1/8/2011 The Pleasures, Kiria, & Kitty Hudson @ Boston Arms Music Room.

Subject	The Pleasures, Kiria, & Kitty Hudson @ Boston Arms Music Room.
DateCreated	8/25/2011 3:35:00 PM
	Tonight I'm off to Tufnell Park for some rock 'n' roll/punk/glam (delete as applicable) action at the Boston Arms Music Room. I'm pleased to report that this seems to be the only venue that doesn't seem to have increased it's bar prices once this year. Newcastle Brown is still only £3.20 - what other London music venue is so cheap?  It helps if there is actually someone behind the bar to serve the stuff though, as there is no sign of the sole member of bar staff for about five minutes after my arrival...  Kitty Hudson kick the evening's entertainment off in fine style with their brand of New York punk influenced rock 'n' roll. This band play well, but their main strength has always been the quality of their songs - and as I hear their brilliant 'Everybody Loves You When You're Dead' I already know it's the best song I'll hearanybody play all night. And it is. In fact, I could apply that to virtually any other song of Kitty Hudson's set at well. Seriously, their songs really are that good.  Once again, Kiria's performance is highly unpredictable! Unfortunately, this is largely because the poor girl continues to be plagued by bad luck - something always seems to go wrong! After seeing her play a gig on crutches earlier this year while fuelled by Jack Daniels, her jinx continues.  Tonight she has laryngitus and can't sing - or even speak! Many people would have just pulled out of the show - but Kiria is a trooper! The 'Pink Punk' starts her set by holding up a series of cards to explain why she isn't singing tonight. Other band members take up vocals in places, and then towards the end of her set Kiria asks the crowd if anyone knows any New York Dolls songs? Up steps bass player Andy of Sun Circus to take vocal duties on a rousing version of the Dolls classic 'Trash'. The famous Jelly Baby from the Kiria song of the same name makes what I hear is his last ever appearance tonight - apparently soon to meet a sticky end in a forthcoming video and have his place taken by a new character.  Kiria does gamely manage to sing a little towards the end of her set - she certainly tries her best to put everything she can into the show in an effort not to leave people disappointed. And then we have the headliners - all the way from Germany for a short UK tour are The Pleasures Glam Rock doesn't get much sillier or more OTT than this! If you can imagine the New York Dolls backing Alice Cooper then you probably get the general idea.  What makes The Pleasures work so well is that they don't take themselves too seriously - Germans with a sense of humour? Yes really!  This band are simply here to entertain you - and have some fun themselves while doing so. As the show goes on bizarre things start to happen. In spite of the image, that standard of musicianship is actually very high - these guys also play in jazz bands back in their homeland, and if you know anything about music you'll know that you have to be pretty good to be able to do that. As the evening draws on things get increasingly weird. Costume changes, props, irony, 'innapropriate' hats - it's all going on. The turnout for tonight's show could have been better - the still missed Gaff in Holloway Road would have been nicely full. Probably the nearby Nambucca would have been a more suitable venue for a show of this size. The atmosphere here tonight is excellent all the same, and this is certainly a more pleasant venue to visit than many of London's better known ones. It's been a varied but entertaining Monday night out out thanks to Pure Rawk, and very cheap on the door as well as at the bar - it's a shame more people don't want to go out on a 'school night' and do something a bit different from just vegging out on their sofa and letting the crap on the T.V. rot their brains.