20/5/2010 The Needful Things @ The Gaff

Subject	The Needful Things @ The Gaff
PostedDate	5/20/2010
	An interesting and varied night of rock at The Gaff brought to us by Pure Rawk. First up is a late addition to the bill in the form of Jukebox Junkies. This crew from Rugby have been absent from the scene for a while as one of their guitarists left the band. This is the first time they have been seen in London with their new axeman. The new lineup is very well recieved by the rock hungry crowd and now this band rock harder than ever! Something a little different next, and at first I'm sure sure how well Raising Sand are going to fit into this bill. They seemed a bit 'middle of the road' when I saw them at the Purple Turtle a couple of years ago, although I thought they were a good band. Sometimes you see a band getting on stage and you think 'This lot don't look like they are going to rock' - and then they surprise you! This is one of those occasions. They really rip into it! After a minute I notice something odd - no bass player! I thought I could hear a bass though. It turns out their bass player has just left them in the lurch and the bass parts we are hearing are recorded. They seen to have some 'attitude' - mainly due to being very pissed off with their ex-bass player. Wherever he is, his ears must be burning! "That's what you get for letting a vegan into the band!" is one of their milder comments... This certainly seems a harder, meaner sounding band than when I saw them previously, and they rock much harder than their smartly dressed guitarists attire would lead you to expect. Next up are Suicide Tuesday. Unfortunately, they are one of those stereotype 'sleaze' bands who would appear to spend far more time deciding what to wear and checking themselves in the mirror than writing any half decent songs. As with most of these cliched identikit 1980's style bands, they are competant enough musicians, but it seemed to have escaped them that 'Appettite For Destruction' sold sold millions of copies because of the quality of the songs rather than the band's image. And as for the fake american accents... The headline band are an interesting bunch. The Needful Things are all in other better known bands, and are doing this just for fun in their own bands downtime. This gig is part of a short tour just to have some fun playing each others songs - so not much hard work involved learning new songs - especially as some of the members have played in each other's bands before. It's odd hearing some songs many of us know well - but with someone different singing! It's hard to imagine any voice except Richie Hudson's singing 'Everybody Loves You When You're Dead' or 'M.I.A.' for instance, but then suddenly he's on the stage as a 'special guest'. The various members of Teenage Casket Company/DIP/Black Mollys/Bullet Boys (and that's just Rob Lane!) Drugdealer*Cheerleader, Kitty Hudson, Dead Identities, Phluid, and Badaxe look to be having a great time! It's a very entertaining set, and some of us have had fun trying to guess which songs by the various bands who make up The Needful Things are going to get played tonight. Just imagine your favourite songs from each band and you'll probably come up with something very similar to the actual setlist.. A couple of 'proper' covers get thrown into the set as well - with the Ramones classic 'Blitzkrieg Bop' being particularly good fun! With this small tour apparently being quite a success, we may not have seen the last of The Needful Things...

PS: This venue has now closed.