27/4/2007 Vicious Cararet @ the Old King's Head

Subject	Vicious Cararet @ the Old King's Head
PostedDate	4/27/2007
	Another visit to the Old King's Head - this time to see Vicious Cabaret. As they have travelled all the way from Leeds for this gig it's the least I can do to travel a few miles across London. As I walk into the pub the Adenoids are playing - and I rather wish they weren't. I hadn't heard them before, and I don't particularly want to again. Fortunately their girl fronted screeching punk noise stopped shortly after my arrival and before I got a chance to even see what they looked like - getting a drink was a far higher priority. Vicious Cabaret were excellent and are slowly evolving each time I see them. The current slimmed down three piece lineup is sounding more polished, although frontman Steve is more likely to be seen in jeans and a T-shirt these days instead of his more suave suited and booted former look. The band sound tight, clean, and sharp - in contrast to Steve's sordid and sleazy vocals - crooned rather than screamed in contrast to the other current bands who affect 'sleaze' - this band have class the others can only dream of. They have been busy working on new songs since I last saw them and the set consists almost entirely of new material. The style returns to raw punk for the final band of the night. The Duel have a very 1977 take on punk and aren't as stereotyped as many of the current punk bands. That said, they don't seem to have much in the way of catchy songs to grap your attention either, and the musicianship is very average even for a punk band. There isn't much to get excited about or make me want to see them again, but they certainly seem to have a small but loyal fanbase so they must be doing something right. They are joined by Bambi of the Bitch Pistols on backing vox for a Ramones cover - easily the best song in their set. Although I only really liked one of the bands, it was good value for money and the beer was reasonably priced so it was worth making the effort to head down to Holloway Road on a Saturday night. There are some good bands coming up there over the next month or so...  I hope they stock up on Newcastle Brown before my next visit - I drunk the place dry of it this time.

PS: This venue became The Gaff and for a couple of years was the coolest small venue in town before it closed and turned into a shortlived Costa coffee joint.