02 April 2015 (gig)
18 April 2015
No point teasing; The Subways were outstanding tonight. It was no walk in the park though as either by chance or design they had competition from some up and coming bands.
Texas three piece, Purple were in a very good mood and as their blues based garage set went on you got the feeling that maybe the end of tour party had started early! There’s suspicion that Aussie punky trio Dune Rats had joined Purple in the celebrations as they ripped through a foul mouthed set of trashy shorties.
Kill it Kid are a different proposition drawing from a Zep and stoner cauldron for inspiration. It’s a more unsettling sound and with a staid performance they are not quite as easy to latch on to. Nevertheless they came through unscathed and new song Blood, Stop and Run could be a grower.
The Subways come on to Holst and gave everyone who came before them a lesson in live performance. Firing on all cylinders with We Don’t Need Money to Have a Good Time they went through the new and the old, barely stopping for breath literally as there was no encore and just played until curfew.
They neatly flirt with punk, pop and rock though the new songs take on more of an edge live and sound fuller in comparison to their album versions, as when they double-barrel us with Good Times and We Get Around.
Billy Lunn is the focal point being a natural frontman just making sure everyone is having a good time. Bassist Charlotte Cooper when not singing is a whirling dervish of dance steps across the length and width of the stage, never missing a beat, seamlessly interplaying with Josh Morgan who having just come back into the fold is just immense.
It’s one of those nights when everything falls into place: band and audience are feeding off each other pushing each other on. The impromptu singalong of I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say and the respect for Lunn’s words about his mother on Mary were genuinely startling.
Personal highlights were a caustic Celebrity and a punishingly heavy Girls and Boys. The appropriately titled It’s A Party was the last song and sums the concert up perfectly.
