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The Junction - Adam Bomb - Buzz Gang & Venus
Bogardus - 27th Feb 2008 |
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Review by Paul Towler |
Promoter Chris Redman has been putting on punk gigs at The Junction
in Stokes Croft for a good few years now, showcasing a mixture of
both local and international talent. He's one of the hardest working
guys you're likely to meet on Bristol's music scene. When he's not
fronting his punk band Valdez, who frequently tour the USA and
Europe, he's also running Cider City Records with business partner
Jeremy Hunt - a veteran of Bristol's 'C86' scene through his old
band The Haywains. Together, Chris and Jeremy have raised a proudly
independent label that has already delivered releases by American
punk luminaries such as TSOL and Welt.
The latest Cider City showcase on February 27th (their third evening
of music at The Junction in the space of a week!) boasted an
eclectic billing of art-punk, dirty rock 'n' roll, and stalwart
glam-rock.
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I was thrilled to learn that art-punk trio Venus Bogardus were
kicking off tonight's billing. I've written about Venus Bogardus
before, simply because they're one of the most original British
indie bands I've heard in years. At a time when many of today's UK
indie wannabes struggle to venture beyond the lyrical confines of
loutish laddishness, Venus Bogardus are busy writing songs about
people such as Jacques Rigaut. For anyone whose knowledge of French
Dadaism is a little rusty (and that probably accounts for most of
us), Jacques Rigaut was a surrealist poet until his death in 1929.
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today's over-hyped crop of tracksuit wielding art-punk copyists.
Indeed, the Bath based three-piece are one band who can truly claim
to sound like no-one but themselves - and after all, Dear Reader,
isn't that exactly what 'art' should be about? The band's warm,
fuzzy carpet-of-noise floats on a subtle gothic underbelly, neatly
joining the dots between Pre-Creation My Bloody Valentine and Yo La
Tengo. To date, the band have a couple of CDs on their own Patchoque
Records imprint. However, my attention was mostly drawn to the
band's debut vinyl 7" which features the aforementioned noir classic
'Jacques Rigaut' together with the equally gritty, lo-fi fuzz-tone
menace of 'Epoch Zero' on the flip-side. Complete with gothic tinged
artwork, this neatly packaged vinyl platter will have you rushing
back to Argos to exchange that iPod for a trusty turntable. These
days, claiming to be original, and actually being original are poles
apart, but Venus Bogardus are in posesssion of a sound, and a
brilliantly crafted lyrical flair, that is truly of their own
design. |
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| The second band on tonight's bill were Bristol based
garage rockers 'Buzz Gang' who delivered a blistering set of
acid-head rock 'n' roll straight from the Stooges and MC5 school of
thought. Their dirty, riff-driven wall-of-noize created an
incredible atmosphere, warming up the venue ready for the evening's
headline act Adam Bomb. |
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| Legendary New York rocker Adam Bomb has been making
music since the late 70's. As a teenager, Adam was asked to audition
for Kiss and later joined Seattle based band TKO. His red hot
three-piece band are currently touring Europe, delivering an awesome
theatrical show of driving glam-rock fuelled by on-stage
pyrotechnics. As well as Adam's towering glam show-stoppers such as
'Pissed' and 'Rock Like F**K', the band encored with an astounding,
overdriven cover of 'Whole Lotta Rosie' arguably as good as the
original. |
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As gigs at The Junction go, tonight was a somewhat varied showcase,
but it's eclectic nature reaped fantastic results. Personally, this
was simply the most enjoyable gig I've attended in ages. It's a
shame that The Junction has been struggling to survive as a live
venue of late, but if tonight's schedule was a taster of the kind of
billings Cider City Promotions have to offer, then Bristol's
thriving punk scene is in safe hands. |
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