GLITTER SHOP, LAMBRINI GIRLS, BUG TEETH, BLUE SUNDAY & FUZE
Washing Machine at the Hunter Club, Bury St Edmunds 04.12.21
A few months ago, it was announced that the mighty Rats As Big As Dogs would be playing tonight, their first show in a good few years. I absolutely adore RABAD and bought a ticket as soon as I could. Not entirely surprisingly, Covid has got in the way, bass-player Reuben just could not get back from Berlin and RABAD are no longer playing.
This being a Washing Machine event, all is not lost.Fuze step in and open the show with a decent set of punked-up indie. The Arctic Monkeys and Green Day covers are good but the band’s own songs are more up my street. This is very promising but, in the interests of constructive criticism, I’d like to see a bit more of the band’s own identity coming through.
Blue Sunday follow that with a set of heavy, dirty punk. Music should always take precedence over image but the, probably unintentional, Distillers-meets-early Manics look is a good one and gives a good indication of the sound. It is very early days for Blue Sunday but they’ve already nailed their own sound and look and I will definitely be looking out for them in the future.
I’ve seen Bug Teeth a good few times over the years, playing solo, as a duo or as a full band. Tonight is a solo set. Given the punky opening duo (and what is to come) Bug Teeth is a bit of an anomaly on this bill. Thankfully, audiences are, for the most part, far more open-minded these days than in my youth and a Washing Machine crowd is always receptive. Bug Teeth’s ’s gorgeous shoegazey electronica gets the rapturous response it deserves.
This is the first time that I have seen Brighton’s Lambrini Girls and by the gods I hope I get to see them again soon. Lambrini Girls deliver a set of joyous, utterly feral punk rock mayhem. At times, it descends into beautiful chaos. An attempt at a Craig David song is aborted when the PA blows, which is just about the perfect end for their set.
I feel like I should like Glitter Shop a lot more than I do. At times in this set, as with the other times that I have seen them, I love their heavy indie-electronica. At other times… I don’t. I don’t wanna be negative and I know many that rate Glitter Shop really highly. Music is all about personal tastes, I admire what Glitter Shop do and can see that there is a lot of talent there but not every song works for me.
