5/7/2014 (just) Stereo Juggernaut @ The Barfly

It was after midnight by the time the next band hit the stage - this is one of the reasons I don't go to Jubilee Club very often. Staying to see a band this late means missing the last tube, and a journey home involving multiple night buses which might well take over two hours - to travel only about ten miles home. It's just not worth it. But here I am anyway. To be honest I can't remember which method of transport I used on this night - It might well have been motorcycle as I know I went to a gig in Camden earlier this year on the bike one damp night and found a motorcycle parking bay conveniently close to the venue. No beer of course, but home in about 25 minutes with no waiting for buses or trains. I ought to go to more gigs on the bike really, like I used to years ago - there was a handy motorcycle parking bay just down the road from the Marquee in Wardour Street. I do miss having a beer or two though - but that's no hardship at The Barfly as I stopped drinking in that venue some time ago as the price of the beer went up while the quality declined....

It's Stereo Jugernaut, but not as we know it Jim.

It's some time since I've seen this band and there have been various lineup changes since then. I've seen Stereo Juggernaut quite a few times - mostly several years ago when Tish was playing bass for them after leaving Honeykill. After Tish left Asha took over bass duties for a while before she too left. Since then the look and sound of the band has changed radically. The keyboard/samples man has been given the elbow and replaced by a second guitarist, and now they have a male bass player. The core of the original band singer/guitarist Ben and drummer Reuben remain.The more pop/commercial look and sound has been ditched and the band are now heading in a much darker and heavier direction.

Much of the material is new, and even the older better known songs are hard to recognise as they have been reworked. This is now far more of a metal band with a more aggressive in-your-face attitude, but there is still a Goth influence as well.