Zombina and the Skeletones

Scouse slammers Zombina And The Skeletones are a snapdragon spicy treat. With a stunning debut album under their belt, their horror-punk 50s Rock alienvampire Rock n Roll is musically tight as hell, instantly recognisable and, fuckit, enough to bring a smile to anyone’s hips.

With new songs busting out of every pore, the band are young enough, beautiful enough and confident enough to keep tickling and stirring loins. They deliver such crazed quality consistently through tracks of the calibre of Frankenlady, I Love Rock N Roll (More Than I Love You) and the immaculate pop of Nobody Likes You When you’re Dead. Zombina are a musical dream, or nightmare, either way they remain a treasure, and a quite unique one at that.

Eyes are firmly upon Manc upstarts Lisa Brown at the moment, and when your name is being bandied around in Music industry circles, there’s a lot of pressure and a lotta running rumours to live up to. Proficient though their cardigan-Indie stylings are, it all comes across tonight as a finger-in-ear sub-Elbow characterless mush. They’ll probably get handed a huge record deal.

Intentions Of An Asteroid take the stage with try-hard confidence and a real roadie, who has a maglite in his mouth and everything, but after a promising start their distorted depthcharges begin to wear thin. It’s one thing putting on a performance and givin' it heaps of energy, but another thing entirely to retain sincerity whilst so doing. IOAA walk a fine line at the best of times, but for another much-vaunted act, they disappoint a tad with their studentslick stagemoves and ironed-on cool.

Most people have long gone to get the last bus when Merseyside’s most-likely The Mighty Saguaro stride onstage. The band are a filthy, raw and honest counterpoint to some of the preening that precedes them, and the four-piece’s Led Zep / Fugazi / QOTSA elegant excellence is as energetic and considered as ever. Gruntin’ class.

The night, organised by the erstwhile Skeletones, is monikered ‘Useless’ – but in truth that’s as much of an oxymoron as ‘Military Intelligence’. Independent power = louderpowda lives.

Yip yip.