27/5/2010 The Dangerfields & Hip Priests @ The Gaff

Subject	The Dangerfields & Hip Priests @ The Gaff
PostedDate	5/27/2010
	Back to The Gaff yet again for a Pure Rawk promotion. This is The Dangerfields London stop on their tour. I wasn't expecting them to be on so early, but one of the other bands apparently threw a bit of a tantrum and insisted that they went on first...  Fortunately I got to the venue in time and saw them play my favourite song of theirs - the very AC/DC influenced 'Rock Club'.  Every time I see this band they have a different guitarist, and tonight is no exception.  Their new(ish) guitarist bailed mid-tour and they claim the first time they met their new guitarist was last night! If so, he's done a pretty good job learning the songs but apparently he was already a fan and knew them anyway. He does a very good job in the circumstances and the band still manage to be entertaining. Next band is the Hip Priests. I've not seen them before, and I've heard they can be very hit and miss live. My only experience of them so far is on a sampler CD, and I thought they sounded so dreadful that I've never made the effort to check them out live. Tonight I am pleasantly (if that's the word) surprised and they are pretty good. There seems to be quite a bit of (friendly?) rivalry between this lot and the Dangerfields and both bands make scathing remarks about each other during their sets. The Hip Priests have quite a good frontman, although he comes across as a bit of a punk version of Rob Halford - also claiming during the set that they are all homosexual - probably in response to jibes from Jamie Derelict from the previous band! They are another of those outfits who's members all look like they are in different bands, although tonight they actually sound like a good rock 'n' roll unit. And they've got a good backdrop too.  Final band is Lucifer Star Machine. I've seen this lot once or twice before and not liked them much, although they can play well enough. There have been some lineup changes since I last saw them - and now they look a lot less like a rock 'n' roll band and more like the gayest band on the bill.  Regardless of their appearance, I don't enjoy their performance at all - getting off to a poor start with the singer insulting the crowd straight away for no reason. This doesn't go down well with me at all, but maybe I'm missing something? Going by tonight I can see why they are still playing tiny venues like this after quite a few years...

PS: This venue is now shut.