LIVE

Rip It Up, Issue 121, 1 August 1987, Page 41

LIVE

The Bats Cricketers, July 31 This band is great, beautifully crafted pop songs which bounce off the walls of this pub and put fizz into your drink. The crowd responded to them and so they should, there was never a dull moment nor a bum note.

The evening hadn’t started so well though, with the first band threatening to blow the PA with a “worst of the 70s" session. However the Bats blew away the cobwebs again with

their happy charm. 'Once Again' kicked off the night of uplifting, good feeling music. ‘Danny’s Highway’ sounds good, as does ‘Neighbours.’ Malcolm Grant on drums is tight and he and Paul Kean on bass share excellent communication, keeping every song together as they drive us forward.

Everybody’s up and dancing with ‘Claudine’ and voices join with the chorus. Well worth the mention is the excellent light and slide show on the Bats’ current tour: wonderful colour mixes and rapid changes that help the impetus of ‘ live performance. Songs from the new album abound: ‘Mastery’ should be played by the commercial stations. Scott writes superb songs and this band knows

howto play them. Kaye Woodward on guitar picks out simple yet effective lines which support the rolling nature of the music and provides perfect vocal harmony to Scott’s vocals. Sadly, the night is over too soon, but the band certainly fulfilled my expectations and dispelled my fears generated by their showing on RWP recently. Yes! They did play that great song 'Made Up in Blue’ and another equally brilliant new one, ‘I Know I Am’ (?) which will knock your socks off when the Bats hit your town. Be there! Tim Byrne

Headless Chickens, Jean Paul Sartre Experience Gluepot, July 24 & 25 Jean-Paul Sartre Experience and the Headless Chickens — two bands from two islands, one looking back nostalgically over the past 20 years, the other shredding up and spitting out their influences from a combined harvester-synthesiser — came together for a memorable weekend in Auckland recently. For two nights they packed the Gluepot, no small achievement for two uncommercial Kiwi bands with

lower star ratings than say the Verlaines, but certainly more originality.

JPSE however score sub zero in originality when it comes to lyrics. Wistful songs about a sweet woman of love, torn hearts, shadows, trees and other mundane items that have been sung about 10 million times before. They played simple catchy tunes with a low beat and laid back feeling. In fact you could (almost) call them boring. Certainly the handful of determined fans swaying selfconsciously up the front to the plaintive crooning of singer/guitarist Jim looked as uninspired as the band-

members. But the Experience warmed up towards the end of their set with some faster tempo numbers, leaning into early rock ’n’ roll. These hard-edged songs held the punters’ attention and had JPSE ending on a level nearly as high as when I saw them last year in Wellington. Pity most of their set was so insipid, something the Headless Chickens could never be accused of. Serious, ponderous and depressing maybe, but never insipid. ‘Winter Came Early this Year' op-

ened the set with its anguished vocals and thunderous Gordonian bassline, and what followed built up into a powerful wall of noise to deafen and awe all who heard. Chris Matthews managed to simultaneously play some frenetic guitar and intone some barbed lyrics as well as snarl into the viewfinders of several video cameras focused closely on his slick-backed head. Ex-Birds Nest Roy's Rupert was backup singer and together the pair’s strong voices incanted and cajoled, threatened and shrieked to the driving thrashing controlled confusion that was Chris, bassist Grant, and Michael on synthesiser.

From the frivolous ‘Scotch on the Rocks’ to the Resident-warped humour of ‘Do the Headless Chicken,’ the obstreperous HCs

showed their fans they could be earnest and still smile. Susan Camden

The Angels, Knightshade Galaxy, July 10 Beastly howling and growling filled the Galaxy building, and it wasn't only on the intro tape before the Angels began. Singer Doc Neeson announced from his chair centre-stage, “The doctor has broken his knee. It was either play like this or cancel. What do you think?" The crowd of about 1600 erupted into a huge roar. That was after 'Front Page News' and ‘No Secrets,’ which were actually a warm-up for things to co'me.

It was somewhere around the latest single that guitarists Rick Brewster and Bob Spencer got crazier and the show went quite wild. ‘Take a Long Line’ was a highlight with its quick tight blasts of power, and as they played ‘We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place’ there was definitely no one leaving. It was so jampacked, hot and smoky in there that it was inevitable to be drenched in sweat and beer by the time the en-

cores were demanded (though without the floorshaking of the Hamilton gig). Brent Eccles’ pounding beat began the ragey ‘Can’t Shake It’ and ‘Nature of the Beast,’ with the Doc’s devilish salutes and waving of crutches in the air. Then into ‘Will I See Your Face Again’ for. a fitting finale that left the crowd to climb over the mountains of empty cans. Knightshade opened the evening with their impressive set of originals which ran together well' and got things rocking nice and early. Geoff Dunn Breathing Cage Gluepot, July A set of ribs springs to mind: the Breathing Cage, what a good name. I almost didn’t know what to expect, but what did happen was fairly ordinary, just a band playing a few songs.

But wait! This band includes Michael Kime, ace bassist, Graeme Jefferies of This Kind of Punishment, and of course, Jay Clarkson. This band makes good noise, it plays its instruments extremely well, and Jay

sings superbly. That’s how the Breathing Cage was, good songs and a good band to play them, the musicians in the audience were impressed. Most of the songs were from Jay’s EP — ‘Penelope,’ ‘Some Kind of Haunting,' 'The Boy With the Sad Hands’ — and favourites like 'The Flower’ and ‘Man With No Desire’ saw the light of day too. However, the Breathing Cage is writing its own songs as well; I particularly liked ’Treasure’ (I think it’s called). The new songs have been arranged well. For a one-off tour, the Breathing Cage got its shit together amazingly well, they were appreciated by the Gluepot audience. It would be good to see them travellino north aoain.

Fiona Rae