




Caught the last 10 minutes of Blood Safari. They’ve been trumpeted as making sounds like The Gun Club and The Gories, but sounded to me more like Eddie and The Hot Rods at 45rpm. All a little too macho to really be in that company. I popped back downstairs to quickly empty my bladder passing Kim Salmon on the stairs. Making my way back up, I heard the opening screech of Swampland and rushed in. The sound was fantastic, I always thought that the sound of the records would be difficult to recreate live but the noise of the twin guitar attack still cut through without sounding just like noise. I suppose these guys have been doing it long enough to get it right. The new drummer girl fits right in and has the touch to keep that unique bass/drum throb rolling. It’s difficult to pick highlights from a show where everything seemed so effortless, but Atom Bomb Baby and Blood Red River got the biggest cheers. I’m glad I saw them here with about 150 people in the room than at the mega-scale ATP over the weekend. Funniest moment? Kim trying to persuade the crowd to buy a live CD, then realising he was talking to a snooty vinyl crowd and turning it back on them by saying “I know you only buy vinyl but you don’t know what you’re missing until your hear Tony breaking all six strings at once” Seeing The Scientists, highlighted what had been missing from the Drones show in Glasgow a few days earlier. I thought the Drones had perhaps been a little tired when I saw them, but in comparison, it wasn’t energy that was lacking - it was the self-assurance with which The Scientists make the same kind of intense noise which made them the fiercer beast at close quarters.