27/2/2009 Pure Rawk Awards

Subject	Pure Rawk Awards
PostedDate	2/27/2009
	I'd been looking forward to this event at the Purple Turtle for ages, but even though I arrived home around 1.30 in the afternoon I still managed to be late arriving in Camden after getting carried away with some forestry work at Dark Towers.  Last year's Pure Rawk Awards event was a really good night in spite of the (so called) Marquee venue not being very good. Fortunately the 2009 event is being held in a much more suitable venue.  Unfortunately, my late arrival means I miss the opening set by Icelandic rockers Noise - but it's not so long since I saw them at Bar Monsta so that eases my disappointment. I also miss 'Best Album' award winners Disarm performing a rare acoustic set - which is a shame as I can hardly imagine those 'foul deviant tramps' in eyeliner giving such a performance.  I do arrive in time to see Evil Scarecrow. Any band who have such a brilliantly named song as 'Vampire Trousers' have to be worth checking out! This is the first time I've seen them properly, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed their set! They played well on a technical note, but what really made them stand out was their gleefully over the top performance - being a miserable 'Goff' has never been so much fun!  Goth bands tend to take themselves terribly seriously, but this lot totally rip the piss out of the whole scene! And they do 80's style 'robot dancing' - the highlight of their set being the not so Goth 'I Am Robototron' with the band performing the appropriate moves - and getting a very large proportion of the venue's sell out crowd to perform syncronised robot dance moves. Brilliant!  I'm afraid the batteries on my rapidly falling apart camera gave up the ghost after I managed to take one picture of Evil Scarecrow. I put in my spare batteries, but either I'd forgotten to charge them or they'd lost their charge after not being used for a couple of months. Plan C: Use my phone to take pictures instead - that accounts the the poor quality of the rest... Next up were the ever reliable Shush performing another of their polished pop/rock sets of catchy songs. This is a band who really throw themselves into their show. That said, although they always give a great performance - what you really remember is the melodies and the quality of the songs. Why hasn't anybody signed them yet? It's a shame Shush didn't get anything in the awards, as in my opinion they are far better than some of the bands who did win things. The show is closed (although the bar remains open for hours afterwards) by German rockers The Pleasures. This band are currently re-inventing Glam-Rock in a far heavier manner live than their recorded output would suggest - think Rammstein meets Metallica and Alice Cooper down a dark alley in Hamburg. If you can see beyond the totally OTT 'camper than a row of tents at Butlins' image you'll see the standard of musicianship is very high (some of them play in jazz bands back in their home country) and they also prove that some Germans do have a sense of humour. Yes really. For a full list of the award winners click here. It was a pretty good show, as most Pure Rawk promotions nights are - this Friday night in Camden had good bands and a sold out venue with a great atmosphere - plenty of friends and reasonably priced Newcastle Brown ale.  Guess what? In spite of my intentions to be 'sensible' and catch the last tube so I can get up at a reasonable time on Saturday and resume my forestry activities back in 'the jungle' (baby - you're gonna die!) at Dark Towers - I'm still in the Purple Turtle well over two hours after the last train has gone...  I never learn - or maybe I just don't want to...