This show was billed as being the Islington Showdown, an Easter parade special and launch party for Desperate Measures new album Sublime Destruction, with three hot bands perfect to celebrate Easter with.
We were in time for the start of Thrill City's set, the new Rock band featuring members of Zodiac Mindwarp and Crazyhead. They opened their ram raid of a set with Rock This Town that had a hard as nails riff, drilling it's way into our brains, they get everyone shaking along with them on Shake To The Ground that had a super taut guitar solo. They then made the claim We Are Kings and it must be kings of hard riffing rock songs.
Feel The Sky was about as hippy as they got, still held down with some monstrous basslines with a pinpoint guitar solo battering at us. Were they getting romantic as the singer bellowed Show Me Your Love or were they just hopeful, either way they had most of the audience with them.
The Crow was about someone the band didn't want to spend any time with, as they need obliterating. Hole in My Head was what happened when you head bang along to this in the right way as the scorching guitar solo rips through it.
They then played the bands theme song Thrill City to let us know just how much fun they were up for, that was what happened after they visited Pill City so they all had eyes like saucers once more.
They let us know what they thought of modern autotuned pop on Let's Bring The Old Stuff Back a cracking hard rock non nonsense balls to the wall anthem, after the singer got the audience going they got an encore and blitzed through Out Of My Head like they really had all swallowed half a dozen pills and were freaking the hell out a great fun opening set.
Next on were The DeRellas who have just launched the Kickstarter campaign to help them record the bands next album Trust Me This Is Going To Hurt, this was a rare visit to South Islington for this North Islington band who have used the Hope & Anchor as a London home for a good few years now. They opened by blasting through the bands Strung Out Sin City that had the first of Luca Comencini's super spry guitar solo's that wove together with Jez Millers rhythm playing perfectly. Don't Tell Me What I Did Last Night has just about the right amount of regret in Timmy DeRella's vocals as another tawdry night is sort of remembered through a haze of glam rock guitars.
Emergency 2020 was the first of the new songs and of course took aim at the madness of the pandemic, the fact we survived it, but lots of good friends didn't. Timmy's vocals were good and throaty on Freak Show as Luca and Jez got good and freaky with the guitars.
The super speedy version of Hi Rise Supersize they played was nailed down by Timmy's bassline, as they had lots of us singing along to this DeRellas classic. Our World tomorrow still hopes that the sane rock & roll party all night long crew can finally take over the world bringing peace love and great gobs of glam rock to all of us 24-7.
Underground Love kept up the good times against all the troubles in the world, as Luca continued bringing the joy one guitar solo at a time. Pressures Gonna Get Ya strangely doesn't have the heavy dub beat it's screaming out for, being a little too speedy for that.
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Sonic Detonator makes clear that we need more, tight as can be explosions of glam punk to survive the mess of the 2020's.
Stick it To The Man is an obvious anthem these days, as if you don't want to stick it to him you must be screwy. They then closed with a great rollicking version of the Richard Gotterer classic Night Time it had some of the Jayne County cheek in it, as they broke it down into a few bars of Iggy's I'm Bored before ramping it back up on that chorus that gets stuck in everyone's head for the next week.
After the break it was time for Ricky McGuire, Eugene Butcher, James Sherry and Michael Gaffney to blast the doors off the Lexington as they launched into Scars & Memories that was angry and full on, Then Eugene was insisting that's Enough of You that was aimed at all the lying politicians, as James Sherry's drums insistently clattered behind him.
Eugene dedicated Coming For You to Doris Bonson and his ilk, as this bile ridden tirade blasted at us with Gaff really opening up on his guitar. Lost Angels was for those we've lost but want to still be around as Ricky's bass helped bring out the emotion in Eugene's vocals. They did a good advert for the new album as an intro for Sublime Destruction the title song that really sounded good.
The Eugene took us back to the band's roots in the New Zealand hard core scene for 1984 a song whose lyrics really shouldn't seem relevant still, but sadly they do. Untouchable from the new album had sparks flying from Gaff's guitar as he nailed this one down.
They then brought on special guest vocalist Kit Swing to join in the fun on Enjoy The Ride that meant Eugene had to try to keep in time with Kit I think they almost managed it for most of the song. It was then time for another sad song for those we've lost or left, Flowers At Your Door that saw James Sherry bringing it down on the drums as Gaff wrung the emotion from his guitar to pull at all our heartstrings.
Eugene then got a little geographically confused with where the Seven Sisters Road was, on the intro to Seven Sisters as this bit of Islington is not even close to Seven Sisters, still the song is well on the way to becoming one of the bands anthems, it was followed by one of the band's first anthems Back To The Rat that sounded pretty spot on.
They then closed the show with a squalling rambunctious run through I Wanna Be Your Dog to make sure we all sang along as they left the stage to a good cheer at the end of a really great Islington Showdown, that was only missing someone playing (There's Gonna Be A) Showdown but we can't have everything.
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