20/10/2012 Ultraxine @ The World's End

Subject	Ultraxine @ The World's End
DateCreated	10/21/2012 2:41:00 PM
	Saturday night and I'm off to see a band in one of London's lesser known music venues - The World's End. No not that one! This one is a pub in Finsbury Park and is really easy to get to for me. The place is little known but it's only five minutes walk from the station and has live music on three times a week - decent variety of real ales too. So why am I at The World's End? To see Ultraxine - a band featuring some old friends from the days when a load of us used to go and see AntiProduct and The Wildhearts. Free gigs excluded, this is the cheapest gig I've been to in years: £2 or £1 with flyer! Drinks are pub prices too so it makes for a cheap night out - especially for a 6 band bill. I only catch the last three acts though. As I arrive I think it was Chris Dlima and his band playing. This seemed to be traditional Irish folk music - not my sort of thing but it was played well and the musicians had an unusual (for this type of music) gimick. Although I could apreciate that they were good at what they do, the music didn't do much for me. At least they made an effort to be different - even if only by putting paper bags over their heads! Next up was a pretty standard and generic female fronted soul band called Kaleidoscope - again good at what they do but they didn't float my boat. Apparently their set was mostly covers, but the only song I recognised was the Cream classic 'Sunshine Of Your Love'. The guitarist took over vocal duties for this, but although he was rather a good singer it wasn't a great version of this number - the classic riff is what the song hinges on and he didn't do it justice at all even though he was quite a decent player. Ultraxine were good fun! Most the songs on their Bernie Torme produced album 'Taking Sweets From Strangers' were given an airing as well as some stuff from their 'Danger Of Death' EP. They also threw in a cover of 'The Timewarp'. The band play "Powerpoppunkrock for the masses" in their own words. " feisty girl-fronted pop-punk with a definite snarl - "dirty-mouthed poprockpunk with a huge dollop of sweet stuff" even. They have some catchy tunes and play them with massive enthusiasm! I think the vocals tonight actually sound better than on the album. This is the first time I have seen the band as they rarely play in London due to the members being scattered between Leeds, Manchester, and London. Sadly it may also be the last time due to the various things going on the lives of the band members as well as geography issues and this is their last gig for the foreseeable future - if not ever. Ultraxine give good value for money by playing for about 45 minutes, but unfortunately I have to leave while they are playing their last song - the appropriately titled 'Drunken Celebration'. Engineering works mean if I don't catch the train I'm after it will be hours until the next one...