The Distillers @ The Refectory
By Lemon Head RonIt was cold, it was raining and I had to queue up for like half an hour to get in... but to be honest that's the only real negative of the night; well there is another but I'll get on to that soon enough... this gig's been sold out for a while; I had to get my tickets before Christmas. The crowd inside was a good mixture, predominantly younger than I'd thought but now and again the aging punk would walk past, wearing their original Ramones t-shirt and comparing wrinkled tattoos with the youngsters.
It's always good to have a good look around the top balcony early on at Uni gigs to do a bit of star spotting, straight away Distillers man mountain drummer Andy Granelli could be seen sat watching the crowd (the man is huge he must be at least 6'4 and going on 18 stone, but he did used to be a semi-pro Wrestler so...). Two of the twats from Lost Prophets were also seen walking around. Probably looking for fresh sheep. But the real stars this evening would be the ones walking and talking on stage. Up first were The Eagles of Death Metal, a band that features the coolest man in rock at the moment Josh Homme on drums. He didn't seem too down at only recently having to sack long time band mate Nick Oliveri and lose Mark Lanegan from main band Queens of the Stone Age. This incarnation of Homme is much more poppy than some of his others, the three piece (drums/vocals, guitar and guitar/vocals) kick straight into a rocking set, full of Hill Billy style rock riffs and trademark Homme beats (strange as this is the only band as far as I know that he drums in). The stage is set up to show off Josh to the crowd, the kit (the tiniest kit you've seen) is to the front on a small stage whilst the two vocal/guitarists stand to the sides. Whilst the music is good you feel with Homme's presence the bands going to probably go further than it deserves...
After a short break came the Icarus Line, I was hoping to write something here about how good they were but... I can't and this is probably the other negative for me of the night, I'm not a fan...the band played pretty bland uninspiring music a mixture of old school Primal Scream and maybe the Black Crowes. Being the filling between a Homme-Dalle sandwich must be hard at the best of times, you're either going to be the perfectly wafer sliced smoked ham and cheese, or like tonight you're going to be the Best Buy corned beef... sorry guys...
After a pretty long break in my opinion which included a fire alarm going off (though most including myself thought this to be the arrival of the band) we have the Distillers, I won't lie I haven't followed this band since they formed or in fact bought all their albums, though I do have them. Nope, I discovered this band pretty much around the same time as most people: when they released "City of Angels". And if Josh Homme is the coolest man in rock, then walking on stage is the definitely the coolest woman (her job being all the more easy as sadly I can't name that many great women in rock). She swaggers on stage, gives the crowd a big old (f**k you!) wave, puts on the guitar and we're off. Brody Dalle can sing... god can she sing and she can play the guitar... really well and it's not a case of give the girl a guitar she needs something to do... no, no, up until recently she did all the guitar parts for the band before one time tech Tony Bradley got promoted. Oh and when she wants she can look damn amazing, covering 13th Floor Elevators' "You'll Miss Me Babe" she looked as good as any woman has, before this she was probably number... 3 or 4 on my "I'd most like to Shag List" after this gig she's at number two (sorry Brody, Jolie's still hanging in there.)
The band stick to playing most of the songs from their new album "Coral Fang" which suits me fine as it's by far their best and least play by numbers punk. Only now and again dipping in to their back catalogue (self titled album and "Sing Sing Death House"). The band say little inbetween songs and the band pull enough of the banter to deflect the eyes from what could so easily be the Brody Dalle band. The set seems to fly and before long the band are waving off from their two song encore. It was a great gig, the sound was good, the crowd was good, two of the bands were amazing and I even managed to grab some snazzy bootleg merch before heading off for a quick pint...
What can I say if you're going to buy one album this year then WHOOPIE DOOO TO YOU!!! CORAL FANG WAS OUT LAST YEAR AND EVERYONE SHOULD OWN IT!
