Once again Joyzine teamed up with local punk heroes Frauds for our fourth night of To Hell With Good Intentions at Croydon’s finest independent music venue, Hoodoo’s. It marked the first time that our co-promoters weren’t on the line-up, making way instead for four great bands from the local area and beyond.
First up were Here Be Monsters, whom eagle-eyed THWGI regulars may have recognised as two-thirds of Electric Trees who performed at our previous show. Trees sticksman Aaron was sitting in for regular HBM drummer Nathalie Murphy and together with a bloodied Dan MacKinnon on vocals and guitar whipped up a storm of post hardcore math rock.
Next up South London trio Bugeye brought a set of sharp art rock tunes aimed equally at the head, heart and feet that brought to mind the smart retro-tinged tunes of The Long Blondes’ early work.
Rat The Magnificent absolutely blew us away with their set of inventive punk laced stoner rock. Hooked into the deep groove of the rhythm section of Anna Dodridge and Ross Davies, twin guitarists Ian Catskilkin and Perry Anderson built up distorted and dissonant walls of guitar over which Perry’s impassioned vocal spits and growls.
Rounding off the evening in style were Brighton four piece Clever Thing, whose pairing of raw garage rock and soulful blues had us thinking of a quirkier Dead Weather. Daisy Coburn and Rich Fownes make a compelling front pair and with tracks like recent single ‘In a Tissy‘, expect them to be playing far larger venues than this in the near future.
Words by Paul Maps
Photography by Chris Patmore where credited: chrispatmore.co.uk
All other photography by Paul Maps