THE ATOM JACKS + PUSSYLIQUOR + THE DAMN SHEBANG + ELECTRIC COWBOY CLUB + VEGAN MEAT RAFFLE – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 1.9.23
Friday night, the first of September, saw Brighton’s Green Door Store play host to a beloved array of camaraderie, good cheer and proportions beyond epic. The event in question? ‘Lyn’s Trans Fundraiser II’.
Five beloved Brighton-based acts of vivacious stature featured on the line-up in support of raising money for the titular Lyn’s transition; these include The Atom Jacks, Pussyliquor, The Damn Shebang, Electric Cowboy Club and Vegan Meat Raffle! I was fortunate enough to catch The Damn Shebang play alongside local punk icons Numskull and avant-prog trio Call Me Franco a couple weeks ago, however, this time around, the hype around the opening two acts began to call my name as Vegan Meat Raffle in total pastiche billing themselves as a UB40 covers band and Electric Cowboy Club’s transgressive and thought-provoking reputation led me to excitement and hype!
VEGAN MEAT RAFFLE
Opening up the show was the quintet Vegan Meat Raffle who began to draw people outside from smoking in conversation with loud feedback and Jamie Dann’s atonal sax playing. Once the Green Door Store is packed with their patrons, the funky guitars of ‘Fog Head Ed’ fill the room, preceded by dub drum grooves from Jake Lillywhite and a surfing guitar line from James Lewin.
These guys were able to generate a sound that was both reminiscent of bands like The Clash and The Specials, but still come out and present us with something that feels groovy, yet inhuman! Case and point, the song ‘Jakey 2-Tone’, where the verses end with these dissonant breakdowns and frontman Harry Murray’s vocals on the verge of a breakdown.
‘Zounds’ (their song, not the anarcho punk/post-punk band) introduces some incredibly rough and brittle electric guitar from Harry before Jake’s tight drum grooves carry us through, not to mention bassist Carl Strong now donning a unicorn head…! I may have already made a Clash comparison here with these guys, but the following cut ‘Pub Songs (4 An Existential Crisis)’ sees Harry sounding like a dead ringer for Joe Strummer with his vocal inflections and ranting lyrical stanzas. A strong highlight of the set was the song ‘Sell By Date’, which makes use of a chaotic build-up and dense, yet ominous sax and basslines, while the comedic and infectious ‘Stage Fright In Urinals’ sees repeated chorus lines of “I need a wee” grabbing the audience’s attention by the horns. Unfortunately the band over-ran by two songs so we weren’t treated to a full set, but what we were given was nothing short of astounding and I’m excited to see what these guys have to offer from here!
Vegan Meat Raffle can be found on YouTube.
Vegan Meat Raffle:
Harry Murray – vocals
Jamie Dann – saxophone
Jake Lillywhite – drums
James Lewin – guitar
Carl Strong – bass
Vegan Meat Raffle setlist:
‘Intro’
‘Fog Head Ed’
‘Jakey 2-Tone’
‘Zounds’
‘Pub Songs (4 An Existential Crisis)’
‘Sell By Date’
‘Stage Fright In Urinals’
(‘Dr. Nicotine’ and ‘Elitist’ on written setlist but not played)
www.instagram.com/veganmeatraffle
ELECTRIC COWBOY CLUB
Even though Vegan Meat Raffle was disorienting, yet exciting, they represented a space of utopia and comfort compared to what I had yet to experience: Electric Cowboy Club. These guys barely topped the half-hour slot assigned for the show, but in that short amount of time, I was completely thrown into the deep end of noise, distortion and screaming. Drummer Wyn Harcourt brings in the opening ‘Reality’’s groove slowly and gradually as singer and showman Brandon Parker auctioneers his nasal vocals… never have I been more intrigued in a band where the frontman looks like Ruby Rhod from The Fifth Element!
Within 30 seconds, Brandon is in the crowd already, front flipping and Whitehouse’s William Bennett-style screaming in a momentum which ceases to halt for the entire set. ‘Grave’ maintains a slightly slower pace, but still nasty in tone and timbre, with Brandon now circling the audience pit. By only this second song, the quartet have made me feel like I’ve completely descended into hell…!
Halfway into the third song, ‘Creep’ (not a Radiohead cover), with a lightning fast rhythm over which sits a 12-bar blues pattern, Brandon precedes to smash his forehead with his microphone, leading to a trail of blood stretching across his face for the remainder of the set. Even with guitarist James Lissimore and bassist Jacob Lenadd O’Shea curating a distinctive and hazy wall of noise and distortion, blurring the songs and their respective structures, there were still highlights abound like the no wave-infused bassline of ‘Grapefruit Baby’, or the stop-start mechanisms of ‘Coconut Tree’. However, the true highlight of the night was a cover of Scissor Sisters’ ‘Filthy/Gorgeous’, completely tearing apart the song and mutilating it into chaos and feedback. After the band closed out the set with the ear-splitting ‘Ran A Red Light’, approaching Brandon to congratulate the band was incredible as this nightmarish persona that played non-stop for 30 minutes was now replaced by this heartfelt and bubbly smile in the form of a “thank you”...!
Electric Cowboy Club are on Spotify.
E.C.C (Electric Cowboy Club):
James Lissimore – guitar
Brandon Parker – vocals
Jacob Lenadd O’Shea – bass
Wyn Harcourt – drums
Electric Cowboy Club setlist:
‘Reality’
‘Grave’
‘Stechen’ (on setlist but not played)
‘Creep’
‘Grapefruit Baby’
‘Maxine’
‘Filthy/Gorgeous’ (Scissor Sisters cover)
‘Trippin’’ (on setlist but not played)
‘Jungle Fever’
‘Coconut Tree’
‘Ran A Red Light’
THE DAMN SHEBANG
The Damn Shebang stylized as ‘The Dmn Shbng’ formed back in 2015 and are Lyn Gasper – the reason we are all here tonight – on bass, along with Dead Seany (vocals/keys), JJ Symon (guitar/backing vocals) and Dan Brown (drums). They bill themselves as “Brighton’s premiere evil R’n’R band”, but clearly judging by some of the band’s accents, they were more than likely born ‘down under’ on the other side of the planet.
Time was tight this evening for the quartet and thus each tune had to come in on average at 3 minutes in length for their 24 minute 8-track performance which began at 8:06pm to an almost empty room. The quartet launched into their Yamaha Reface YC combo organ keyboard, drums, bass guitar, and Burns guitar with vibrato tailpiece and the punters outside all came rushing in after their much needed air break after the ECC performance. They were off with a Tom Waits cover ‘Big In Japan’, followed by ‘Black Slack Ripper’, ‘Molly’ and The Cramps ‘Goo Goo Muck’esque ‘Can’t Put Out’.
‘Goths On The Beach’ was up next and witnessed Dead Seany making a brief foray into the crowd. Although this is clearly a crowd favourite, I preferred the following number ‘Zodiac Advice Line’. We were informed their penultimate number “was about shoes” and they launched into ‘Black Boots’. They finished off with ‘Be Your Baby’, which is their fastest and most punky tune. This signalled a return to the crowd for Seany and a mosh ensued. This is my favourite TDS track, swiftly followed by ‘Zodiac Advice Line’. Clearly here is a band that are fans of the rock ‘n’ roll trash psychobilly style, especially that of The Cramps and The Birthday Party. If this is your bag, the TDS are for you!
The Damn Shebang are on Bandcamp.
The Damn Shebang:
Dead Seany – vocals/keys
JJ Symon – guitar/backing vocals
Lyn Gasper – bass
Dan Brown – drums
The Damn Shebang setlist:
‘Big In Japan’ (Tom Waits cover)
‘Black Slack Ripper’
‘Molly’
‘Can’t Put Out’
‘Goths On The Beach’
‘‘Zodiac Advice Line’
‘Black Boots’
‘Be Your Baby’
PUSSYLIQUOR
Pussyliquor met up via their degree courses with Access To Music Brighton and bonded over a passion for hard-core music and even harder core feminist beliefs. They have the no-nonsense and in your face approach that recalls the spirit and energy of Cosey Fanni Tutti, L7 and The Slits. Together they’re fighting a cause and celebrating what it means to be a woman.
Pussyliquor usually proudly flies the flag for uncensored female rage on the Brighton punk/riot grrrl scene. However, for this evening only, they are a vastly changed outfit, which certainly changed the dynamics of the band and the vibe. The band wanted to support Lyn’s cause, but due to far away holiday clashes, this meant that Fender guitarist Hannah Villanueva and Fender bassist Tallulah Turner-Fray were both absent and no doubt lapping up the sun. Thus we were left with Ari Black on vocals and Victoria Lewis Piper on drums to fly the Pussyliquor banner and ably assisting them were The Damn Shebang’s Dead Seany (this time) on bass and JJ Symon on guitar. The chaps tried their best to blend in with the female vibe, by donning ladies clothing, and a shout must surely go out to Seany who stood rooted to the spot throughout the set whilst wearing a black pair of high heel shoes.
Tonight’s set was a 27 minute foray into the PL classics with some newbies thrown in. They began at 8:49pm with ‘Young Love Fresh Blood’ and once again the hordes came whizzing back into the concert room on hearing the first few notes. The catchy ‘Hurtz’ with its “‘cos you only like to” chorus was up next and followed by ‘Kitty Kitty’. After which we were served the truly punky ‘Apathy’, which vocally reminded me of X-Ray Spex’s Poly Styrene, and this signalled for the moshpit to go into overdrive. Several times throughout the performance Ari came down and mingled with the punters and was even held aloft on one occasion. Shel Silverstein’s ‘Boa Constrictor’ was given an outing next. It’s a strange choice and has the same childish play as The Toy Dolls rendition of ‘Nellie The Elephant’. They signed off with ‘Pesticide’, a decent version of ‘Pretty Good For A Girl’, and before launching into ‘C.*.N.T’, Ari divulges that she quit her job yesterday as the boss moaned about her cutting too big slices of cake for the customers and so she walked out. At 9:16pm they were done and we had been served our cakes and ate every crumb. Although it was a valiant effort, it somehow lacked the spark of the proper lineup.
Pussyliquor are on Apple Music.
Pussyliquor today were:
Ari Black – vocals
Victoria Lewis Piper – drums
Dead Seany – bass
JJ Symon – guitar
Pussyliquor setlist:
‘Young Love Fresh Blood’
‘Hurtz’
‘Kitty Kitty’
‘Apathy’
‘Boa Constrictor’ (Shel Silverstein cover)
‘Pesticide’
‘Pretty Good For A Girl’
‘C.*.N.T’
‘Hit Song’ (on setlist but not played)
THE ATOM JACKS
Rounding off the live performances for the evening were The Atom Jacks who are former BIMM Brighton students Jamie Hewitt on guitar, Lyn Gasper (yes her again) on bass and Sam Hoare on drums, who were wearing their trademark white hazmat jumpsuits. They model themselves as a Civil Défense detachment formed to spread information to the general public on action when under atomic threat. They achieve this through “Nuclear Power Surf” music. Ironically, a stone’s throw away at The Prince Albert, The Courettes, were offering their take on surf rock at exactly the same time! See our review of that gig HERE.
As always, The Atom Jacks set was a real bum shaking foot tapping bonanza that really rocked the 60’s spy movie music vibe throughout their 41 minute performance, which commenced at 9:34pm, concluding at 10:15pm. However, this evening we were in for a couple of surprise treats, more on those very shortly. The call to arms was signalled and the punters flocked back into the performance room, and were instructed by Jamie that their set was to be a “brief lesson in atomic safety” and added that “alcohol cures radiation sickness!” They kicked off with ‘Fission Mission’ and ‘The Man From LOX’, which Jamie informed us was a “song about spies”, adding “most of our songs are about spies”. They then buck the trend with ‘Mirage IV’ which we are informed is “about the French”, and for this Jamie really lets loose with his Fender guitar’s vibrato tailpiece and then joins the crowd for some up close action. Having built up a sweat, he announces “is it hot in here or is it the Uranium?” and they launch into ‘MiG Diplomacy’, which sets the moshpit into overdrive.
There was some decent foot pedal feedback during ‘MK ULTRA’, after which Jamie informed us that the last time they played the Green Door Store they had an unnamed new song and that it still hasn’t got a title, hence “new song” was again played. After a while we were instructed to “get your boogieing shoes on” and they gave us ‘Seb Tropicana Atom Dance’ with its ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’ style beat and again Jamie came back into the crowd. Another surf-tastic tune followed in the guise of ‘Dead Man’s MIRV’ with its nod to The Kinks ‘You Really Got Me’ beat. We witnessed a special appearance from Dead Seany on vocals. He had a Stylophone strapped to his leg and gave it a brief tinkering. Other than their cover of ‘Ghost Town’ by The Specials (which isn’t selected tonight), this was only the second time I had heard any vocals during the instrumental sets. Then as a special treat Lyn took to the vocals for a proto punk medley they had been working on, this being ‘Fix Me’ (by Black Flag) and ‘End Result’ (by Crass). These certainly added another bow to The Atom Jacks string, and I for one wish that they would leave these tunes in their set, for the next time I see them. They rounded off by Jamie asking us if we were “Dick Dale fans” and they blasted through his surf cover of ‘Miserlou’. It had been a terrific evening out and well worth the £10 donation entry fee.
The Atom Jacks are on Bandcamp.
The Atom Jacks today were:
Jamie Hewitt – guitar
Sam Hoare – drums
Lyn Gasper – bass/vocals
Dead Seany – vocals/stylophone
The Atom Jacks setlist:
‘Fission Mission’
‘The Man From LOX’
‘Mirage IV’
‘MiG Diplomacy’
‘MK ULTRA’
“New Song”
‘Fragnet’
‘Nitro’
‘Seb Tropicana Atom Dance’
‘Dead Man’s MIRV’
‘Stronger Than Dirt’
‘Fix Me’/’End Result’ (Black Flag cover/Crass cover)
‘Miserlou’ (Dick Dale version cover)
www.instagram.com/theatomjacks
