Dark Lörd of Barnet: 31/3/2008 Drugdealer*Cheerleader @ Bar Monsta

Subject	Drugdealer*Cheerleader @ Bar Monsta
PostedDate	3/31/2008
	I head off to see DrugdealerCheerleader at Bar Monsta with some trepidation - last* time I arrived in Camden to see this band I found Kentish Town Road cordonned off with police tape! The rozzers wouldn’t let me past even though I could actually see the venue just a few yards down the road. Camden was on fire! The show still went ahead, but with a much depleted crowd as like myself, many other people couldn’t get through to the venue. Fortunately, the only incendiary thing in Camden tonight is Drugdealer Cheerleader’s performance. Bar Monsta’s recent sound gremlins are not present tonight and the band come over loud and clear. Promoter Mick Monsta has generously made this a free admission show - with a collection in aid of Camden’s fire brigade - without whom there would be a lot less of the area left standing today. Unlike last time this band played here, plenty of people have actually made it to the venue - and they are well up for it! The band have a different bass player to last time I saw them. On their last tour including the ill fated Camden show they had Teenage Casket Company and DIP man Laney74 as a stand-in bass player, this time they have another stand-in - Dirty Berty. He seems a good choice as he looks and sounds the part - imagine what Nikki Sixx might have looked like if he was in the Ramones? Incidentally - Laney 74 will be standing-in again on bass at the band’s next London show on April 27th. The band’s frontman Hilda is one of the best around at the moment, and I think he actually sings better at this show than on the studio versions of one or two songs. This lot don’t really claim to be a sleaze band, although there are elements of that in their performance - their songs are definitely better than most the bands in that scene anyway. Drugdealer*Cheerleader also have much more of an identitiy of their own than the other ’sleaze’ clones. And they also have cheerleaders! The girl on backing vocals tonight is also a better singer than you might expect and definitely adds something to the sound as well as a bit of extra glamour. It’s rather a good night at Bar Monsta and the band make sure we are well entertained. "Oi - you lot at the back!" "Yes - you at the bar too!" Introducing Nikki Ramone - AKA Dirty Berty. "This ain’t a bad job really" "Hey - who called me sleazy?"