Tuesday 4 October 2016

30/9/2016 The Amorettes & Love Zombies @ The Black Heart

Friday night finds me heading down to Camden. As usual my first port of call is BrewDog to avoid the silly beer prices in the venue I am going to. I find they have a beer called 'Born To Die'. I think Lemmy would have approved of that name so I down a couple of them, although at 8.5% it's not as strong as some of the other beers I have enjoyed in there. However, it's the strongest beer they have tonight so it will have to do.

Suitably refreshed I head the few yards down the street to The Black Heart. The gig has sold out well in advance and the small room upstairs is rammed! This is the fourth time I've seen The Amorettes and the third time this year - they really knocked me out at the Pure Rawk Awards and Camden Rocks Festival earlier this year. They certainly don't disappoint tonight either. As this show is part of a joint headline tour the band get to play a longer set than usual. The room is full and it's quite hot inside even though Summer has come to an end, but the Amorettes seem to thrive on these conditions. The band's current single 'Let The Neighbours Call The Cops' appears surprisingly early in their set but goes down a storm. Another highlight of tonight's set is 'Hot And Heavy' - seeming like a particularly apt anthem for tonight's sweaty little venue! The band are very loud, raw, and in-your-face - which is just how I like my hard rock to be. I am also struck by how good their stagecraft is - they have obviously worked hard at this, and now it is really paying off. Once again I thoroughly enjoy the Amorettes show, although due the packed venue and not being near the front (maybe because I left BrewDog too late) I don't enjoy it as much as the last couple of times - the band themselves are just as good though. Actually, - they weren't good - they were great!

Last to play tonight are Love Zombies. As this is a joint headline show tonight's running order was decided by the toss of a coin at soundcheck time. I'm not sure if Love Zombies won or lost the toss... Judging by the friends I've randomly bumped into at tonight's gig who also happen to be WiLDHEARTS fans quite a few people are here to see Love Zombies because of the (now broken - but that's another story) Ginger/Hey! Hello! connection. However, in spite of this it's quite apparent that more people are here to see the Amorettes as the crowd had thinned out noticeably for Love Zombies. To be fair, the latter are a pretty good band and very entertaining. Frontgal Hollis has a huge amount of energy. This pop/punk/grunge band are good fun and well worth seeing, but the Amorettes are a very tough act to follow! Love Zombies are obviously good musicians and have some decent songs - I was certainly impressed when I caught part of their set at last year's Camden Rocks Festival. However, tonight they strike me as a slightly mismatched outfit who don't totally gel in the same way as the Amorettes who hit you right in the face as a really tight and complete package. Mind you, Love Zombies did have something the Amorettes didn't: Cake. Lots of cake. Apparently it was someone's birthday. Isn't it always? Well it is at pub gigs anyway. There was an 'audience participation' section of the show - featuring lots of balloons and party poppers. And cake. Cake went flying through the air - it was all over the crowd and the floor. It was like an explosion in a cake factory. I still had some on me when I got home.

Wot - no pictures?  Well I did have my camera in my pocket, but as the venue was so rammed and I didn't get near the front I didn't bother even trying to take any pictures as I knew they would be so crap.

As usual I ended up back at BrewDog after the show. No one seemed to notice I had cake on me.

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