GIG REVIEW: Dead Dog In Black Bag, Cruiser Chimps, My Oh My @ Boxbot
Lis from Antivirus Review invited me down to check out a night in Kilburn last Monday. Here's the lowdown:
BoxBot, The Good Ship, Kilburn, London
Monday 23rd April 2007
Dead Dog In Black Bag / Cruiser Chimps / My Oh My
Last Monday saw the Good Ship of Kilburn being launched into the cosmos to become a futuristic star cruiser straight out of the pages of an Isaac Asimov novel or, if you prefer, straight off of a second-hand Button Moon video. Yes, it was biscuit boxes and Gloy Gum time as audience members were invited to don homemade robot costumes and pop their cardboard bodies to three of the more spaced-out bands on the planet Earth.
A short DJ set, aptly featuring Kraftwerk's 'The Robots', managed to set off an old salt on some kind of lunatic breakdance. Soon the tinfoil brigade were following in full swing and despite it being only the start of the night, humours seemed remarkably high for a Monday evening.
The main stage of the Good Ship is located neatly in a kind of viewing pit, enabling the audience to either go down and get wild near the stage or get a more reflective bird's eye view of the bands. This was perfect for those intrigued enough to check out My Oh My, an avant-noise trio whose members play bowed guitar, tape recorder, stand-up drums and what appeared to be a toy robot that had been mic'd up to about a thousand delay pedals. The instrumental set lilted and shifted, eventually rising into a frenzy of feedback and scrunched up zapping noises. Not to everyone's taste of course, but fans of bands like Wolf Eyes and the Black Dice could do little worse than check them out.
Perhaps a little more structured, but no less compromising were the Cruiser Chimps, a punky three-piece from Norwich whose Indiecore squall contrasts against the twee pop leanings of their regular incarnation, Bearsuit. A torrent of sound, attributed mostly to incredibly loud singer/drummer Lisa, was enough to pierce the eardrums of anyone within a three-mile radius. And while the two lads backing her up on guitar and bass also took vocal duties, nothing quite made me spit up my drink that night than her initial scream.
More dancing, more drinking, more robots - and by this time if you hadn't accidentally leant against someone thinking they were a pillar or part of the bar then you'd obviously not done enough of the first two. After the filthy noise attack of the first two acts, the Cardboardbots seemed all too glad to rock their cumbersome bodies to the likes of the Knife and Jackson's Computer Band courtesy of DJs Robot For Brains.
The jacking Electro styles thankfully helped as a suitable prep for the next band and the night's finale, Dead Dog In Black Bag. The Brighton-based girl group combine homegrown trashpop with a wickedly scatological sense of humour to create a sound akin to what would happen if Shampoo got dirty with the Macc Lads down a back alley only to stab them in the nutsacks and run off with their change. If you thought Lily Allen was supposed to be a bit of a rogue then nothing will prepare you for this onslaught of big hair, glitter makeup and songs about dog shit.
Dead Dog In Black Bag
Despite having only known each other for a year, and as a band for six months, it's easy to tell that bandmates Ami Chihuahua and Holly-Jane the Pain have a special chemistry going on. Posing, pouting and back chatting each other, the comedy edge plays out like some kind of X-rated stand-up routine sponsored by Smash Hits mag. "Get away from my face/Before I kick you into space" is the friendly message broadcast to sleazy club pervs on the stylish Electro slice 'Tony Caesar'; while 'Love Meat' is the sound of Girls Aloud splaying out their legs and popping ping-pong balls into the air. Performing only a handful of songs, the Dogs still excelled at winning over the slightly confounded but happy crowd.