Liars

Joan of Ass = two girls standing on the stage screaming ‘I’m the Queen Bitch’ ‘No, I’m the Queen Bitch’ and other equally worthy things for far too long. Just… no, thank you. It’s not controversial, if that was the aim, and it wasn’t even amusingly bad – just an irritatingly pointless example of the worst kind of studenty performance-art wank. There are better things to be entertained by.

Terrashima, on the other hand, kick ass. Metal-without-the-widdling guitar riffs and monster bass – music with impact which screams straight into your face as soon as you enter the room. And on top of that they’re just a damn intense live act. Screamed psychotic vocals from a spitting, sprawling and leering frontman who has complete command of the art of Looking Good By Looking Trashed, incorporating drunken stumbling and sliding around and shovelfuls of sleaze+anger attitude. Excellent.

Once again, Miss Black America have left me unable to find any words which adequately describe the impact of a live set. They’re just amazing, and this gig was particularly mindblowing. The first mic-stand was put out of action about 10 seconds in and then cue genius guitar, throbbing bass-lines, between-song rants about Jesus, impossibly intense vocal delivery, compulsive dancing and jumping… and then Seymour collapses onto the floor of the stage and screams into the mic as the rest of the band leave the stage, and the set’s over far too soon. A band to remind you exactly why you fell in love with rock’n’roll in the first place and a live show that puts most ‘entertainment’ to shame by showing how intense experience can be.

Some Product followed with an acoustic set – very minimal guitar accompaniment to female vocals which aren’t so much sung as spoken rhythmically with a hint of tune behind them. There were some good lines, but it didn’t really grab me and pretty much faded into the background noise.

And then Liars, who I’d seen described as a US punk band. Well, ‘punk’ is far too simplistic a description - there’s punk at the roots of the sound, but also electronic noises, unexpected pauses and breakdowns into jerky guitar sounds… ‘art-punk’ sounds like it should describe something vile but The Liars were amazing. Mixing the live posing and entertainment of punk with experimental music - and pulling it off beautifully. The great sounds that experimental and electronic music can make, but without the pretentious muso-factor onstage. And their album’s called ‘They threw us all in a trench and stuck a monument on top’ – class.