4/7/2007 Zen Motel @ the Purple Turtle

Subject	Zen Motel @ the Purple Turtle
PostedDate	7/4/2007
	4th July and somebody has decided to put on a gig to celebrate it 'with the best of British'. I don't have a problem with that as we have plenty of great rock bands to match the USA.  Civillian were on the bill but didn't appear for some reason - they were replaced by a Canadian band who's name escapes me, but I missed them anyway. Pig Iron were playing as I arrived and seemed rather good during the very short part of their set that I caught, although they had a very 'Suvvern' USA sound. Next up were FuryUK - another new name to me. It took me a while to warm to them, but after a few songs they won me over with the sheer passion and enthusiasm they played with, along with some decent songs and a high standard of musicianship. Certainly a band worth seeing again sometime. The ever dependable Zen Motel were excellent as usual and drew a respectable crowd for a Wednesday night in Camden - including CJ from the The Wildhearts who also plays guitar on three songs on the rather good new Zen Motel album 'Stations Of The Dead'. (Lee from Zen Motel also plays bass with CJ & the Satellites) Zen Motel are another band I never seem to get tired of seeing with their sneering rock 'n' roll attitude allied to great songs - they always deliver.  Another thing I like about them is that (unlike most the current bands on this circuit) they have their own style and don't seem to follow any trends or copy anyone else. Most bands I see seem to remind me to varying degrees of other bands, but Zen Motel seem to have a style of their own without having to resort to attention seeking behaviour to grab your attention. Of course it also helps that they have some really catchy tunes.