This Aint Vegas

The heat hits the face like a dump truck dropped from a hundred feet – to say it’s warm inside the Garage’s attic is akin to saying that 40-stone wrestler Giant Haystacks was somewhat rotund: an incalculable understatement. Nevertheless the crowd is all smiles and hearty applause, and rightly so: Sunderland-based This Aint Vegas have returned to recording ways with a devilishly good second album, The Night Don Benito Saved My Life, and have rolled into town for the first of two capital shows to prove just how potent the new songs are.

The heat can’t hamper the band’s electric on-stage presence – lead vocalist Adam ducks and dives left and right, dodging imaginary punches, pausing only to mop his brow and take on water. He switches from flailing marionette to hunched hobbit in an eye’s blink, one moment with gaze staring wildly at the back bar, the next chewing on his microphone as if it were made of cheese. Co-singer and guitar slinger Richard is somewhat more reserved, but the interaction between the two front-of-stage performers is never less than excellent, Adam’s spiked tongue perfectly mirrored by the guitarist’s jagged post-punk rhythms.

New songs are received as favourably as the double-header from 2003’s The Black Lung Captain, ‘Been Party’ and ‘Promotion’: the opening track from TAV’s latest long-player, ‘How Clear Can You Be (Part 1)?’, is a stunning cacophony of complex polyrhythms and disjointed fret work, all harDCore and melody at once. Recent 7” ‘Escape’ is aired to a great response, as is the quartet’s run through of* Devo’s ‘Girl U Want’, from their split release with fellow northern punks *Kill Yourself. With senses befuddled by the temperature and tunes as silken as they are savage, the audience is utterly entranced throughout.

Whisper it to your nearest and dearest: with The Night… TAV might just have produced the British rock record of this year, and have the live prowess to back it up with aplomb. Spread the word, though, and you risk losing our little secret to the unforgiving masses.

Photography by Rachel Silver Rocket

This Aint Vegas play their second London show of the week at The Buffalo Bar on Wednesday 7th September, with support from Bullet Union