This show was show 85 of the long running Punk N Roll Rendezvous club night promoted by Tufnell Rock Towers and was for Phil Honeyjones birthday party! He was playing in two of the three bands on the bill at the Dublin Castle, on this night of transport nightmares, including strikes and signalling problems that prevented several fans including the Fab Girlfriend from making it to the gig sadly.
By the time I arrived and went in 4 Tits And A Mandolin were well into the bands set of semi serious folk punk, the first song I heard in full was Fuck Christmas that featured Phil and other main singer Frog hamming it up and letting us know how much they hate Christmas cheer, which is easy to avoid in April, usually, even if I got whammed for the first time this year only a week ago.
The guy on resonator box seemed to take lead on the next song, whatever it was called, with some good interplay with him and the mandolinist. The finished with the bands theme song 4 tits And A Mandolin that made clear how much this was being played for laughs, everyone was smiling so they had succeeded.
After a very short break it was time for The Derellas to bring the Glam punk energy, opening at full speed on This Is Gonna Hurt with Timmy yelling Gimme Gimme Gimme at us loads while Luca really let rip on guitar. Fake It Till You Make It seems to encapsulate 21st century culture perfectly, in a decidedly 70's power pop glam way. Timmy then welcomed us to the Freak Show once more with Jez' rhythm guitar helping tie things down, with Luca sizzling with intent on lead guitar.
Pressure Is Gonna Get Ya was super angry and barked at us, in ways that totally fit the lyrics, the never-ending pressure to be the best you can. Just Because I Smile Doesn't Mean I Like You is a sentiment, that is true for anyone with a job dealing with the public, even more so for dealing with political arguments in the current malaise, the new kid on drums really powered this on, while the guitars raved it up. Timmy sang Loveless Landslide Of Love like he meant every last bitter word of it.
Old single High Rise Supersize was super punchy and they were really going for it at the start of the guitar solos Timmy hit the microphone stand with his bass, the Microphone stand tumbled off the stage, I tried to catch it, I wasn't in time, but had it back onstage with the microphone in situ before Timmy sang the next verse. They are still hoping it will be Our World tomorrow rather than the evil pigs currently in charge of it, this is bitter twisted and fully of taut playing. Empire Vultures continued making clear how much they hate how things are currently run, how do we bring down this mess and get back to sanity, with joyous romping glam punk tunes obviously. Timmy wished Phil happy birthday, before like normal they closed with the Richard Gotterher classic Night Time that will always be the right time, this was a full-on stomp that broke down into Iggy's I'm Bored and back to that glorious riff, to end another great fun The Derellas set.
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Finally the Healthy Junkies were introduced and burst into Copycat as Nina bounced like a broken doll across the stage and Phil's lead line got everyone going. They have always been Self Conscious and made clear that they have to be a super tight band, who have loads of control despite Nina making clear what happens when you have No Control, soon enough she is pointing out what happens if you are All Talk and can't back it up like Healthy Junkies can, with perfect grunge pop anthems like this and the iconically ironic Julies Got A Job just not the one she wanted obviously.
Dead Souls doesn't even hint at Joy Division, it's far more in the Cay/Hole axis of grunge. The mosh pit got a lot madder for This Is Not A Suicide with Nina falling to her knees and howling her angst to not be thought of as suicidal. Nina then urged Frog from Pollypikpocketz to duet with her on May Day that had loads of sass and urgency. It was then time for us all to sing Happy Birthday to Phil as his cake was brought out and he blew the candles out. Allowing us all to admire The Sound Of My Guitar one of the songs they have always played live.
Not sure who it was that Nina dedicated Danny Trash too, but she did it twice so they must be properly trashy people, for this dark nasty take down of a song, with sweltering guitar and loads of intensity, we all sang along to the chorus. Reasonably new song Oh La La raged away while still being kind of bouncy leading into Lion In A Circus that was played at a frantic pace before they closed with Theft that as normal featured Nina taking Phil's guitar and going nuts on it, while he took her microphone and sang instead, it was good and messy end to Phil's birthday show no matter how old he is this year.
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