Simon and I deciding that the Windmill is as good a place as any to catch up we let others know so Pete, Wendy and Todd meet us there. First up are a four piece called Winnx who are self styled "Bratz rock angels irl" and they certainly hit the mark. They play a brilliant set ranging from off beat late 70s punk through to late 70s out and out rock verging into heavy metal at times. Forced to name bands you'd have to go with a Slits / X-Ray Spex / Girlschool / Runaways combo. The lead singer / guitarist (and sometime bassist) dances around like Poly Styrene and sings like both her and Ari Up. A touch of the Suzi Quatro too which is always a good thing, especially as she plays bass on the first song so I did wonder if it was a nod to that 70s trailblazer for women's musicianship. The main bassist head bangs and jumps around. The lead guitarist plays like a rocker crouching down for twiddly bits. And the drummer hits out a heavy beat. Now I don't usually rate solos and they are like hen's teeth at the Windmill but tonight we are treated to (and I mean treated) a bass solo, a proper guitar solo in addition to other twiddly bits with songs and two full on drum solos with no one else playing. Not quite Ginger Baker length standard when you could go for a piss and get a beer and he'd still be going but just as enjoyable (not that GB's was to be honest). So all in all a brilliant start to the night and left me thinking that we'd seen the best of the night. All bands were great in their own way but the 1st definitely were not overshadowed by anyone following.
Next up were Bloodworm who play a very commendable goth set covering pre, early and later of the genre. Some sounded like covers of Joy Division, The Cure (A Forest intro) and Bauhaus. They sound good but slightly tainted by thinking is this a cover song.
Shtëpi have a great south London sound in a Fat White Family raucous kind of a way and very funky in parts with a very energetic front man. And the whole band to be honest. As with all the bands tonight there's a good lot of punters down the front jigging about and really getting into the great music. It's hotting up after 3 great bands in time for the headliners which is a single launch party, tho I didn't see any singles on sale so maybe only streaming and not on vinyl.
And so to Funhaus, , , nicely warmed up by the last band for another strong dose of south London post punk mayhem. Not sure anything can be labelled post punk so long after punk but maybe I can carry on it's lazy description until 50 years after punk broke into the mainstream in 1976. Or maybe I'll use 77 as the break through year. Anyway we have a great punky energetic set with some heavy duty rocking tunes with a good touch of weirdness and I guess I have to namecheck Stooges if only due to the name. A lot of moshing which I unsuccessfully tried to push Pete into and Simon does join on the edges and having a pint spilt over his nice off white jacket. Very off white now in parts. I resist as happy to enjoy watching the kids jumping around. So a great night which Simon Todd and I finish with a night cap in the garden. Not bad for less than the price of a pint as a quid per band tonight.
 |
| The brilliant Winnx - not rock guitar pose |
 |
| winnx_atyou (Instagram tag) |
 |
| Bloodworms |
 |
| Shtëpi |
 |
| Shtëpi |
 |
| Funhaus |
 |
| Funhaus |
No comments:
Post a Comment