THE HELLFLOWERS + DIRT ROYAL + IDLE BONES + HOLY CLANG – THE PIPELINE, BRIGHTON 22.2.23
The Hellflowers come straight from Los Angeles to entertain The Pipeline crowd in Brighton, their first stop on their current UK tour and a first for most of us here tonight to catch them live.
The band comprises husband and wife singer and guitarist Christina Eskew and Matt Eskew on bass duty. Matt is the older brother of much-loved musician Scott Sorry (The Wildhearts, Amen, Sorry and the Sinatras), who we caught live last year when on tour with former bandmate CJ Wildheart at Patterns – Read our review HERE.
The rest of the band is Alex Mack on guitar, and the excellent Richie Mendez (Foxy, The Pushers) has stood in on drums for this tour.
Their sound brings to mind the heyday of 70s New York punk with sweet vocals, driving guitar riffs, and a dynamic rhythm section, and they look kick-ass rock n roll too!
They released their debut album, ‘Por Vida’, in 2020, featuring ten tracks, including ‘Come On Let’s Dance’.
They kick off with their latest release, ‘Vacation’, which gets The Pipeline jumping from the off, Christine Centre stage dressed in tight black lycra jeans, black boots and a New York Dolls t-shirt. Matt is stage right in a dark suit and trilby hat, keeping the beat along with the drumming skills of Richie, who is an excellent choice behind the kit. Eric is stage left wringing the life out of his Gibson while throwing every rock move in the book and making it all look so easy.
For the next 50 minutes, the band delivers a highly entertaining set of rockers, including a few new ones from their forthcoming release, along with a decent cover of Cocksparrer’s ‘Riot Squad’, which goes down really well with the crowd and especially me.
The main set finishes with the cracking ‘F*cked Up Nation’. Still, it doesn’t end there as they manage to squeeze in a couple of extras, ‘Tequila’ which got cut from the setlist earlier and ‘Running Through The Fog’, the first song they wrote together and available for free on a vinyl 7-inch at the merch stand after and an even bigger bonus its a split with Scott Sorry so as soon as the last notes ring out I’m there to grab my copy.
It’s hard not to make comparisons with one of last year’s Rebellion favourites, Suzi Moon, as they’re both female-fronted, dynamic, melodic fun rock n rollers. The Hellflowers would make a superb addition to this year’s Rebellion Festival.
Support tonight comes from three local acts, and two of these are no strangers to the Brighton & Hove News Music Team. First up, though, is Holy Clang, a new two-piece of bass and drums delivering agit jazz punk vibes. The longer the set goes on, the better these newcomers get. Their upcoming single, ‘Clean Up’, is a slow builder that gets angrier as it progresses and is one of the set’s highlights. At times they remind me of The Fall and others IDLES. They’re not my usual choice, but they do a great job opening this evening, and I’m sure they will be popping up on punk bills soon. Special mention to the intense and powerful drumming, which was next level.
Horror punks Idle Bones are up next and never fail to put on a show, and the set tonight is no exception. It’s straightforward 4/4 alt/punk with a horror twist that brings Creeper and Alkaline Trio to mind and would also sit quite nicely on the ‘Return of The Living Dead’ soundtrack next to TSOL and 45 Grave. With song titles like ‘Nightstalker’ and ‘Dead Dancing Girl’, you just know what you’ll get, and it’s a lot of fun. Favourites of the set were ‘Dusk ‘Til Dawn’ and ‘Nothing Important Happened Today’.
Dirt Royal take the stage next and drop a buzzing set of punked-up Mod tunes to get you dancing. They’re fun-filled tunes and catchy as f*ck. Check out the excellent opener ‘Take Shit’, or the old favourite ‘Lose Our Way’ from their must-have album ‘Great Expectations’ LP. It’s a track that could have been penned 40 years earlier and still gets you dancing and singing along every time it’s played. It’s such a classic. They also play the buzzy ‘Shoot Me Now’ and the latest single ‘Better Than Worse’, another corker. The set closes with another belter in ‘One More Drink’. Been far too long since I last saw these guys during one of the lockdown sessions at Concorde 2 but sure glad I caught them again this evening.
This evening is yet another success for ‘An Alternative Gathering’, and I doubt there’s a person that managed to squeeze into The Pipeline who hasn’t left with a smile firmly planted on their face tonight!
