Music > Live Reviews
ME FIRST & THE GIMME GIMMES, THE BRIEFS & THE BLACK TONES
The Nick Rayns LCR, UEA
05/12/24
It is filthy night in Nozza, it has taken me an hour and a half to get home from work and I could really do with staying in rather than heading to the LCR… Fortunately, I drag my sorry carcass out of the house and THE BLACK TONES do a fine job of livening me up with a damned fine set of bluesy, garage rock. Featuring Eva on vox and guitar, her twin brother Cedric on drums and husband Jake on bass, they bring to mind Muddy Waters jamming with The Sonics. There’s nowt new here but The Black Tones do what they do very well indeed, with Mama! There’s A Spider In My Room and Welcome Mr Pink being particularly good.
THE BRIEFS inhabit the punkier and heavier end of new wave and power pop All skinny jeans and skinnier ties, they come across like a frenetic mash-up of early Damned, The Dickies, Buzzcocks and Ramones. Throw in a bit of Blondie’s songwriting fairy dust and Hanoi Rocks’s glam swagger and The Briefs deliver a superb, 30 minute burst of energy with barely a pause for breathe. Pretty much everything this band do is right up my alley and it begs the question as to why I have never heard of - let alone heard - this band before tonight.
Anyone that knows me well will know that I don’t really do covers or tribute bands (Ramonas, Slady and Bloodshake Chorus excepted). ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES are a covers band but, perhaps more importantly for this punter, a so-called punk rock supergroup…
Vocalist and main man Spike (Swingin’ Utters, Filthy Thievin’ Bastards) Slawson makes for a great frontman, with his somewhat OTT delivery and campy moves. Guitarists Jake (Strung Out!) and Stacey (Bad Cop/Bad Cop) Dee deliver slashing riffs and stinging solos. Formerly of The Damned, Janus Stark and English Dogs, Pinch is an absolute powerhouse on drums. CJ (if I have to name the band that he was in, I’ll give up and go home now) Ramone is a towering presence stage left.
On a stage bedecked with Christmas trees and tinsel, in a set that includes several Christmas songs, The Gimme Gimmes are clearly having festive fun. Some of the song choices may seem ridiculous and there is a risk of this turning into a comedy turn but there is more to this than simply being a novelty act. A good cover does not have to be better than the original, just different. The Gimme Gimmes deliver this in spades, taking the likes of Paula Abdul’s Straight Up, Neil Sedaka’s Love Will Keep Us Together (incorporating snatches of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart), John Denver’s Country Roads and Olivia Rodrigo’s Good 4 U and turning them into thumping punk anthems. In a 20 plus song set, the standouts are Jolene, (Ghost) Riders In The Sky and a gloriously overwrought I Will Survive. If I have any complaints, I have to say that I could have done without Slawson referring to me as 14 year old zoologist Guillermo when he asked me my name, age and profession from the stage but that’ll teach me to stand right at the barrier whilst making my notes for this review…