Fonda 500

Drunken fairies rocking out, joy divisions and teddybear mutilation...yes it's all true, it was the Metro gig last Friday, here's what happened:

Things started innocently enough with the bubblegum punk of Reverend Pike, seemingly from the same school of sound as Brassy and Lungleg. Shouty feisty female vocals over a guitar sound that drunkenly balances the line between hook and sink- true to real life intoxication catching itself more often than not. Yeah, Reverend Pike are the dragonfly that keeps buzzing round your head in the park, you'd like to get annoyed about it but then you start thinking it's cute. Maybe it's sonic insect hypnosis. Or maybe they're just a good live band. In any case, they're a lot of fun to watch.

Serial P.O.P., on the contrary, are Dark. They come on in uniform black and with next to no smiles, a bit like "If Kraftwerk did guitars". At times veering towards Leftfield, at times more Joy Division, this is greyfiltered indie, excellently played, but more bleak on the inside that you first expect. Especially the vocals, with lyrics about being left and used, and I think this is when the fairies came in. Five pissed-as-fuck girls with those white lace wings from Woolworths, moshing and speeding in front of a stony-faced band. It's one of those scenes that, if it wasn't planned so, it should have been. Serial P.O.P. finish their set with dignity, but bizarre is the theme of the night.

In a good way, mind. Because when headliners Fonda 500 come on, female bassist looking very Karen O and singer/vocalist wearing what looks like the emptied-out bottom half of a brown teddybear on his head, you know this will be interesting. And it is, in a very japanese way, chaotic noise pop that mixes devil signs in with the candy lovehearts, timewarping the spirit of Shonen Knife into a new millenium dance beat. Guitars are getting turned on their heads, hair is being thrown about, and keyboards get a good trashing. Yes. I like it. The fairies like it. The crazy person that keeps pulling the teddy-bottom-hat from the singer's head probably likes it. And yeah, you'd have liked it, too...