buzzcocksfan: March 2018

21.3.18

Gary Numan + Nightmare Air. The Empire, Middlesbrough. 17.03.18.

Sliding up the A19 to Middlesbrough in a blizzard wasn’t exactly fun. Nor was queuing outside The Empire in sub—zero temperatures, especially when the doors had opened half an hour earlier. Once inside however spirits lifted.

Opening proceedings Los Angeles shoegazers Nightmare Air prove, once again, that it’s always worth watching support bands. Amongst clouds of smoke and lights switching between neon blue and sensor defying red they deliver a superb blend of loud, swirling guitar sounds from Dave Dupuis, heavy drum beats from Jimmy Lucido and Swaan Miller’s driving bass rhythms all overlaid with Miller’s softly piercing ethereal vocals. Plenty of distortion, plenty of effects, the majority of their set is taken from new album Fade Out – a more mainstream, commercial, almost poppy album than predecessor High In The Lasers that certainly delivers some big, catchy tunes. ‘Who’s Your Lover’, ‘Fade Out’, ‘Strange Things’ hook you in as they build from quiet openings to sudden thumping beats, rumbling bass lines and goth tinged guitar riffs. Miller shares vocal duties with Dupuis on the sublime ‘Sweet Arrows’ and again on set closer ‘Icy Daggers’, one of only two songs from High In The Lasers and a full on, thrashing guitar finale.

Nightmare Air

Gary Numan seems to be on a career high at the moment with latest album Savage (Songs From A Broken World) charting at no.2 in 2017. Tonight’s stage set has a spectacular light show. Dazzling, piercing colours so bright your eyes hurt before everything plunges into a wash of red or near complete darkness. It matches his stage presence and music perfectly. With a well-known dislike of dwelling on the past tonight’s set consists of just four songs from his early days of electronica stardom. Even these - ‘Down In The Park’, ‘Cars’, ‘Me, I Disconnect From You’ and ‘Are Friends Electric’ - are delivered with an dark edge and harder more industrial sound. Savage makes up the bulk of the evening – focusing on a barren, post-apocalyptic world resulting from climate change – these are dark, muscular, guitar heavy yet still synth driven songs that see Numan throw himself completely into each and every one. ‘Ghost Nation’, ‘My Name Is Ruin’ and ‘When The World Comes Apart’ drive straight into you with thumping beats and layers of synths. ‘Halo’, ‘Here In The Black’, ‘Haunted’, ‘Love Hurt Bleed’, ‘The Fall’ span a number of previous albums but all slot perfectly into the set. Hard, soaring, potentially stadium filling songs. Anyone expecting a greatest hits package may have been sorely disappointed with tonight’s song choice. I doubt there were many. Numan has a huge number of devoted followers, a significant number of whom are here, hanging on every word of every song, singing along with eyes full of nothing but adoration. No one could have been disappointed with the show Gary Numan and band put on. Visually spectacular, energetic, tight and note perfect together with that so distinctive voice (also note perfect). Not a minute wasted, absolutely no talking between songs except a quiet “Thank you” before returning for a two song encore. ‘Prayer For The Unborn’ and ‘My Last Day’ slow things right down yet, in their own way, are no less emotionally powerful.

Well worth the slow drive home in the continuing blizzard.

Gary Numan

7.3.18

The BellRays, Fuzzy Vox, Johnny Seven. Westgarth Social Club, Middlesbrough. 03.03.18.

Johnny Seven never disappoint. Formed in Teesside in ’78, disbanded in ’80, reformed in 2011. Tonight there’s a decent crowd in to see them and they treat us to some top punk rock ‘n’ roll. Johnny Seven play punk you can dance to. Proper, tuneful punk that deserves the response it gets with people singing along to ‘Shot Down’, ‘Can’t Escape Rock N Roll’ and ‘LSD’. Johnny Seven are not a tired old punk band. They ooze energy. Dominic Green, unable to stand still, bouncing round the small Westgarth stage, eyeballing the punters whist delivering a class set of tunes. Johnny Baines and Pete Wilson deliver slashing guitar riffs whilst Paul Ford & Paddy Muldowney hold it together with driving rhythms. There’s simply no let up as they hammer out ‘LSD’, ‘Pumpin’ The Pomp’, the classic ‘Skinheads’ and more. Catchy, ska tinged punk. Ending with a manic version of the Pistols ‘Bodies’ I am, once again, glad I’ve seen this band.

Johnny Seven

Garage, punk, blues, rock? Blend them all together and you pretty much get Fuzzy Vox, noise merchants from France who tonight did their best to take the roof off the Westgarth. Energetic, passionate, animated. It’s a matter of seconds before the rapidly swelling crowd are irresistibly drawn nearer the stage by some fine infectiously raucous beats. Frontman/vocalist/guitarist Hugo Fabri is all over the place. Leaping around, on his knees, on top of the speakers, screaming out his vocals as he hammers his guitar. Bassist Greg Dessons a master of the punk funk stance whilst drummer Jeremy Norris is the only topic of conversation in the gents afterwards –“How the fuck did he play like that with just 4 drums?” It’s exhausting watching them. Sonically contagious, their set passes with the speed at which they play and it’s over all too quickly. Look them up – ‘Told You Before’, ‘I Want Drums’, ‘Explosion Of Love’ are all good places to start. Then go and see them. You won’t be disappointed.

Fuzzy Vox

The BellRays two recent releases are titled Punk Funk Rock Soul – Vol 1 and Vol 2. Add in a bit of ‘Blues’ and you’ve got a perfect description of this powerhouse of a band. Opening with ‘Bad Reaction’ – a full on, rocking number that showcases perfectly Lisa Kekaula’s furiously powerful vocals. The BellRays are a hard hitting, kick-ass band who command your attention. Loud, powerful, in your face, rockin’ tunes that, although the tempo occasionally slows and calms a little – ‘I Can’t Hide’ - the energy and presence never let’s go. Kekaula, together with Bob Vennum on guitar dominate the stage. Huge riffs with some mean solo’s thrown in whilst Kekaula prowls the stage and, at one point, strolls amongst the audience making sure that no one forgets they’re witnessing something special. Despite their extensive back catalogue tonight’s main set, with the exception of one song – ‘Infection’ – is drawn entirely from just three releases. The previously mentioned Punk Funk Rock Soul Vols 1 and 2 and 2010’s Black Lightning. This is by no means a criticism. PFRS are both superb. Full of slashing punk rock guitars (‘Mine All Mine’), heavy soul (‘I Don’t Wanna Cry’), garage rock (‘Soul Girl’) to name just three from the ep that is Vol 1. Both are played in full whilst ‘Power To Burn’, ‘Living A Lie’, ‘Everybody Get Up’ and ‘Black Lightning’ from Black Lightning are raw, hard, aggressive, gritty, catchy numbers that make it impossible not to shake your body. 19 high octane songs dominated by that voice. A voice that is nothing less than wonderful. BellRays reviews consistently say things like ‘Aretha Franklin fronts The Stooges’, ‘Tina Turner meets MC5’ and it’s impossible to disagree. After leaving the stage for a short breather they return to rip through a cover of ‘Johnny Be Good’ and that’s it. It’s only March and I reckon this will be another gig in my top five of 2018.

THE BELLRAYS