THE OHNOS + THE PINK DIAMOND REVUE + ROADKILL DRIVE-THRU – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 29.9.24
It’s always nice to support a relatively new promoter in town and this evening we are up at The Prince Albert in order to check out the lineup that’s been put on by ‘Shake Some Acton’ promoters. Although this is their 71st event thus far, I believe that this is only their third gig in Brighton, as they mainly do gigs up London way, and their genres of choice being Punk, Trash, Garage, Dirty Rock. Well that suits us!
Headlining The Albert tonight are The OhNos, who are a Swedish quartet dedicated to delivering morbid power pop and energetic live shows. The OhNos consist of Anna Wagner (guitar/vocals), Åsa Meierkord (guitar/vocals), Sanna Rönngård (bass) and Malin Olsen (drums), four musicians with their roots in the Swedish indie scene and bands like Sobsister and Serial Cynic. Since their inception in 2014, The OhNos have toured Scandinavia, Spain, Croatia and Switzerland, treating audiences to their melodic mix of 60s garage, 70s punk rock and 90s indie. Astonishingly, tonight is only their third ever UK gig, with the other two being over the past two nights, these being at The Railway Inn in Winchester on Friday 27th September, and Signature Brew in London on Saturday 28th September.
The OhNos debut EP ‘Queens Of The Underworld’ (2015) was followed by the album ‘Sounds From The Basement’ (2017). A Scandinavian tour with fellow Spanish punk rockers Las Furias went down in 2019, which resulted in the split cassette ‘Queens Of Noise’ (2020). 2022 saw the digital release of the band’s long awaited sophomore album ‘Waving From Hades’, 11 tracks dealing with life’s absurdities through howls and hand claps, fuzzy riffs and swampy blues. The first single ‘NGBG’ was unleashed in March 2022 as an ode to Malmö’s first cultural sound zone. Second single ‘Kiss The Boot’ was accompanied by a video featuring Malmö’s alternative hotspots. Third single and title track ‘Waving From Hades’ saw the band sailing on the murkywaters of Malmö Canal. After the release, the band went on an extensive Spanish tour and visited a string of summer festivals. The vinyl version of ‘Waving From Hades’ finally dropped in January 2023 and a new single/video for ‘Final Call’, followed. The OhNos are presently working on new material.
Tonight at The Prince Albert we are treated to a 51 minute set that runs from 9:45pm until 10:36pm and includes 13 tunes. The first half of the performance features tracks from their ‘Waving From Hades’ 2022 album and the second half are culled from 2017’s ‘Sounds From The Basement’ album. They kick off with a quartet from ‘Waving From Hades’, the first of which being ‘Final Cull’ which immediately flags up to me as vocally sounding like Poly Styrene (X-Ray Spex) meets Pauline Murray (Penetration) and musically it’s pop-punk, but not heavy punk. The girls show their unity as they are all wearing their gigging gear, this being black dresses with white frills and white sleeve ends. Fender very much seems to be the go to instrument as they are using a Fender Stratocaster, Fender bass, and Fender Jaguar guitar.
The OhNos are being loaned the amps this evening and clearly there’s a situation with them, but after a short pause, they are away again with the drumming led swinging ‘Trouble On Legs’, followed by the extended drums intro of ‘Kiss The Boot’ and some decent Fender Jaguar guitar riffs going down. Again there’s an amp problem and we are jokingly informed “that’s why we are called The OhNo’s”. We get the band introductions and then the girls are off again with ‘Hifi Phono’, which is the fourth in a row from the recent album and benefits from tag vocals between Anna and Åsa, which works rather well, as almost emulating a conversation between the two.
Selection five is listed as ‘Gravity’ and one I suspect will be cropping up on their next album. It got counted in by drummer Malin in Swedish, which sounded rather novel. It was a swinging post-punk number and it segued straight into ‘Message From My Past Life’, with its slightly more gravelly vocal delivery from Anna. The band then plugged their merch, albums, caps and t-shirts and then sped off again with the guitar riffed ‘Desert Dreams’, which also benefited from some enthusiastic drumming from Malin. There was much foot-tapping to be had! After this they turned the clocks back to 2017 and told us that ‘Local News’ was about being in a union. This being the first of a couple of tracks from that era. The second being the more traditional punk sounding ‘For Free’ with its catchy “la la la la” chorus. ‘Universo’ came next, which I believe is unreleased. This had a decent bass and drums and cymbals combination intro and it went merrily on its way and was their best tune of the whole set for me, which is encouraging, if it is indeed a newbie!
The final three numbers were all from their 2017 album, starting with ‘Chlamydia For Christmas’ which is, let’s face it, an unwanted present for anyone any time of year! There was more Fender Jaguar riffage going down for this track. Whilst they were down in that area, they next played ‘Dirty Panties’, the subject of which I know not! But what I do know is that the tune has a full on sound and it’s a good’un. They signed off with ‘Fake It’, which is likely to be staying down in that area as it was dedicated to the mums in the audience. This tune’s a real bopper and many had a good old dance. And at 10:36pm their all too brief UK tour was over! Although not really bringing anything seriously new to the table, they were still an enjoyable watch!
The OhNos:
Anna Wagner – guitar, vocals
Åsa Meierkord – guitar, vocals
Sanna Rönngård – bass
Malin Olsen – drums, backing vocals
The OhNos setlist:
‘Final Cull’ (from 2022 ‘Waving From Hades’ album)
‘Trouble On Legs’ (from 2022 ‘Waving From Hades’ album)
‘Kiss The Boot’ (from 2022 ‘Waving From Hades’ album)
‘Hifi Phono’ (from 2022 ‘Waving From Hades’ album)
‘Gravity’
‘Message From My Past Life’ (from 2022 ‘Waving From Hades’ album)
‘Desert Dreams’ (from 2022 ‘Waving From Hades’ album)
‘Local News’ (from 2017 ‘Sounds From The Basement’ album)
‘For Free’ (from 2017 ‘Sounds From The Basement’ album)
‘Universo’
‘Chlamydia For Christmas’ (from 2017 ‘Sounds From The Basement’ album)
‘Dirty Panties’ (from 2017 ‘Sounds From The Basement’ album)
‘Fake It’ (from 2017 ‘Sounds From The Basement’ album)
Main support this evening came in the form of the unique The Pink Diamond Revue who I understand played a blinding live set at this year’s Rebellion Festival in Blackpool. The Pink Diamond Revue is an electro-amalgam of 1987-89 ‘Music For The Masses’ era Depeche Mode; the electro-psych vibe of TVAM; ‘Peter Gunn’ flavour Art Of Noise; a snippet of Sigue Sigue Sputnik and lashings and lashings of Sheep On Drugs imagery and sounds that the likes of Marc Almond would adore. The way The Pink Diamond Review see it is “A world where ‘60s film soundtracks meet sampladelic acid house in a baggy-punk rathole somewhere in Interzone” and “Spangly gold late 1950s LSD-inspired tripadelica”.
One would be forgiven in thinking that this once seen never forgotten outfit are Brighton based judging by the amount of times they crop up around town, but this isn’t the case, they are London and Reading based, so we salute them for once again playing for the folk of our city.
This evening Tim Lane (the fuzz guitar), Rob Courtman Stock (drums) and ACiD DoL (the glamour) perform a longer set than their past few Brighton gigs and they certainly warrant this! They take to the stage at 8:38pm and deliver 10 tunes across the next 38 minutes until successful conclusion at 9:16pm.
The rear of The Prince Albert stage has a giant white sheet draped across it and this allows for the full Pink Diamond experience as every song comes with its own retro style video cut ups and so all house lighting is extinguished to allow for the films to hit us squarely in the face! There are no actual live vocals on any of their compositions and words that occasionally crop up on their tunes are from samples as a backing. In fact the svelt Bowie-esque figure of Tim doesn’t even have a microphone to thank the crowd after the welcome applause after each song has concluded. He simply relies on moving to the front of the stage and saying “cheers” with arms raised as a thank you.
They kick off with ‘Microdot’ which has a slow start and builds up during the track. Centre front of stage is ACiD DoL who might just be sporting a brand new dress. She has a change of headwear for their band’s second offering ‘A New Kind Of Life’, which features some jolly decent fuzz guitar work from Tim. As ever, Rob is to the rear of the stage and blends into the videos as he metronomically plays the drums with his red brushes. He wouldn’t ever dare steal the limelight from his bandmates! I feel it my honour to at this point divulge that the girl in the band is actually the top half of a mannequin, not that she’s ever treated anything less than a human! Another change of hate courtesy of Tim, and the trio (or should that be 2.5) are away again with their 2020 ‘Lux’ single which tonight has a longer intro than I can previously recall hearing.
“There is not time to lose your head” recorded vocals blast out for ‘Lose Your Head’ after which we get “coleslaw, apple pie and a milkshake” for their 2022 ‘Milkshake’ single. Almost tempting fate, the slow chugging keyboard heavy ‘Nothing Can Go Wrong’ followed as Tim endeavoured to switch guitars. He draped his Circus guitar around ACiD DoL’s neck and picked up his other guitar and tried to strap onto it one of the fuzz foot pedals, but this was proving difficult. Plan B…switch back again. Never mind, move on!
“Dance at the discotheque” blasts out and we are given ‘At The Discotheque’ from their 2024 ‘We Don’t Play Rock’n’Roll’ EP. The tune incorporates ‘Asteroid’ aka the Pearl & Dean cinema advert music. It’s quite possibly my fave live Pink Diamond tune, up until tonight. Sadly they don’t seem to play their take on the ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ Bond theme, which they released as a single last year, it’s a corker! There’s an ultra blippy synth intro for their next number, ‘Elvis Preseley’ which has the repeated taped “Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Elvis” wording. It was surprise time next for their penultimate number, as Tim switches his guitar for a Yamaha keytar that’s made a rare outing from the loft! Keep it in the lounge I say Tim. They perform a newbie ‘She Is Yea’ which has “she is a model” taped backing. The keytar is used for the first half of the song and traded in for the guitar. This was a terrific tune, and was deffo the best of the set! Keep it in, and the keytar!
ACiD DoL has one last headgear change and they sign off with ‘Blink’ from the ‘We Don’t Play Rock’n’Roll’ EP. I must say I do enjoy this band every time I see them, I was even sporting the t-shirt this evening!
The Pink Diamond Revue:
Tim Lane – the fuzz guitar
Rob Courtman Stock – drums, presets
ACiD DoL – fashion
The Pink Diamond Revue setlist:
‘Microdot’
‘A New Kind Of Life’
‘Lux’ (a 2020 single)
‘Lose Your Head’
‘Milkshake’ (a 2022 single)
‘Nothing Can Go Wrong’
‘At The Discotheque’ (from 2024 ‘We Don’t Play Rock’n’Roll’ EP)
‘Elvis Presley’
‘She Is Yea’
‘Blink’ (from 2024 ‘We Don’t Play Rock’n’Roll’ EP)
First up this evening were Roadkill Drive-Thru who was a new name to me. On further inspection their Bandcamp page states: “Roadkill Drive-Thru: like a car crash into a moose. A band you just can’t pigeon-hole. A musical fusion brought to you by roadkill-eating hillbilly banger racers from the dystopian future. Loud, proud, in your face music to go crazy to! I dare you NOT to enjoy this band!”
They are Jason Webdale (vocals, guitar), Nick Grant (bass) and Tom Maddox (drums) and when having a chat with Jason after their set, he informed me that they are “Cambridge Fen land banger racer hillbillies band!”. He added that they are about to release their ‘Hell Yeah’ single. They have also just remastered their first album from last year, which can be found HERE.
This evening the lads are on stage for 34 minutes, from 7:33pm to 8:07pm and in that time they rattle off ten tracks, beginning with ‘Backwards Boogie’ which is the first of all three cuts from their recent 2024 ‘Dead Meat’ EP. This track has elements of traditional punk but with a slight ska tinge and it’s a good start! The lads clearly enjoy what they are doing as there are smiles-a-plenty during and in between songs. Up next is the first of six of the ten cuts from their self-titled album, this being ‘Rack Up Your Dead’ which is a more straightforward sub three minute punk number.
Jason then informs us that they are going to play their forthcoming ‘Hell Yeah’ single which initially starts as a slower bass led tune before exploding with an AC/DC style scream and then it heads off into redneck country. They then unleash four in a row from their self-titled album, kicking off with the traditional punk sound of ‘Puppet Tyrant’, followed by the faster hook laden ‘Bambi Killer’ which we are informed is about people who drive too fast. Choice three is ‘Message For You’ which has a Ramones style beat, and rounding off this section is another quickie in the form of ‘Moonshine Bar’.
The remaining two tunes from their recent EP are up next, with the metal sounding guitar work of ‘Breathe’, followed by the shortest tune of the whole set in the form of ‘Dead Meat’, which Nick informs us is a mere 51 seconds long. They closed their set with ‘Kiss My Arse’ with its “f*ck you” chant delivery. Overall it had been a great first encounter. They are a solid trio who clearly have been around the block and know a thing or two. The occasional forays into metal and hillbilly, I enjoyed less, but I guess that’s what sets them apart from the standard 1-2-3-4 go punk bands. I would see them live again given the opportunity!
Roadkill Drive-Thru:
Jason Webdale – vocals, guitar
Nick Grant – bass, backing vocals
Tom Maddox – drums, backing vocals
Roadkill Drive-Thru setlist:
‘Backwards Boogie’ (from 2024 ‘Dead Meat’ EP)
‘Rack Up Your Dead’ (from 2023 ‘Roadkill Drive-Thru’ album)
‘Hell Yeah’ (forthcoming 2024 single)
‘Puppet Tyrant’ (from 2023 ‘Roadkill Drive-Thru’ album)
‘Bambi Killer’ (from 2023 ‘Roadkill Drive-Thru’ album)
‘Message For You’ (from 2023 ‘Roadkill Drive-Thru’ album)
‘Moonshine Bar’ (from 2023 ‘Roadkill Drive-Thru’ album)
‘Breathe’ (from 2024 ‘Dead Meat’ EP)
‘Dead Meat’ (from 2024 ‘Dead Meat’ EP)
‘Kiss My Arse’ (from 2023 ‘Roadkill Drive-Thru’ album)
www.instagram.com/roadkill_drive_thru
