Well, yet another Friday night off, so I decided to scuttle on down to Isaacs to catch the Bucket Bangers. Making my usual 'late' entrance, I arrived after they'd been playing for around 20 mins. The first thing to hit me was the fact the band had been moved to the center 'stage' area. Finally, people can see the band and the band the people. But my joy soon succumbed to the realisation that the chairs and tables were still in front. People were all stood on the stairs at the back struggling to get a view of the band, along with the crowd in the bar area whilst 3 large tables with a whole 7 people on them took up the entire front floor! Arrgh!
To the band it probably seemed like they were only playing to a few, but the dancing, swaying crush in the bar area suggested otherwise. I managed to squeeze in the toilet corridor just behind the mixing desk, and managed to get a pretty good view, even though I was forever being 'excuse me'd' by people needed to push past to use the loo. Anyway, you all know my feelings on the Isaacs set up by now, no more than Mary, the landlady, who has to put up with my drunken moaning about it every time the Guiness starts flowing. Sorry Mary!!
For all those who've yet to catch the Bucket Bangers live yet then here's an image for you. BALLSY BLUES! This a rock/blues set played with balls. Big balls. Great big balls with a baseball bat in one hand, towering over you and commanding you to listen. Can you imagine the Sex Pistols suddenly decided to cover Rory Gallagher? I'm not comparing Bowdie (the singer) to John Lydon, everyone knows that Lydon can't sing, and Bowdie most certainly can, but he has that certain stage presence that only a handful of frontmen can exude. Watching him perfrom, it's almost like he's ordering you to enjoy their songs, not that you would need ordering. I'm not the biggest blues fan in the world, so a couple of songs were right over my head, but I couldn't help my head bobbing up and down to the rhythms forcing their way around the room. I walked over to the left hand side and positioned the video camera to help capture the band better in the middle of a song intro. About a min later chaos ensued as it became clear the mics had been cut. Ian, the sound guy, frantically searched and found the problem.....some idiot had yanked out the mic lead whilst setting up a camera....d'oh!! Sorry lads ;)
Before I knew it, the first set was over, and I regretted missing the first 20 mins. I nipped outside for a partake in the tobacco goodness, and on return was surprised to see a little acoustic set starting. A woman called Rachael Herrera was strumming an acoustic guitar and began to sing. Now this was a complete contrast to the balls out blues that had preceded, but everyone in the room stopped to take notice. She played about 4 or 5 numbers and captivated quite a few in the room with her simple minimalistic style. She was very good, but 4 or 5 songs was enough in this blues heavy crowd, and her cover of Time After Time gave a fitting finale. This was nice to see, an interval filled with a bit of a jam, and it made me think that perhaps this should happen more often, as we've all seen the gigs where half the crowd leave to go to the next pub at the interval. I think something along these lines would stop a bit of that.
By the second set, the crowd on the stairs must have got tired legs and had moved to the flat bar area. The band played on through the set with ease and began to throw in a few unexpected surprises, the biggest being a heavy, almost punk version of the Wings classic 'Mull Of Kintyre'. Starting with the slow intro and then just launching into a full punk rock riff, this was the Bangers at their best. I mentioned the Pistols earlier, and this could have been them. Attitude & balls, with tongue firmly in cheek. The posters around the room stated "This band is like a public toilet! Very dirty and always out of order!!". Well that's not quite right. They were very IN order and will entertain any room and any crowd. If they're playing locally again, you better get down and check them out, otherwise you may awake to find a big pair of balls and a bat towering over you demanding to know why. ;) See the bands new site for videos and info -
Comments