1/11/2008 Shush, Viva Las Vegas, Dangerfields & Die So Fluid

Subject	Shush, Viva Las Vegas, Dangerfields & Die So Fluid
PostedDate	11/1/2008
	After the anti-climax that was Halloween I am now attempting a rather ambitious three gigs in one night. My first port of call is new venue The Gaff (formerly the Old King's Head) in Holloway road. This pub is now under the same ownership as the 12 Bar Club and looks to be going to feature a similar policy of booking rock 'n' roll bands. This is it's opening weekend and the lineup of bands appearing over 3 days is impressive. A lot of money has obviously been spent on doing the place up and turning it into a proper music venue. Inside it now looks the Intrepid Fox or Big Red just over the road- like it's Halloweenevery night!  The stage which was installed last year has been extended, and an expensive looking house PA has been installed along with new stage lighting. Real ales and Newcastle Brown are available at pub rather than club prices as well, so I can see myself visiting this place quite a bit!  First band of the night is Shush. Fortunatley there are no mentalist females waiting to pounce on me - unlike when I saw this band at Punk three nights ago!  The band are on good form as usual - I've never seen them turn in anything other than fine performance. The sound in this re-vamped (no pun intended) venue is much improved and I've never heard this band's guitars sound so good! Next band is Viva Las Vegas with their punk 'n' roll set of all Elvis covers.  With a setlist of songs like this you can't lose really, and a good time is gauranteed.  Unfortunately I can't stay for the full set as I have to rush off to another gig, but I'll be seeing Viva Las Vegas again soon enough anyway... I arrive in Camden in time to see The Dangerfields at Camden Rock - formerly Bar Monsta. This venue was pretty cool when it opened up a couple of years ago, but due to various mainly business related problems has been going downhill recently.  Toilet doors have been cut down, then removed altogether, and now it has re-opened after a 'refurb' (actually just a coat of paint) which has been a disaster.  The previous red paint on the walls and the black logos looked pretty good. If you were going to repaint a ROCK venue you would normally paint everything black - right? Someone has decided to paint the interior of Camden Rock green and white! It looks fucking awful!  It that wasn't stupid enough, they have used gloss paint instead of emulsion.  It also stinks - literally! The smell of fresh paint is so strong that people are complaining of feeling sick. This is now not a pleasant place to spend time in - it's almost as if someone doesn't want you to go there anymore. On the plus side - the bar prices have been reduced to more reasonable levels.  The Dangerfields are good fun!  The lineup has changed since I last saw them at this venue - they had a big bust up after that show which resulted in guitarist Jasper leaving the band in mid-tour! He has since been replaced by one of the band's earlier guitarists Lee - who plays well, but doesn't look very rock 'n' roll. I'm glad to say the band still play their homage to AC/DC with their own song 'Rock Club'.  It has to be said that although he isn't the lead singer (it's Andrew the drummer) the band is largely carried by the joyfully over the top ROCK posturings of Jamie Derelict on bass - using the downtime of his main band Teenage Casket Company to good effect by touring with the Dangerfields. Jamie's constant gurning and shape throwing is highly entertaining and makes this band well worth watching! This venue was never great for photography due to it's poor lighting, but it's now been made even worse by the new gloss paint on the walls which reflects the flash from a camera straight back into it's lens.  The lack of toilet privacy, new decor (and paint smell) of this place doesn't encourage you to hang about so I'm glad to be heading off to one of my favourite venues. A few minutes later I'm at the Purple Turtle where I can enjoy things like decent beer and a toilet which actually has doors on. It's the monthly Stay Beautiful club night and Die So Fluid are playing. Grog is one of the most dynamic frontwomen out there and really demands your attention. Her band play well enough, but you hardly even notice them. Unfortunately, by the time we arrive at the Purple Turtle Die So Fluid only have a song or two left to play - but they were still worth making the effort to catch. And for once things went more or less according to plan and I actually managed to get to see four bands at three different venues in one night.

PS: The Gaff was a great little venue but has now closed. Unfortunately the horrible 'Camden Rock' is still open....