Ho99o9

The night after Peaches Simon and I find ourselves again out together this time another old London haunt the famous 100 Club. It's hardly salubrious but I earwig someone coming up to it saying to their friend Ooh dunnit look posh. I guess it does seeing as who's on tonight which is hardly start spangled glittery groovers. And I guess the entrance to the club looking like an old style basebent club contrasts with the punters lounging around outside sitting on the kerb of Oxford Street as if this is an all day festival rather than an evening gig. Ain't they got no stamina? Anyways it adds to the atmosphere outside. Down the stairs in side we get a drink and soon first act on which is (probably, maybe) Blue Daisy who are a drummer (this is a theme tonight) and singer (shouter) who sometimes twiddles some knobs but mainly shouts at the audience. Drummer and backing tape support the angry singer who spends a lot of the time out in the crowd either eyeballing and shouting lyrics aggressively at audience members trying to enjoy their pints, I'm surprised no one hit him but he looked pretty solid, or dancing whilst singing to the few youngsters going for it and creating 3 person mosh pits. All very entertaining. The music is pretty hard core thrash punk obviously heaving on the beats. A pretty good start to the evening and builds up some expectation for the next band...

Another drummer this time on his own save his synths and backing tapes. This is pretty hard core with a big thrashy sound reminiscent of the Beastie Boys punk rap early stuff. He seems a little bit earnest jumping between drums and synths but I guess he needs to keep himself occupied and the music's well worthwhile. After a thrashy start he, not 100% sure but think it's NAH, goes a bit trippier with a jazz tinged funkier groove that could be Rage Against the Machine or even those precursors of thrash funk Big Black. Goes down very well and he's appreciative of our appreciation. Virtual group hugs all round.

Not sure the next band are the hugging type. But the hard ones always have a soft centre. Don't they? Ho99o9 apparently pronounced horror take the stage. We have one drummer, long haired but turns out it's a wig so short haired, one of our heroes sporting a mexican wrestler face mask and wedding dress albeit one which looks like there was the mother of all inter family bust ups at the wedding, and the most norming looking guy with green hair. Which tells you something. This is hard core punk with some great big beats from the now short haired drummer and a lot of hip hop style rap shouting bouncing between the two on the mics. Obviously there's the obligatory backing tapes that one of the singers twiddles with once he's removed his mask and can see and his dress so he can move about. It's not just about the thrash though and there's some pretty catchy melodies lurking and jumping out at you just when you don't expect it. Massive drums, shouting, deep punky funkiness. Are Big Black coming into their own albeit channelling through other bands? The crowd are going for it and the resident photographer and video maker have to retreat somewhat. A continuous stream of crowd surfers jumping off the low stage to be carried hither and whither adds to the fun. One guy hangs on the overhead cable which comes away from the ceiling resulting in a shower of dust catching in the lights beautifully. Simon and I appreciate the sparkliness until we remember the age of the 100 Club and realise it's probably asbestos. I try to stop breathing in for a while just in case. Nothing can detract from the gig though. Very competent and enjoyable and I think they are pleased to be here. It's raucous but nothing too outrageous and during the animated encore I do uncharitably think that this ain't the most aggressive gig I've been to here. Having a DM footprint etched on my forehead at a Gallows gig comes to mind. I try my best tonight venturing into the mosh pit and it's by no means the tamest gig at the 100 Club. Another enjoyable night but after two in a row and having been regaled by drummers for two nights I'm snoozing on the Northern Line back home. A good one. Cheers Simon.

Probably Blue Daisy

My camera skills are getting way too crap

Half of the band, well, 2/3 if you count the drummer

Peaches Xtreme

A last minute invite from Simon sees us meet at the Elephants Head then weave our way through the early Sunday evening Camden crowds to the Electric Ballroom. We arrive just in time to see the support band who's name I can't remember but ends in CK. They are a girl duo playing full on euro pop one who drums one drum a bit and sings and the other sings and for a couple of songs plays a weird bass with bit curving out over the neck. Odd. They may be euro pop but they have a hard edge to them and veer into full on disco for a couple of numbers. Drums and disco are definitely the flavour of the month, as we shall see more of tomorrow. They wear short skirts and sing about sexy stuff which is certainly tonights theme but definitely not tomorrows. I'm getting ahead of myself. They sound a bit 80s esepcially when chanting mobile phone, sexy whatever and the like. But their hard edge gets us in the mood for a full on euro sexy poppy night. They go off to an appreciative applause.

For the main course Simon and I weave our way into the crowd to be told off for standing in front of someone's girlfriend. FFS this is a gig isn't it? Simon tells him that everyone will move around as soon as the band are on so don't worry about it. He does but Simon's right of course. Peaches soon takes the stage looking like George Clinton. I don't often comment on the bands costumes but Peaches has more changes than Madonna which often involves simply taking off more clothes until by the end of the night she's wearing virtually nothing. Well nothing that hides her modesty. But I'm getting ahead of myself again. The first song sets the sexy (if you can call it that) scene as Peaches is joined by two lithe figures, boy and girl, or rather man and woman, who are both dressed as giant vaginas who sort of open and close seductively. Well, a lot of the crowd seemed to thing so and like so much of Peaches act there was rapturous applause and shouting whenever these two, or Peaches herself, did something vaguely provocative. Maybe seeing a thin bloke dressed as a vagina or in bondage gear floats the boat of the younger generation but I prefer a more demure and restrained sexiness. This was just downright lewd. However, it was entertaining and I guess went very well with the music. Ah yes, that little business, after all we are at gig. Peaches is the one woman singing, OK, with her two dancers, and no band. Having listened to a bit of her stuff beforehand it seems she's migrated from disco to hard post grime (don't ask me to explain) but tonight is a mix of the two which results in some big clubby anthemic techno neu pop. It feels like it should be in a small grubby dark club with a couple of hundred grooving away with a bit of space, always sadly lacking here, but there again you can imagine Peaches holding court in an arena smashing it with big anthems. We tried our best to dance about and managed to get a bit of space to exercise our legs at times. Simon ventures forward into the throng but gets elbowed back and put in his place. Jeez the youth are up tight aren't they. Let's go out and enjoy ourselves, but we don't want to get carried away do we or let anyone dance near us. Yeah, maybe Peaches and her followers belong at Wembley Arena rather that at Xoyo. The music's pretty good flitting between Madonna and a more modern techno dance beat but it's not full on madness that's for sure. Maybe everyone's spent after the weekend. We are treated to Peaches walking out over the audience (see pic) and one of the props is a huge phallic blow up thing that is pumped up above our heads (ditto). Amusing. One to file in the family album as ticked off but not to be revisited unless bump into her in a tent at a festival.

Support act ending in CK

Weird lighting on the support

Peaches in about her 3rd costume change

These boots were made for walking...

Semi flaccid giant dick

The last and probably skimpiest costume