CHUBBY AND THE GANG + NARROW HEAD + ISLAND OF LOVE – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 4.12.21
This was my second encounter with headliners Chubby And The Gang as I had previously witnessed their loud instore performance at Resident on 5th September this year – Read our account of that set HERE.
Chubby And The Gang are an up-and-coming hardcore punk band that are signed to the home of IDLES and Fontaines D.C. namely Partisan Records. They were formed in west London in 2019 by ‘Chubby Charles’ aka Charlie Manning-Walker (who was/is an electrician by trade). Their latest album ‘The Mutts Nuts’ was released on 27th August 2021 and this 15 tune album swiftly followed on from the band’s debut 13 track album ‘Speed Kills’, which hit the streets in March 2021. Sandwiched in between these in May 2021 were the double A-side single ‘Lightning Don’t Strike Twice / Life’s Lemons’ as well as their ‘Live In London’ 11 song cassette only release. And as we learned tonight at the Green Door Store, the next release will be a Valentine’s Day single.
The other members of Chubby And The Gang that are here with us tonight are former Brighton residents Ethan Stahl on guitar and drummer Joe McMahon. The remaining duo are Tom “Razor” Hardwick also on guitar and 2020 recruit, bassist Maegan Brooks Mills.
The quintet took to the Green Door Store stage a mere 11 minutes after the second of the support bands had vacated it. I love these quick turnarounds and no doubt does tonight’s concert promoter, LOUT.
Before we knew it, (at 9:34pm) Chubby And The Gang were blasting through their loud set of tunes about modern London and the like. They combine speed and sick-of-it-all energy of the older, more melodic punk sounds and then they chew it all up and spit it all out into something mangled but newly revitalised for 2021 and beyond. There’s even nods of glam rock beats in there.
Frontman, ‘Chubby Charles’ informed us that this was his second visit to the Green Door Store, having previously played there in 2017 as a guitarist with his previous outfit Arms Race, who’s final show was at ‘Damage is Done’ festival on 22nd November 2019. You can check out their work on Bandcamp.
Tonight, we are treated to 15 numbers during their 49 minute set, which was only 5 minutes longer than the second support band. Chubby bawls out the lyrics at such a rate and his comrades chase him along on the pogo friendly beats. As with their performance three months ago, it was slightly difficult to hear Chubby’s words as he spoke to us at 100mph, as he was so charged up!
We were served six of the fifteen cuts from ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’ and eight numbers from ‘Speed Kills’ and the final number ‘Pizza Hut’ (which was brilliant by the way) is currently unreleased, but will no doubt see the light of day in February.
All of the tunes were fast and filled with explosive energy and controlled aggression, with the exception of song number six ‘Life’s Lemons’, which is from ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’ album and one I could have really done without. So far Chubby has released a trio of slowies and in my opinion they are the worst songs they have released. Whereas all of the others are thrown at us at breakneck speed and are wonderful.
I guess the trade-off with liking all of the fast stuff is that when it comes to watching them live, then it’s best not to stand centre front as you are most certainly going to get severely clattered. Tonight, there was some serious moshing going on and it transported me back to the heady days of Brighton punk gigs, where it was lairy and edgy. There’s always a fine line between having a laugh with your mates and picking them up when they crash to the floor, and all out aggression and not giving a f*ck about anyone around you. Tonight, on a few occasions that line was crossed! Some folk were occasionally going apesh*t at the front from side to side and not caring whatsoever about who they sent flying. On a number of occasions I had to rescue this lady standing by me and even assisted her partner. Chubby mentioned fighting at one point and this could have been misconstrued as a green light to do so. Yes I know it’s hardcore punk and you should expect this sort of thing, but it’s no longer 1977 is it! Rant over!
As you would surmise, the total capacity audience were up for it and some more than others and Chubby and his bandmates delivered another decent set, with my favourite being a trio of tracks found on ‘Speed Kills’, namely ‘Pariah Radio’, ‘All Along The Uxbridge Road’ and encore number ‘Speed Kills’. They left us elated, battered and bruised at 10:23pm.
Thankfully our photographer, Cris, and myself were unhurt. We hadn’t finished our job for the night as we knew that in a matter of minutes that The Atom Jacks were going to be performing a short run away at The Hope & Ruin in their downstairs bar and so that’s where we went. Read our report on that gig HERE.
Chubby And The Gang:
Charlie Manning-Walker – vocals
Ethan Stahl – guitar
Tom Hardwick – guitar
Maegan Brooks Mills – bass
Joe McMahon – drums
Chubby And The Gang setlist:
‘Chubby And The Gang Rule OK?’ (found on March 2021 ‘Speed Kills’ album)
‘The Mutt’s Nuts’ (found on August 2021 ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’ album)
‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing’ (found on March 2021 ‘Speed Kills’ album)
‘Pizza Hut’ (unreleased)
‘Coming Up Tough’ (found on August 2021 ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’ album)
‘Life’s Lemons’ (found on August 2021 ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’ album)
‘Blue Ain’t My Colour’ (found on March 2021 ‘Speed Kills’ album)
‘Lightning Don’t Strike Twice’ (found on August 2021 ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’ album)
‘On The Meter’ (found on August 2021 ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’ album)
‘Pressure’ (found on August 2021 ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’ album)
‘Moscow’ (found on March 2021 ‘Speed Kills’ album)
‘Bruce Grove Bullies’ (found on March 2021 ‘Speed Kills’ album)
‘Pariah Radio’ (found on March 2021 ‘Speed Kills’ album)
‘All Along The Uxbridge Road’ (found on March 2021 ‘Speed Kills’ album)
(encore)
‘Speed Kills’ (found on March 2021 ‘Speed Kills’ album)
Find your Chubby And The Gang merch HERE. You can also listen to/purchase their releases on their Bandcamp page HERE. For more on the band visit www.chubbyandthegang.com
Support this evening came from Island Of Love and Narrow Head.
First up were Island Of Love who graced the stage at 8:02pm. I immediately recognised their drummer (Jimmy) as he is the vocalist for Urine Charge who we recently covered as part of the ‘Washed Out Festival’. It seems that not only is he in two bands, but after their 28 minute 13 track set, he informed me that he’s in a third as well and most of the other guys are in other bands too. It’s just the way these days with these young hardcore punk bands.
It turns out that Jimmy has now moved up from the south coast to London to be part of the action. His other bandmates are Karim Newble on vocals and Fender guitar and Linus Munch who is also on vocals and Fender guitar, and completing the line-up is bassist Daniel Alvarez-Giraldo who is a bandmate of Kamin in a band called Sterile.
Linus and Karim share the vocal duties tonight at the Green Door Store and it’s fair to say that Island Of Love sounds nothing like their name suggests. They are loud, ragged and raw punk, but with a melodic west coast indie Barracudas grunge edge, if there is such a thing. It was nice to see all of Chubby And The Gang at the front of the audience checking out the opposition*/enjoying support bands* (*delete as appropriate).
Tonight was their second time playing live in Brighton for London based Island Of Love and I reckon that based on their performance tonight, that they have made some new friends and will hopefully come back again soon. A fab opening band and would see again. By 8:30pm they were done.
Island Of Love:
Linus Munch – vocals/guitar
Karim Newble – vocals/guitar
Jimmy Guvercin – drums
Daniel Alvarez-Giraldo – bass
Island Of Love setlist:
‘Cut Your Losses’
‘Glee’
‘Thoughts Of You’
‘Beat My Brain’
‘Tall Boots’
‘Fed Roc’
‘Headcase’
‘Grow’
‘Powerplant’
‘Bloody Death’
‘Micromoon’
‘Mastermind’
‘Flaccid’
Find Island Of Love tunes on Bandcamp.
Next up a mere nine minutes later at 8:39pm were five-piece Narrow Head, who have come across from Houston, Texas to be part of the Chubby tour. Good effort lads!
Their personnel are frontman Jacob on Jackson guitar and vocals, Ryan on Fender Precision bass, Kora and Rubio both on guitars (Gibson and a unique made-to-order guitar) and Carson on drums.
The band was founded in Texas in 2013 by Jacob, before relocating to Houston. His vocal delivery tonight was in an Oasis slow style across the faster music. Sadly the band were overpowering him and I didn’t even pick up on his American accent, until talking with him post performance. For ‘Hard To Swallow’, their penultimate number, he put down his guitar and his vocals were louder and he showed us exactly what he could do. I reckon he should do more of these!
Narrow Head offered us their heavy alt-rock sounds that would sit rather nicely in with Nirvana in a record collection. Their sound was very powerful indeed and like the previous band, were a tight outfit. Carson’s drumming was particularly impressive and prominent. Most of their tunes did sound rather similar, but I guess this never hurt the Ramones. Narrow Head had come along to the Green Door Store to rock the joint and they succeeded. Their 44 minute set concluded at 9:23pm.
Narrow Head:
Jacob Duarte – vocals/guitar
Kora Puckett – guitar
Rubio – guitar
Ryan Chavez – bass
Carson Wilcox – drums
Narrow Head setlist:
‘Sunday’ (new song)
‘Night Tryst’
‘Cool In Motion’
‘Emma Dazey’
‘Wad’
‘Stuttering Stanley’
‘Ponderosa’
‘Hard To Swallow’
‘It’s Whatever To Me’
Find your Narrow Head merch HERE and visit their ‘linktree’for further information.
