Tuesday 25 February 2014

15/8/2007 The Pleasures @ the Bull & Gate

SubjectThe Pleasures @ the Bull & Gate
PostedDate8/15/2007

So, the final band on this terrific Pure Rawk promoted show at the Bull & Gate. I checked out videos of the two bands on the bill that were new to me beforehand: Plastic Toys seemed the most promising from what I saw, but turned out to be the least exciting (although still good) band of the night. I wasn't that impressed with the Pleasures effort and wasn't particularly looking forward to seeing them...
They turned out to be the biggest surprise of the night and were bloody amazing!
Imagine the original New York Dolls lineup (only much better musicians) fronted by Alice Cooper (only a better singer) and you'd be getting close. It has to be said that the Dolls had (and still have) better songs, but what a show The Pleasures gave us!
They played really well - a proper band, not just an image and big stage show. These guys can really play and were very tight.
Their performance was totally over the top - and gloriously so! Their cover of The Sweet's 'Ballroom Blitz' was particularly good.
This lot were as camp as the New York Dolls or Kiss, but rocked harder - this was a well drilled unit who knew exactly what they were doing, and they did it really well.
Glam rock really doesn't come any more 'Glam' than this. It may not be to everyone's taste - not even mine normally, but I defy anyone not to be thoroughly entertained by the Pleasures.
There are quite a few bands doing this sort of thing at the moment, but this lot just seem to do it that much better. Normally, this sort of band seem to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek and ironic - or take themselves too seriously and end up looking rather tragic. Can the 'irony' and 'tongue-in-cheek' factors be ruled out as this band are actually German? Or maybe that's why they do it so well - precisely (well Germans are precise) because they don't see it from that angle at all? Whatever it is - just stand back and allow yourself to be entertained and the Pleasures will do precisely that. After being slightly dubious beforehand, this band won me over and I'm really looking forward to seeing them again.
This famous London venue closed for live music in 2013.

No comments:

Post a Comment