Viagra Noise

My good friend Zayn saw Viagra Boys in New Zealand / Aotearoa back in January and loved them. I wondered why I hadn't got a ticket for their tour then forgot about it. Until I spoke to Pete on the day of their gig at Ally Pally and said to him to enjoy it. Then Olly pops up and aligns the stars for me. He can't make the gig, I didn't know he was going, and had 5 minutes to transfer his Dice ticket to someone. So at 6 pm I call Pete to say I'm going too and make a shift northwards. A pint in the Starting Gate then I meet Pete and Wendy at the station and we walk up the hill in the drizzle. Three sets of gates later we are into the Palm Court then through the food court into the arena. We've missed support but entertained by a screen showing the crowd being filmed for Kiss Cam and Down a Pint Cam. The bars and loos have long queues so we forego drinks. It's packed and the mosh is too crowded to contemplate at least this sober. Viagra Boys take the stage with their usual high energy with the singer pacing around and patting his belly proudly. To be honest the first few songs are fairly basic rock without anything to stand out from the crowd not helped, and maybe due to, an overly heavy drums that overpower all else. This is something that large halls like this can suffer from. Pete pops off and when back says that the sound is much better a little further back and to the side and indeed we can now hear that there is indeed a guitarist and sax players. From here on the tunes sound a lot better. More intense and punky. Except for their ballad which I really don't understand. As for lighters and arms waved around WTF this is the Viagra Boys. Soon enough after a brief break they go into a less rock vibe and we are treaty to a few numbers verging on a dance beat. This is the cue to go a bit psychedelic and certainly not basic rock. The two sax players are gifted the stage for an intense Ted Milton style blurting which goes on for quite a few minutes and which I think I'm loving more than most in the hall. Nik Turner (RIP) comes to mind and now we're getting into the sharp end of the set they come full on Hawkwind intro with a build up of synths before a gritty bass (Lemmy-like RIP) kicks in and then the band go full into a hard hitting punk dance number which Wendy informs me is Research Chemicals. It must go on for a good ten minutes quietening down towards the end then building up to a great climax. The highlight of the night for me. Seemingly not for most others though. After all that excitement the band leave the stage although it seems we're getting an encore. Just here I should mention the vocalist front man. Covered in tattoos and prowling the stage he has some presence. It's apparently his 36th birthday today and he tells us he's going to tell us a story... as he starts there's a few people heckling down the front and he seems a bit miffed and says let me tell my story. They don't but then he realises that they are singing happy birthday and we all join in. The singer's miffed look turns to appreciation and then he tells his story about being 16 at the bottom of a swimming pool asking god to save him and he promises to... play a gig at Alexandra Palace. Or something along those lines. For the encore we move to near the door for a quick getaway... the local railway station gets extremely busy with kettling after a gig here. Staff are putting someone prone onto a stretcher which I hope is simply over excitement or temporary drunk- / drug-ness rather than anything permanent. At the end we make our way down through the continuing drizzle to the station and get a surprisingly (I've waiting here before for ages after a gig or festival day) quick train i.e. the first that comes. So an unexpected great evening although not unexpectedly great if you catch my drift. Thanks Olly, I owe you one. How much of one I don't know as the ticket price isn't shown on Dice. Let's settle on a couple of cocktails at Simon's wedding yeah? I'll introduce you to the Pickleback...