There were only two ways tonight could have gone: horribly awful or brilliantly spectacular. Luckily for the black leather jacket-wearing crowd it was the latter.
Most bands on their 25 Year Anniversary tours seem to lack in charisma, energy and passion but this was not the case for Danzig tonight. As soon as the 5ft 4″ King of Darkness walked on-stage, there was undoubtedly a sense of worship from all spectators present as this set was for the fans and only made up of requests.
“Do you want to hear songs from Danzig I or II?” said the Misfits legend. Goths, Punks, Metallers and psycho-billies united for an alternative hit-filled evening and called out their choices.
Playing a set consisting of Her Black Wings, Am I Demon? Twist Of Cain, She Rides, Long Way Back From Hell to name a few, Danzig and his band even threw in a few songs from III & IV. If that wasn’t enough, he then welcomed Doyle to the stage to play a full blown Misfits set. Doyle comes out like a T-Rex looking for his prey and completely dominates. Danzig and Doyle are then thrown back right where they belong, together. Changing his guitar after every song due the breakage of strings, it was Punk Rock as it’s meant to be: dark, heavy and nihilistic. At this point, fans are loosing their shit as they thrash through a set of classics that include ‘Vampira’, ‘London Dungeon’, ‘Last Caress’, ‘Skulls’ and ‘Die, Die My Darling’. Venue meltdown.
The rest of the band are completely overshadowed by Danzig and Doyle, but tonight was only ever going to be the Danzig and Doyle show, and rightly so. This is the only way to see the Misfits, not the cheap imitations that came after Danzig departed.
As they exit the stage, the crowd are chanting “We are 138, We are 138!”. They encore ‘Mother’, but the crowd are still chanting “We are 138” until Doyle returns to the stage and they give the crowd what they want. The entire audience erupts as they knew it was going to be the last time to dance. You could barely hear Danzig’s voice from everyone in the room singing along. It was a truly magnificent moment!
If there’s one anniversary show you have to go and see this year, make sure it’s Danzig’s. The dark king has returned and he is showing no mercy.
Lianna Davies
I don’t usually expect much from an opening act, but as a dark and mysterious six piece materialise before me at Hoxton Square I sense this gang aren’t just ‘some indie band’. Lola Colt opens with a lazy guitar line, sauntering beside a hazy blend of percussion before exploding into a deep, dark groove. Reminiscent of 60’s psychedelia, and capturing a little swirly shoegaze magic too, just as you think this lengthy instrumental is receding, front woman Gun Overbye’s cavernous howl makes the room shake.
As a devout fan of My Bloody Valentine, Kevin Shields, Fender Jaguars and everything surrounding these three golden Shoegaze fundamentals, I was utterly stoked when I discovered the Valentine’s had announced a tour of their new record mbv and more importantly, that they were to descend upon London for a string of live dates in March.
Despite remaining spellbound by Shields’ whammy bar wielding guitar wizardry, I begin to wonder why tonight’s set has such a narrow selection of their new material. There are plenty of the old favourites thrown in there, ‘Only Shallow’, expectedly sends everyone nuts and pre Loveless ‘Thorn’ and ‘Cigarette in Your Bed’ receive rapturous applause from the 5000 strong crowd. Yet only three tracks from mbv are on offer tonight from Shields & Co. Is this simply because they reached their peak with Loveless all those 22 years ago? Only Kevin knows.
It’s a cold Monday evening and London’s Relentless Garage venue is graced with the presence of Funeral For a Friend. A somewhat intimate venue for these guys, who are no stranger to filling Brixton Academy and the like. The post-hardcore band have had a good, solid last ten years, enjoying major label success with ‘Hours and Tales Don’t Tell Themselves’ to taking a more indie route with the last few albums including the new album ‘Conduit’ which hit the shelves earlier this year.
Hidden away is Dingwalls, but tonight Fidlar and support band Drenge are determined to make their voices heard. Drenge are made of two brothers from Sheffield who capture the familiar indie sounds of the steel city tonight. While taking elements from indie veterans The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines, making Drenge sound like a distant relative of theirs.