28/12/2006 GABBA @ Nambucca

Subject	GABBA @ Nambucca
PostedDate	12/28/2006 2:44:00 PM
	GABBA don't seem to play many shows, so I'd been looking forward to this one for a while.  This looked like being a bit of a quiet night in Holloway Road as it was the 'dead week' between Christmas and New Year when (almost) nobody goes out. Personally, I'm not working the whole week and as I don't have to get up in the morning this is a great week to be going out to gigs - but there is hardly anything going on.  However, although there didn't seem to be many people in the venue earlier for the other acts - it filled up quite a bit for GABBA. The people who had made the effort to go out were well rewarded for their efforts and we got a terrific show!  With an act that mixes ABBA with the Ramones (without being a 'tribute band' to either) this couldn't not be fun!  The songs were 'originals' rather than covers, although lots of parts of the songs sounded very familiar! The band continued this theme in their appearance - mixing the Swedish glizty glam of ABBA with the New York street look of the Ramones. Although there were loads of ABBA type hooks and melodies in the female vocals, the overall sound was very Ramones - every song was charged through at blitzkrieg pace! Needless to say, this was loads of fun! There was some corny but entertaining banter between the two vocalists fronting the band between songs as well - with the odd interjection from Bee Bee. It's a pity this band don't play more often as I'm sure they would soon build up a bigger following if they did. There are a couple of short video clips from this gig in my 'videos' section - very poor sound quality as usual. As soon as GABBA finished their set I legged to down to the tube to meet some friends at the new Intrepid Fox  and hear rock journalist Brett Callwood spinning some hot tunes at his regular 'Kick Out The Jams' night. This was also good fun! As I arrived, Brett was playing the Young Heart Attack cover of the MC5's 'Over And Over' which was quite appropriate as the night is named after MC5's best known song - and also cool to hear as the last time I heard that song is was being played by the MC5 themselves and the Underworld recently - with Lisa from the BellRays belting out the vocals!  This was an excellent way to end the evening - in a very cool ROCK pub with a late licence, with good friends and good music. The Newcastle Brown was nice too!