15/7/2006 Zen Motel & Toxic Slut - two gigs in one night (again).

Subject	Zen Motel & Toxic Slut - two gigs in one night (again).
PostedDate	7/15/2006
	Another busy night with two gigs to go to if the timings are right... The evening gets off to a good start as I leave home and a WW2 Hurricane fighter plane flies low overhead. It performs aerobatics at a neighbouring event for nearly ten minutes. It flies right over my head several times - spectacular stuff!  After witnessing an air display of the sort that I'd normally pay good money to see, my first port of call is the 12 Bar Club. First band on is The Vacants - they put on a very high energy punk rock show. For such a young band they are very impressive and play with real fire and passion for what they do. Next up are the very entertaining Toxic Slut They are loads of fun as usual and seem to have a bit of a cat theme at this gig as G-String Jo is sporting a brand new 'Hello Kitty' guitar and singer Bette Noir is clad in a very fetching PVC catsuit! The girls (and guy) are certainly dressed to impress tonight - and judging by how the room has now really filled up they are certainly impressing a lot of the males present!  This is certainly a band who are very hard to ignore. With raunchy songs like 'Dirty Rockers', 'Love Rocket', and 'Rock 'n' Roll Rebels' their punk attitude with catchy pop tunes music is just as 'in your face' as their appearance. They certainly seem to have made a big impression tonight - it's just a shame they don't capitalise on this and play more gigs than they do...  Unfortunately I have to leave shortly before the end of Toxic Slut's set and rush off up the road to Camden to catch the very rocking Zen Motel play their first show at Bar Monsta/G-Lounge. The band rock pretty hard as they always do and get to play to more people than at some of their other gigs. This band are constantly evolving and now songs from their forthcoming second album are appearing in the set alongside the old favourites like 'Devil Song', 'Black Tail' and 'Rocket 69' they have been playing for a couple of years or so now.  After Zen Motel finish their set I rush off back to the 12 Bar Club to see Barnet Mark's band Viva Las Vegas tear through a set of Elvis songs in their own punk style - always good fun!  They were followed at around one in the morning with a very good high energy punk band who may have been called Lay Out The Traps. Whoever they were, they were bloody good and had some of the best songs I heard all night. I think I left the club sometime after three in the morning, and fortunately (unlike at Bar Monsta followed by the west end a couple of weeks ago) managed to get home unscathed. Which is more than can be said for my precious blue suede shoes.  They suffered quite a bit at the 12 Bar getting trodden on a few times in the crowd while the bands were playing and also getting beer spilt on them. Then walking between night busses on the way home one of the soles suddenly started to detach itself and started flapping noisily. Then the bus I was after suddenly appeared when I was between stops (I'd got off the previous bus too early by mistake) and I had to run to catch it. This was to much for my disintigrating footwear and the flailing sole detached itself in flight! I had to run back and pick the offending item up, but somehow still managed to just get to the bus stop as the bus was pulling away. Fortunately, for once the driver was sympathetic and opened the door as I rapped on it with the crepe sole I had in my hand. Blue suede shoes might look cool - but they just don't seem to be able to stand a rock 'n' roll lifestyle - the bloody things broke when I tried jiving in them at the Underworld a few weeks ago, and they also failed when running for the tube last year.  Oh well, I guess it's better that my shoes bear the scars of a night out than I do like a couple of weeks ago!