Nevermind 20th Anniversary Shacklewell Arms

One minute you’re chillaxing in the playground playing hopscotch with your prepubescent homies the next minute you’re some old bird at a nostalgia gig.  Twenty years is a long frickin’ time but it also goes by in the blink of an eye.  Can it really be twenty years since that Smells Like Teen Spirit video changed my life forever?

What better way to mark the twentieth anniversary of Nevermind than with a kickass Nirvana tribute band, Melvana.  Yep it’s hard to do Kurt justice but these guys did a pretty good job.

Throwing Up kept it well nineties with covers of Offspring, Foo Fighters and best of all Hole!

I send out my sincere apologies to the DJs for being a drunken requests dick.    AB

All photos © Amanda Barokh

The Lynx Effect

A Tuesday night at The Stag’s Head.  Iceage, the super-hyped Danish band that I’ve hauled my ass out in the rain for, are standing on the stage fiddling with the amp,

‘Jeez, what’s all the fuss about?   They look about twelve and they’re dressed like Oasis.’

Their baby faces and their coy down-turned eyes lead me to suspect that they will not be able to pull off an engaging live performance.  So I prepare myself for half an hour of turgid adolescent guitar wanking.

But didn’t George Michael once instruct us to listen without prejudice?   I should have heeded his advice.

Within in minutes of taking to the stage Iceage create chaos in the two-man moshpit.  They may not sound like Oasis but they do have something in common with a young Liam and Noel.  Swagger, bravado and testosterone.  That raw sexual energy that is the essence of rock n roll.

Musically their dark and austere sound is more akin to Joy Division, Wire or Hex Enduction Hour era Fall.

Endless comparisons are bound to be drawn between Iceage frontman Elias Bender Ronnenfelt and Ian Curtis. Like Curtis, Ronnenfelt is both mesmerizing and terrifying.  He strides zombie-like into the crowd.  His detached state only serves to highlight the chaos all around him.  In the midst of noise and the anarchy Ronnenfelt elbows me in the nose.  He feels the impact but he doesn’t even look back.  The man behind me is horrified but I am strangely exhilarated.

Iceage are nose-bleedingly good.  AB

All photos © Amanda Barokh