DIY Punk Show

A toss up between Monday and Tuesday night out and as none of the others Simon's asked have given the thumbs up to going out at all we plump for the Tuesday billed as a hardcore Rock 'n' Roll band to headline with 4 supporting punk bands. Sounds like a good way to wile away a Tuesday evening. And all for a fiver. Cycling round to Simon's on Debbie's new vintage French bike we don't leave til 8 and after stopping off at the cash point as I've forgotten to bring any dosh we get to the Windmill in Brixton having missed the first band.

We arrive at I guess the start of Resuscitators. I say I guess as they played quite a few songs so I think it was the start and they were billed as the Resuscitators although I swear the singer said that their name was duff something at the end of the set. Anyway they start the night with a dose of post Crass garage punk resuscitating memories of anarchist bands such as the Subhumans. So a great start to the evening with heavy back beat drumming and solid bass. All the bands turn out to be pretty similar lineups of all male drummer bass two guitars. Apart from the headliners. We nip outside for some air and meet Simon's mate who lives across the road for a chat.

Complete with post post punk haircut stage right

We're soon lured back inside by the punky sounds of Waco who start pretty hard and fast having a slightly more refined sound that the first band. Which is neither good nor bad, just different. They go through the first few years of the punk sound from garage to new wave leaving us with a great power punk pop standard at least that's what it sounds like and as they're really enjoying themselves we all get the feelgood factor in us. I say we all by that I mean the usual Windmill crowd and although it's not too crowded tonight. After discounting the half dozen resident old men who I'm sure don't pay, and the bands (23 people) and I guess a few liggers / roadies I think that it's probably only me and Simon who've actually paid to get that splodge of black ink on our hands. Still, I guess a pound a band can't be begrudged.

Building up to new wave

 Next up are the hotly anticipated Local Resident Failure. Mainly anticipated cos they're from Australia and so are due some respect, are relatively exotic and I'm keen to hear what's hot on the Aussie punk scene. They don't disappoint blasting us with a lively set of hard rock / punk songs really enjoying themselves rocking out in a distinctly unpunk manner and maybe it's because they're from down under but did I detect a touch of AC/DC big rocky guitar riffing in amongst the punk sensibilities? Yeah I did and so did others and it got our heads nodding but not quite banging. After they're off to well deserved applause and whoops we jump the gate to Steve's place and after a quick glass of red wine and ten minutes of watching Holes which still confuses me we're back for the headliners.

Aussies rocking

Sorry guitarist and drummer

Google's quite impressive "auto awesome"

The Ligaments break tonight's mould being a 3 piece singer on double bass guitarist and female drummer who Simon says reminds him of his old squeeze back in Bath. She wasn't old at the time mind. I don't remember her to be quite as muscular as the drummer but I guess I didn't know her like Simon. So we are indeed treated to a set as advertised of hardcore Rock 'n' Roll (that's how they wrote it). Hardcore guitar based punk really with a bit of slap bass thrown in by the charismatic lead singer. The guitarist and drummer were really tight together and if you didn't want a vocalist and a laid back stage presence just those two on their own were worth the entrance fee. The few songs on bandcamp I listened to before coming don't do them justice. The drumming was metronomic with some more flamboyant bits thrown in for good measure. The guitarist was tight on cue with a good variety of styles ranging from punk to heavy riffing and again a few fiddly bits thrown in to catch us out. With the bass that was mainly a slap of the strings on the wooden neck the whole came together beautifully topped off by singing duties mainly taken by the bassist with some backing assistance. The singer was the most animated and chatty although the guitarist did throw some decent moves and the drummer was hardly sedentary and for most of the time was lost behind her flailing hair.

Drummer get's in photo shocker

All in all a great evening and better than watching Big Brother. Sorry the photos are worse than usual. It's lofi lighting at the Windmill and with my flash I just get bright pictures of people's ears. And I like to take shots of where I'm standing rather than push through to the front to flash into the performers eyes. A note on the beer. They have a special Roof Dog beer on draught and bottles. As it says organic I ask Simon who's buying to ask if it's vegan or not. The barman doesn't know so I go for the bottle as less likely to have fish bits in it than cask. Next morning I nerdily look it up and find it's from a vegan friendly brewery Pitfield of London (pitfieldbrewery.com) and listed on the vegan drink web site (www.barnivore.com). And if you don't know Roof Dog is the dog on the roof (see what they've done there) who barks at passers by and those have a drink outside the pub. Although he now seems to have a friend who's more hairy than him who keeps on duty I guess whilst Roof Dog is having a snooze or whatever he gets up to. And if you think I'm making too much of this see here http://windmillbrixton.co.uk/grab-yourself-a-roof-dog-t-shirt. I think that's about as much as I should write for fear of boring my dear readers further. If anyone's still with me? If not I don't care as I write this for myself for future reference. So hello future aged Jim from young Jim. Well, you're 51 years old now so not so young. Just at the time that they started hyping Walking Football which is where you can't run and aimed at the over 50s. Sod them patronising bastards. I'll run when I play football or not at all. Anyways hope you're doing well future Jim and still cycling. Christ if anyone but my future self is reading this they may well send for the white jacket with the straps on the end of the arms.