Finally, Slaughter And The Dogs get to play the 100 club for the first time as part of the on-going tour to promote their recent comeback album Vicious which came out last year.
Firstly I need to thank the staff at this amazing venue for being understanding and happily swapping my tickets from Saturday to Friday so that I could go to a different gig on the Saturday. Both nights I had at least 3 or 4 gigs I wanted to be at including the Slapp Happy reunion shows that I've missed. Boo!!
Still, I was glad to make it to The 100 Club in time to catch all of The Derellas' opening set. They opened with the glam punk blast of Something To Say: a good marker of what was to fly by us as Stevie Derella led the charge and got us all to jump aboard the band's very own Rock' n' Rollercoaster.
After doing their best to wake up the audience, they launched into a fast and furious Strung Out. It sounded like the wrong end of a 4-day crystal meth binge but with some great rock steady drumming from Bish (who used to be in Flesh For Lulu) pounding the drug madness home.
Bish did such a number on his drums during Strung Out and they needed some repairs before they started Soho Soho with some great spiky guitar from Luca Derella sounding much like he does with Spizzenergi. Freak Show had Timmy Derella's bass really underpinning the twin guitar assault of Luca and Stevie and the shared vocals worked a treat.
Don't Go Kids was a good little glam punk tale of getting onto all sorts of trouble delivered in the band's normal speedy way. Dress Up To Get Messed Up almost sounds like the band's own mantra, if of course you like mantras to sound like Glitter Band stomp-alongs. Rip It Up did exactly what it says in the title as they ripped the hell out of the instruments and gave it everything.
Looking For You was about as romantic as they are going to get as they search for the right one over the sort of tune the Buzzcocks might write if they were going glam. They closed with Stick It To The Man which is the sort of advice I think most of the world needs right down. It was a good amped up song to finish a damn good set.
Then it was time to see Slaughter And The Dogs playing a far smaller stage to the one I'm used to seeing them on at Rebellion in Blackpool. Unlike that august bash, this is not the original line-up as they have one mongrel among the thoroughbred dogs I believe. They opened with Trust (What I Want From You), also the opening track of the new Vicious album which was available on White Vinyl at the gig.
Then we got the first cover of the set: a great version of Mystery Girls, the old New York Dolls classic that was played a fair bit straighter than Sylvain Sylvain managed the last time he played The 100 Club. Wayne Barrett had a bit of a twisted intro for Bitch before they blasted through it like their lives depended on it.
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They went back to the new album for Stranded which sounds like classic SATD material and Wayne thanked Mick Rossi for writing it for them. Then, after Mick had had a go at the old school obnoxious Skinhead Bootboy who was chucking the last third of each pint he drank at the band they launched into Boston Babies and the place went nuts; the mosh pit opening up and seemingly the most manic person in the pit was the guy wearing a smart suit and tie! Ah Punk rock!
Hell In New York was next for the Slaughter treatment and sounded great before they slowed things down a touch as Wayne strapped on a guitar for You Got Class: a sort of anti-Love song off the new album. Then they had some serious bass drum pedal trouble before launching into a life-affirming cover of I'm Waiting For The Man during which loads of us singing along and the pit went a bit more mental.
Trash Talking Queen sounded, well, real trashy like the woman they were singing about. I'm Mad marked the point in the set where Wayne finally removed his hat and dark glasses so that his blue rinse made him look properly mad. We then got Dame to Blame, another song about a bad, bad women that's done them wrong. It seems to happen a lot, that.
We were then stuck in those sticky Situations once more. It sounded as great and messy as ever and it led into a cool cover of Get It On with Wayne's own version of the lyrics that hammed it up quite a bit. Inevitably, they finished up with a great version of Cranked Up Really High which had the place going as nuts as expected and with lots of Beer flying all over the place. We got drenched, needless to say.
Obviously they got an encore, during which they brought on very special guest guitar god, Mr Tony James to assist them on a cool version of Ready Steady Go, the old Generation X classic he helped to write. He stuck around for Where Have All The Bootboys Gone?, which allowed the Obnoxious Bootboy to go properly mental in the pit. Thankfully, everyone else helped him back to his feet when he went over and the whole place sang along and was smiling at the end of a great set.
Yes it seems the twenty teens are the perfect time to go and see Slaughter And The Dogs doing it dog style for our entertainment once more. Who'd 'a thunk it?
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