DIRTY LAUNDRY ALL-DAYER at THE HUNTER CLUB, BSE

It is always a pleasure to head to Bury St Edmunds - AKA BSE Rock City, as John Peel would have it - for a gig at The Hunter Club. Today’s extravaganza is an all-dayer celebrating the heavier, more extreme end of guitar music from East Anglia. Split between the bar and the Clarence Boddicker Memorial Stage in one of the (two) gig rooms.

Openers LAVA PIGEON are a colourful explosion of indie-meets-riot grrl. Mashing up the likes of Ut and Frightwig, their originals are more than decent and there is a tunning cover of Psycho Killer. For me, the Foo Fighters cover is unnecessary, but that may just be a reflection of my dislike of the Foos. The vox are a Feral Lena Lovich and the lead guitar sound is corking. This lot are good already, promise more and I want to see the, again,

From Colchester, GURN VICTIM are a 4-piece playing anarchopunk mixed with old school punk and hardcore, like a faster Crass, a Bad Breeding on downers - which is meant as a compliment - or Gallows. The vocalist has got the thousand yard stare of a young Lydon and they play it like they mean it.

H*LLO K*TTY FUNLAND specialise in doomy, crusty noisecore. The incredibly short songs recall mid-80s Peaceville - Napalm Death, Electro-Hippies.- with a big splash of Melt Banana.

Featuring members of Jaded Teeth, Slughouse and The Daze, DYRT WYZURD play modern stoner rock/doom/noise band in the vein of Pigs x7, Part Chimp or Gnod. With 4 songs in 23 minutes, the closer We Came, We Saw, we Riffed, We Doomed was very aptly named,

The first band of the day that I have seen previously, guitar/drums duo BROKEN PROMISES come on like a noise rock White Stripes doing Ramones. The cover of Meffs’ Broken Britain is a good pointer to their sound.

Another guitar and drums duo in the form of DOGS! TEETH! follow. Hard hitting, they kinda remind me of mid-90s Britrock - Wildhearts, Terrorvision - but, despite an incredibly charismatic frontman and a cracking drummer, it doesn’t really do it for me,

QUEEN DOGS have always been great but the new line-up are something else. Since I have last seen them, there have been line-up changes and they have developed from a straight-ahead punk - almost oi - band into something with all the burning, gothic menace of The Birthday Party. Absolutely scorching stuff.

SCABGASH melt faces with some mid-80s style UKHC in the vein of Scum-era Napalm Death, with incredibly short songs. The intensity is derailed a bit by the gaps and chat between songs.

I’ve seen FEMME DÉ a fair few times and bloody love what they do. Tonight they take things to another level: the performance is as intense as ever but they seem to be happier and having more fun on stage than I have seen before.

RAD PITT on the other hand are very much my thing. Heavy, intense, fast, cathartic and, Without doubt, one of the most fun bands I have ever seen. How many bands are there who invoke the crowd to a human pyramid only to have the guitarist cause it to collapse when he tries to get to the top?

I must confess that not everything has been my thing. THE FIFTH FLAW’s Chilli Peppers style funk rock really doesn’t do it for me. Decent musicians, this is just not my bag. Music is a very personal thing. That said, I’d like to give ’em a chance on a proper stage rather than in the bar before forming a view,

I am not a fan of stoner, doom or death metal and I am certainly no aficionado. I am sure a true fan would be able to point out a myriad of differences between RED EYED CULT, BERENICE, KILLERKORP and A HORSE CALLED WAR. To my untutored, much abused and frankly failing ears, they blended into an amorphous, indistinguishable, face melting blur. They are of course all heavy as hell, intense as can be and more than decent musicians. With a few exceptions, I am just not a fan of this kinda thing.

Not all of the bands may have been my thing but getting 15 acts - for less than a TENNER - to play in a day, over two stages, with nary a hold up or delay takes some doing. Here’s to the next Dirty Laundry all-dayer.