GIG REVIEWS
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GIG REVIEWS |
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Goldblade
@ Live at Leeds Metropolitan University 27.03.06 www.vanguard-online.co.uk
It’s hard to write intelligently about things you like – much easier to think of witty put-downs on some tedious formula band. And I’m very fond of Goldblade – the high wire kings of punk. Here, tonight, they were supporting Stiff Little Fingers with their catalogue of 27 years worth of songs but outshone them with energy. What Goldblade do is to believe intensely in rock and roll, puff their chests out and wear that energy on their skins. It’s a suspension of disbelief on their part and once they drag you in, your doubts are lost too and you become SAVED.
It’s also the John Robb pantomime. He struts, runs around, kicks and jumps, trying to drag us in. Hampered here by a crowd barrier (in a smaller venue the crowd would be up on the stage half the set), John abandons the rest of the band to strut on the barrier, gladhanding and dripping on the crowd. He baptises the crowd one by one with a hard hand on the head. “Do you believe in the power of rock and roll?” “Hell, yeah.” He institutes a moshpit for the girls and one for the men and old men: “I’m the oldest here, I’m 44, I’m your granddad”.
Up on stage Brother Pete becomes Wilko Johnson, spray-gunning notes out and loving it. Brother Johnny Skullknuckles and Brother Keith pose, feet on the monitors and the new drummer is just plain loud. The band is full and fully essential in the sound picture, though the visual world belongs to John. Sweat dripping, he stalks the barriers, shaking hands, having his arse felt by the girls, teasing them gently and carny barking till, almost unknown for a support, they get a mini-encore. “Black Elvis” says John. “We’ve done that” says Brother Pete. “Do it anyway.” And they do and we like it anyway. Like Neil Young says in Arc “it’s all one song”.
So, how did I avoid mentioning the music? Is it all the show? Well, a lot of it is but the music is pretty damn inspirational. It’s an in yer face show of The Clash fused with the call and response of old time rock and roll nailed on. Stinging riffs and angry drumming make the frame that the preaching sits on and lets us shout out the chorus lines – Black Elvis, Mutha Fukka, Strictly Hardcore, My Name Is Psycho, All We Got Is Rebel Songs, Black Sheep Radical. All air-punching rabble-rousers,
I’m unashamedly partisan but, if there is a harder working and more exciting band in Britain today, I’ve not seen them yet. Really, they are that good. www.goldblade.com |
