2/4/2007 Trashstock tour hits London

Subject	Trashstock tour hits London
PostedDate	4/2/2007
	The Trashstock tour finally hits London - plenty of people have been looking forward to this for months. It's an excellent bill and a good night out is assured.  It's difficult to get a lot of people to go out on a Tuesday night, but a bill this strong can do the job - and tonight it does. Patchwork Grace open the procedings in good style - the most original band of the night. They combine hard hitting rock with a singer who would look and sound more at home in a pop group - but it works. I am strongly reminded of Daisy Chainsaw and Queen Adreena - partly by the band's sound, but also largely by guitarist Crip's Crispin Gray influenced look and sound. Singer Tori is also an engaging personality on stage and certainly doesn't take anything from the above mentioned bands in her look. Although the band have a strong image, it's the music and performance that do the talking - this is a band you will remember seeing. They are a breath of fresh air compared to most the bands on the same circuit and after seeing their show you are left with the feeling you have just witnessed a realperformance. Disarm are up next and launch into a high powered rock 'n' roll set with a strong punk influence. If this band could bottle their energy and sell it on the merch stand I'd be in the queue! Most bands doing this sort of thing have plenty of enthusiasm and energy, but are missing one important thing to make them stand out from the crowd - tunes! Disarm have realised that good songs are one of the things that makes people want to come and see a band again - not just the energy they put into playing them. I saw Disarm for the first time in Colchester a few weeks ago and was impressed straight away, so I was looking forward to seeing them again tonight. They didn't disappoint and they were at least as good as last time.  Zen Motel can always be relied on to deliver a snarling sneering slice of attitude - mixed up with some instantly memorable songs littered with hooks to get entangled in your brain. Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, violence, evil, and plenty of booze - it's all in their songs and the band are eager to drag you into their sordid dirty world to share it.  The setlist is pure filth and stretches from the band's first EP to their forthcoming second album. There are no ballads, no slow songs - just in your face dirt and sleaze. Not the 'sleaze' pedalled by the current crowd of 80's revivalist sleaze/glam pretenders - Zen Motel's brand of sleaze is dirty and disgusting - you wouldn't take them home to meet your mum. And if you did, the term 'motherfucker'... no - we won't go down that road.  I'm sure they're nice boys really. Or maybe not. They don't wear makeup or strut around in ridiculous clothes from a bygone age - they don't need to - the music does the talking. Apart from their attitude and the catchy quality of their songs, there is something else which sets them apart from all the other clone bands on the sleaze/glam circuit - unlike all those other bands - they are not copying anyone else - in their music or their image. There really isn't anyone else around like Zen Motel.  Kitty Hudson are another band that can also be relied on to pull out all the stops. Maybe not as original as the previous band on the bill or as different as Patchwork Grace, but they probably have the strongest songs of any of the bands on tonight's bill - in fact some of the best and catchiest rock 'n' roll anthems of any band around at the moment. And they didn't even play 'What It's Like' which in my opinion one of their best songs. They were the only band of the evening to throw in a cover - but it was a cool one: Johnny Thunders And The Heartbreakers 'I Wanna Be Loved'.  Johnny Thunders influence can still be heard years after his death in bands like Kitty Hudson, D4 and Towers Of London - long may it remain so. I think Kitty Hudson only played this date rather than the whole tour, but judging by the crowd I think the promoters made a pretty smart move in adding them to the bill as it looked like more people came to see them than any of the other bands tonight.  Last on the bill are Love And Bullets - the only band I haven't seen before. That said, I feel like I have seen them before - many times in Camden over the last year or so. Yes, another one of those bands - excellent musicians but without a trace of originality. Now I think 'Appetite For Destruction' is one of the best rock albums ever made - but there seem to be a hundred 'original' bands in London who base their entire act around just one band and their classic album. Enough already.  Guns 'N' Roses were a great band, but as well as their performances what made 'Appetite...' such a great album was the quality of the actual songs themselves - it really was 'all killer no filler' in a way that very few albums ever have been since. Not for the first time in the last year I get the feeling I am watching a tribute band rather than a band playing original material. Even the name of the band seems deliberately similar to their main apparent influence. After a couple of songs I'm bored and head for the back of the venue to find some interesting people to talk to... Apart from the last band being a bit of an anti-climax (for me at least) it's been a great night and this show has done very well to get a good crowd into the Purple Turtle on a Tuesday night - not an easy feat at the best of times. I'm already looking forward to the next Trashstock tour rolling into town.