9/4/2008 Young Heart Attack, In So Far & Skintight Jaguars @ The Underworld

Subject	Young Heart Attack, In So Far & Skintight Jaguars
DateCreated	4/22/2008 5:22:00 PM
PostedDate	4/9/2008
	Although it isn't at one of my favourite venues, this is a show I've been looking forward to for a while.  I arrive at the Underworld early for once, as I want to see both the support bands. Until tonight, I thought the venue with the stinkiest toilets in London was the Water Rats - now I'm convinced it's the Underworld! The bogs in this dive have always been a bit smelly, but tonight the stench is absolutely foul!  I leave the toilet and I can still smell it at the bar - it's disgusting - even more disgusting than the price of a bottle of Newcastle Brown!  The fantastically named Skintight Jaguars are on first. They throw themselves wholeheartedly into their punk edged rock 'n' roll performance and are a good opening act to wake people up. I'm hoping that they manage to sell lots of copies of their recently released album on the merch stall - then the guitarist will be able to afford a properly functioning belt to hold his jeans up. If you want to show everyone your pants that badly mate - why don't you wear them on the outside of your jeans and be done with it? In So Far are on next - with yet another new bass player. This band are rather good at finding excellent bassists, but less good at hanging on to them... Guitarist Hanna is now the only original member, with every other position in the band having been occupied by at least two people. This hard working and continuously evolving band continues to improve. They tour regularly and as a result are quite tight - apparently they have been having a great time on this tour supporting Young Heart Attack.  In So Far have a neat deal with Jagermeister, with mean there are often lots of freebie Jager' goodies given away on the merch stall - sometimes even some free booze. I'm starting to get a nice collection of this swag, although it's slightly depleted since the unfortunate saucepan incident that followed this gig - see separate blog.  I have been waiting a couple of years or so to see the headline band again. Only 12 months ago it didn't look like I'd ever get the chance see them again as they had split up. Now they are back with a new rhythm section and a brand new album to promote. A couple of the guitars they are using look rather familiar - in fact they were seen on stage with the previous band. This is because Young Heart Attack's van got broken into last night and some of their guitars were stolen.  Consequently, Hannah from In So Far is lending them a couple of hers. I've seen Young Heart Attack quite a few times and they have always been outstanding - one of the most exciting live bands I've ever seen. They are still pretty damn good!  They kick of with 'Mouthful Of Love' - the perfect opener! The song just explodes in this small club venue!  The vibe has changed slightly with the new record and lineup - now less in your face out and out red hot rock 'n' roll. Most of the new songs are a little slower and more thoughtful - maybe a little more funk and soul than before, and a little less of the sizzling energy - this is more of a slow burn. New song 'I Love This Town' is particularly memorable as I get to watch Frenchie's work at close quarters on the distinctive guitar into. However, the older songs aren't neglected and the band play most of their first album as well as plenty of stuff from their new one - plenty of old crowd pleasers so everyone is kept happy.  I think a lot of bands struggle to get the mix of old and new songs right at this stage in their career, but Young Heart Attack have got it just right. Jennifer the joint lead singer gets a larger share of the action on the newer material, but Chris Hodge still gets in plenty of rabble rousing as he regularly incites us to shout 'HELL YEAH!'   Lead guitarist Frenchie Smith is a whirling dervish of crackling energy - if only he could somehow be harnessed up to the national grid we could turn off one of our power stations and cut down on global warming! The new rhythm section seem to fit in OK, although the bassist has a worrying tendency towards inappropriate hats - a characteristic also displayed by the bassist from the Stone Gods recently in this same venue.  A particular highlight of the set for me is seeing them play their MC5 cover 'Over And Over' - as I remember how amazing it was seeing the 3 surviving members of that band play the song in this same venue only a couple of years ago! It's great to have Young Heart Attack back - let's hope they don't leave it so long before visiting us again this time...