25/11/2011 Honeykill & The Howling in Finsbury Park & Camden

Subject	Honeykill & The Howling in Finsbury Park & Camden
DateCreated	12/6/2011 3:13:00 PM
	Another attempt at getting to two gigs in one night that gets scuppered by promoters.  On paper it looked OK - just time to get from Finsbury Park to Camden. But you know what happens when you have a plan... I arrive at Finsbury Park's newest venue the Silver Bullet and find quite a small place, but with a definite 'rock ' vibe. It's only £3 on the door for 4 bands - a Friday night bargain! The bar prices seem pretty reasonable too. No real ales, but some decent bottled ale and it's right opposite Finsbury Park sation so dead easy to get to for us North Londoners. I arrive with supposedly a few minutes to spare, but find the previous (rather uninteresting) indie band still have several songs to play - my plans are going wrong already.  It's ages since I've seen Honeykill, and since I've last seen them the entire band (apart from frontman Jimi) has changed more than once. Not only has the lineup changed many times, but the format of the band has changed too - no more keyboard player or horn section, but an extra guitarist has been added. Needless to say, the band now sounds completely different - less of a commercial pop/rock sound and more a full on in-your-face rock band.  Still some decent songs, but before I have time to really form an opinion I have to rush off as I need to be in Camden virtually straight away... I arrive at the Barfly and find that things are running much later than I expected and I would have had time to stay for Honeykill's whole set.  Friday nights at this venue are now home to the Jubilee Club from 10.30 into the wee wee hours. As is normal at the Barfly these days it seems more of an indie than a rock 'n' roll vibe, and most people seem to be here for the club itself rather to see the band. The band in question is The Howling - a new band featuring some familiar faces. This is the new project from The Rev (ex-Towers Of London) and the singer from Red Star Rebels - yes, the one with the hat. A bit like Them Crooked Vultures - if you know who's in the band you can guess pretty much what they will sound like before you've heard them play a note - only in this case they have failed to keep the best things about their previous bands. Don't get me wrong, they aren't a bad band at all. They can play well enough and The Rev always throws himself into giving a good performance, but it's early days and they don't have enough memorable songs yet. The Howling do already have a small ready-made fanbase from previous bands, and there don't seem to be so many outfits doing this sort of stuff on the Camden scene at the moment so it will be interesting to see how things go. They are supporting The Quireboys soon so maybe they will manage to win over some of their crowd...