LIVE MUSIC - Blue Thunder #5 @ The Montague Arms, London 16/02/2017
Review by Lee Whear
The great ship Blue Thunder storms through the gates of Neu Kross once again. Where there be long hair, there be rock. The fifth time the Inevitable Daydream boys have curated this behemoth of God-given rock & roll, and they once again prove that they are at the tipping point of the scene.
The Lewisham-based young boys are here to play their unreleased debut album in full, and with old songs getting a revisit, their growth is more than apparent. While ‘Sea Was Angry’ is still the bubbly shoegaze tune it used to be, with powerhouse Diego on drums and Jack being the young stoner axeman he is, there is a new harsh metallic kick to the track that gives it more life. Every song is played with gusto and with the solemn mission to absolutely rock. ‘Long Hair’ is a lurching emo anthem, and ‘Drive All Night’, released last year as a single, is better than any song Dinosaur Jr. have written for the last ten years, a blissful poetic grunge pop lullaby. ‘Brown Acid’ is an swaggering riff-based storm as usual, and with the promise of live favourite ‘LSD Over Tokyo’ finally getting a recorded release, there’s never a better time to be a fan of Britain’s best underground band.
With just a couple of tracks online, Lazy Pilgrims have a lot to prove, especially coming on after the Daydream boys. Their punchy garage pop works a delight however, recalling Pavement if Stephen Malkmus wasn’t a nerd.
And if they’re Crunchy Nut, Honey Lung are Shredded Wheat, Jamie ripping his guitar to shreds through jam grunge jams like ‘Perfect V’ and the gorgeous ‘Something’. With a whole EP already out there, there’s not much left for Honey Lung to show. They really are a fantastic band, Jamie hurling himself into the crowd for mosh-pleaser finale ‘End of Time’.
Bigman Solution closes the night, and they show that perhaps nu metal was never meant to die. Downtuned, serrated guitar riffs cut like ice, almost math rock-like rhythms beaten out for a shirtless Anton to spit, yelp and scream over. A real livewire, he clearly enjoys being able to conjure a crowd, and if these four bands can elicit pits and calls for “one more song!”, what will happen when they all finally get the time they deserve? Perhaps that’s just the beauty of the scene, knowing all these sick rock bands are right out of sight. More communal that way innit.
Soul Retribution by Bigman Solution