowd over. As it also was when I first saw Ashton, Ashton,Watt and Mascis, who The Good The Bad sound quite similar too, it takes a mere 45 seconds for them to blow my mind and ears and make me fall in love with them. They are rock and roll in its rawest form, very tight and have no singer as they don't really need one. The music stands up by itself with Johan's drums being a stand out point. They play a 40 minute set of primitive, wild and psychedelic surf beach movie music that could have sat on any Roger Corman film of the late 50s and early 60s for American International Pictures. Their self-titled debut album was recorded in 2007, before Manoj joined and was produced by Johan. Each track has no proper title and is listed as being between Track 001 and Track 017. They play about three quarters of the album live, and perform it in a way that makes you shake your head to spin with the grooves, in a style that Hendrix would approve of. The Adam dresses in the style of Gram Parsons and looks like a young Brett Anderson. Johan looks like and has the same energy as a young Keith Moon, while Manoj continues to look as cool as he did in the Raveonettes. A great night with a great band. More information about The Good The Bad can be found at www.myspace.com/tgtb

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