Silver Ginger 5

“Whatever happened to all the Rock N’ Roll girls?” ask Silver Ginger 5 on their debut CD “Black Leather Mojo”. They never needed to ask, ‘coz a few of ‘em are here tonight, and a hell of a lot of Rock N’ Roll boys too.

From the opening “Sonic Shake” (which does exactly that), to the closing “Motorvate” , tonight is a rock show unlike one I’ve seen in a long time. Its not a gig, it’s a show. It’s the look of a band making an effort, putting on a show, not for ego, not because they want a drum riser, but because they want to entertain people, make them go “wow” and then rock like bastards. Which is exactly what Silver Ginger 5 do. I’ve not seen this much pyro since the cover of a Kiss live album. Its like stepping into a time machine, coming back out in 1990, when the boyz had toyz, guitarz were so pointy you could use them for knitting needles and the pyro was well…flaming loud. Literally.

Ginger is known to most as the singer in the Wildhearts; and Silver Ginger 5 was originally a band name given to his solo album, his fresh start. Tonight, Silver Ginger 5 are Rock and Roll incarnate. The opening duo of “Sonic Shake” and “Anyway But Maybe” are hook-laden, bouncy, catchy and instantly memorable. Its sounds like a cross between Mott the Hoople, Metallica, and a thousand glitterbombz. “Walk Like A Muthafucker” rocks like a… you get the picture. It’s a barrage of noise, aggression and melody spotwelded with hooklines you’ll be singing for days. The guitars are loud, but so are the clothes. There’s nothing wrong with trying to bring an image back to music, except when its style over content. Fortunately, Silver Ginger have both in spades. ”I Wanna Be New” is two minutes off riffmungous frenzy, and “Too Many Hippies” sees yet more pyro bombs, sacrificing none of the catchy hooks and melody for the continued barrage of guitarnoise and then followed by Ginger’s setting fire to his guitar in the most rock n’ roll moment I’ve seen all year. “Church of the Broken Hearted” is celebratory and euphoric highlight, but overall Its an odd set selection, omitting a good half of the only album to date in substitution for rare compilation and collaboration tracks, omitting the high-powered “Divine Imperfection”, but technical flubs aside and the odd dodgy sound balance, this is the most entertaining thing I’ve seen in a long, long time.

Conny Bloom, the other guitarist, has seemingly walked in from an old Extreme video, complete with every showbiz metal cliché in the book, and bassist Jon Poole looks like a cross between Marilyn Manson and a can of Lucozade, but that doesn’t dim their enthusiasm. It’s sheer entertainment, packaged with everything rock n’ roll should be: loud, dumb, fun and filled with energy. Yet what do we ask of our rock stars today? Entertainment? Excitement? Or Boring moroni-rock, 3 chords and xerox of the Oasis blueprint? Why do we make the turdsome Shiteophonics and the Travis (The most boring band in the world *TM *) stadium fillers instead? Compared to tonight, its like watching paint dry, only more boring.

Fuck Andrew WK. This is ROCK N ROLL.

setlist:SONIC SHAKE- ANYWAY BUT MAYBE - GIRLS ARE BETTER THAN BOYS - WALK LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER - I WANNA BE NEW

• TOO MANY HIPPIES (IN THE GARDEN OF LOVE)- CHURCH OF THE BROKEN HEARTED - IM A LOVER NOT A FIGHTER - MORE IS THE LAW
• DO THE CHANNEL BOP encore: TAKE IT ALL, WHY DONT YOU - GROOVUS MAXIMUS- INSIDE OUT (excerpt) - MOTORVATE