4/10/2014 Supersuckers @ Islington Academy

Hey - what's this? It looks like a rock 'n' roll show!

It sure is - it's a Supersuckers show!

The band take a bit of a chance starting off the set with several songs from their new album 'Get The Hell'. From the opening title track this sounds like good stuff and the crowd lap it up. Then frontman Eddie Spaghetti stops and says "OK - I think it's time to start the show". And then things really kick off! We get a whole bunch of the old crowd pleasing favourites like 'Bad Bad Bad', 'I Want The Drugs', 'Creepy Jacalope Eye', 'Paid', and the inevitable 'Pretty Fucked Up'.

Tonight Islington is 'Gold Top City'! Not one, not two, but three Gibson Gold Top guitars on the stage - even the bass guitar is a Les Paul Gold Top! That's pretty rock 'n' roll by anyone's standards, but then The Supersuckers are the (self proclaimed) 'Best rock 'n' roll band in the World'. And judging by tonight's performance that's a fair claim. They distill old school 1950's rock & roll with punk, country and hard rock. Some of their own favourite bands are AC/DC, The Ramones, and Motörhead - and it shows. Indeed at one point tonight if you closed your eyes it almost sounded like we were listening to Motörhead! Not just do Supersuckers play very loud, but at times they play very fast too. Make no mistake - this is good-time music, and the band love playing it. And they want you to have just as good a time as they are having. And we do.

They tell us there are a rock 'n' roll band who play rock 'n' roll music - and they like songs that have rock 'n' roll in the title. So they play some - 'The Evil Powers Of Rock 'N' Roll' and 'Rock 'N' Roll Records (Ain't Selling This Year)' and they play them very well. They are a pretty good live band, but they also have a pick-up truckload of great songs too.

I've seen this band from Seattle quite a few times and from the first time they were really good. Then several years ago they seemed to take a dip - possibly because it was the last date of a long tour and they were tired. Tonight they are back on form and we get blasted with a full on high energy rock 'n' roll show from the first song to the last. This time there is no acoustic 'country' section mid-set - in fact there isn't a single acoustic guitar in sight all night.

As well as the old favourites we get some newer songs like 'What It Takes' and 'When I Go, I'm Gone' before we get the Patent Supersuckers Fake Encore where to save time leaving the stage, waiting for the applause and calls of "More!", the band just stay on the stage and play their 'encore' songs straight away - making time to play more actual music instead of keeping people waiting. We like this idea. The last song is as usual an extended version of 'Born With A Tail' - which has become their 'Ace Of Spades' and is the song which got me into the band in the first place quite a few years ago. I don't think anyone goes home disappointed.

The band finish a few minutes before the curfew time of 11.00 - which leaves loads of time for a few beers in the Wetherspoons pub upstairs..