4/2/2011 - 999, Johnny Throttle, Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons @ Boston Arms Music Room

Subject	999, Johnny Throttle, Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons @ Boston Arms Music Room
DateCreated	2/6/2011 5:33:00 PM
PostedDate	2/6/2011 9:06:00 PM
	This show was originally going to take place at The Gaff but since that venue's recent closure it has been moved to the Boston Arms Music Room in Tufnell Park. A lot of us are really going to miss The Gaff, it's cool rock 'n' roll vibe, cheap door & bar prices and it's excellent public transport links.  Now all we have to remind us are some great memories and our now useless membership cards.  Still, this isn't a bad venue and there's more room for the bigger shows - and the drinks are at pub prices so it's not all bad!  On first tonight are the excellent Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons This lot kick out 50's inspired rock 'n' roll with a modern twist and voodoo/zombie/horror inspired songs. They are highly entertaining! Think along the lines of Catwoman having a fight with The Cramps and Tank Girl down a dark alley with a rock 'n' roll soundtrack and you're in the right ballpark.  Next up is Horrorshow. The name suggests some sort of Hammer inspired Goth rockabilly band.  Unfortunately this well wide of the mark. They turn out to be some sort of skinhead Oi band from Poland or somewhere. The vibe in the room changes completely - Dave says "I think I've gone to the football by mistake!" - which sums up the thuggish vibe quite accurately. They aren't even a very good band. The pit goes predictably mental and the beer of innocent bystanders goes flying.  The goons attempts at 'dancing' look more like a barroom brawl - and sure enough, violence does inevitably break out once or twice.  The threatening vibe of the whole thing strongly reminds me of some documentaries I've seen on TV recently on the rise of the Nazi party in Germany in the 1930s. The band have a small banner saying 'WORKING CLASS' on the wall behind them. At the end of the band's set one of their fans jumps on stage - grabbing the banner and proudly holding it above his head - back to front so no one can read it. That says it all about how smart these guys are... Johnny Throttle are up next. This is more like it! If you like your 'old school' punk like it was in 1977 and before it became a mohawked studded leather jacket cliche then you really need to check this band out. This lot are basically a raw and dirty rock 'n' roll band - full of punk attitude. Their frontman owes a lot to Iggy and Stiv, but there's nothing wrong with that. If you like high energy in your face rock 'n' roll with a sneer and lashings of attitude then you need to go and see Johnny Throttle. And so to the headliners. Yes, if the previous band are trying to recapture the spirit of 1977 (and doing a bloody good job) then 999 are technically more authentic and the real deal - as they are actually ARE a band from those heady times. 999 like Chelsea and The Lurkers were of one of the punk revolution's 'also rans'. They were a 'name' for a while and had a following back in the day, but they never managed to rise above club gig status. Not a bad band - in fact better than the original UK Subs, but not good enough to rise to the levels of the Pistols, Clash, Damned, and Stranglers. Those bands wrote a bunch of classic songs, and 999 wrote average ones - and that's what they play tonight. They are a lot better than Horrorshow, but tonight they aren't anything like as good as Johnny Throttle. Maybe there were once? I don't know as I never saw them, but tonight they are a bunch of middle aged men playing mediocre songs. To be fair, the Sex Pistols weren't much better when I saw them in Brixton a couple of years ago - but they had some great songs! Oh well - it's been an interesting and varied night, but only two out of the four bands playing were really worth seeing.