I got a PM asking me to review this one. I was also approached by a guy after the gig who had seen me noting down what had been played. He asked me to publish it on here coz he says he reads the forums here and he was “tripping so hard” that he had already forgotten what they’d actually played! Nice one. Hope you remember that conversation, man.
Apologies to anyone with a short attention span but this review will be pretty lengthy - I’m still not as verbose as JJ though ;-)
So here goes. This was the hotly anticipated first gig by Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats (or as it was billed “first London headline gig”, maybe some early incarnation played a pub to 3 people some time in the past, no one seems to know) at the Garage, a 650 capacity club in north London. This sold out back in August last year and there was an odd air of anticipation. Nobody really had a clue what to expect. I spoke to one guy who had flown over from Chicago just for this and there was more than a few Swedes around as well. I also saw a load of people I recognise from the London stoner scene.
The crowd was a mix of metallers, doomhounds, hipsters and some old dudes. Like in their 60s old. Often these days I’m the oldest one in the room but I actually felt quite youthful last night.
The stage set was interesting. Old mirrors in frames on the backdrop, silver tea service, old portable TVs tuned to static. A large portrait of Vincent Price as the Witchfinder General. I’m no gear expert but it all looked vintage to my untrained eye.
The place was packed by the time the band came on about 9.20 to the TV channel intro from Blood Lust. If you’ve seen the one press picture that seems to be out there (
http://media.metalhammer.co.uk/wp-conte ... adbeat.gif ) Uncle Acid is the dude with the umbrella, the guy on the right of the pic is the second guitarist.
I think the guy on the left is the bassist and I’m not sure who the guy at the back is unless he’s shaved his head as the drummer was completely bald. I’m really not sure about the last two because the band was backlit the whole gig. All oranges and blues, very little white light. It kept a bit of mystique I guess, without being wanky. My missus photographs bands and she said she was glad that she wasn’t working this gig last night; afterwards she spoke to a guy she knows who was working last night and he said that he didn’t think he’d got one clear face shot all night.
Anyway, I don’t recognise any of these guys from other bands on the scene.
First up was I’ll Cut You Down, perfect choice of opener, it got the crowd bouncing. A few things became clear immediately. I’d been concerned as to how they would sound and how well they could play. I’d feared the sound might be a bit too fat or shiny or metal, coz part of the charm of the records is the lo-fi production. Also, could he pull off the vocals?
It was immediately apparent that they can play. They sounded tight and well-rehearsed. Good players without any flashiness. (Indeed, they sounded far tighter and better rehearsed than the support act Purson, who admittedly had some technical problems, but seemed sloppy and less comfortable onstage than Uncle Acid, despite having been on the scene for a while now and with a few high profile support slots under their belt. Awesome vocals though).
The sound was perfect. A bit fatter than on record but still kind of retro and lo-fi (the Garage has a fantastic sound system after a refurbishment a few years ago and the mix last night was perfect). And, yeah, he can pull the vocals off live. Deliberately slightly buried in the mix, just like on the records. It was almost like listening to the studio version at times, but with one huge difference. They were played faster. Much, much faster. But that was fine, they weren’t too fast, they got the crowd bouncing and headbanging and even, er, dancing.
Next up was Crystal Spiders off Vol.1 and then a new song which Uncle introduced as the first song off the forthcoming Mind Control. I’m not sure whether he meant Poison Apple (which I’m not too familiar with, I’ve played it once and thought I would wait for the record to hear it in context) or whether he meant the first song on the record. Good song whichever one it was, but nothing mindblowing on first hearing and it quietened the crowd a little.
The dude is very softly spoken by the way, said little and no “Islington, you are the rock and roll capital of the world, shit”. Not a huge amount of playing to the crowd either. They just did their thing.
The next song was another new one and it was fucking killer, easily the best new one of the night. Lyrics about motorcycles and mind control from what I could make out.
After that we got I’m Here To Kill you off Blood Lust, then another new song which he introduced like this: “Who here likes drugs? (cheers) Who here wants some drugs? (more cheers) This is what happens when you do drugs. “ A slower, doomier song. Liked it a lot.
Another new one, then Death’s Door which people had been shouting for from the start. Song of the night, brought the fucking house down. Again, much faster than on record.
One more new one, again very good, quite lengthy if I remember right, a quick break and an encore of Over and Over Again and Vampire Circus.
And that was your lot. Played about 60 minutes. Crowd response was fantastic. My expectations were more than exceeded. Got a sweet “I dropped Acid in London” T shirt and me and the wife went off into the night (well, to the pub round the corner actually).
tl; dr? They fucking killed.