It was good to be back at the Hope & Anchor on Wednesday night. I hadn’t been down there for a few weeks, but sometimes life just gets in the way of a good time. Fortunately, Shake Some Acton always find a pretty good reason (or in this case, four pretty good reasons) to get back out, with four bands lined up for the evening: Johnny Moses and the Electric Motherfuckers, Trash Culture, Cold Blossom and The Spitters.
Before the music started I had a bit of a catch-up with Johnny Moses, who I used to come across when I was doing this kind of thing 20 years ago. Back then he was playing with cult garage crazy punk band the Chinese Lungs, and I also saw him a couple of times playing with Menace. Oh, those were the days. We also discovered we have a shared love of Stuart Adamson’s guitar sound, so he must be alright.
Johnny was first up with the Electric Motherfuckers, and they play proper old-school, guitar-driven, singalong punk rock with plenty of bite. I’ve got their album on red vinyl, and as I write this it’s spinning away beside me. The last song on side one is Neat Neat Neat, and it absolutely sits comfortably alongside their own material.
They romped through their set, opening with Special Brew and No Satisfaction and then picking off tunes mostly from the album. It was exactly the sort of straight-ahead punk rock I’d hoped for and I loved it. A band of this quality needs to be working their way up the bill soon.
Trash Culture cranked up the noise and velocity a notch. Actually, more of a quantum leap. Describing themselves as playing straight-up raw punk rock gives you absolutely no idea that you might get knocked out by singer Cunha flying through the air. I have never seen anyone less capable of standing still for longer than three seconds.
Think early Damned but on speed, and without the erm… finesse. They blasted their way through most of their 2019 offering, Just a Ride — surely it’s time for another album?? — while Cunha spent a little time sprawled across the dance floor, as well as treating us to some kind of punk aerobics on a chair.
The biggest surprise was that the building was still intact at the end of the set. Awesome!
Just time to draw breath, and Cold Blossom are with us, from France. A three-piece from France playing their first UK gig on the first night of their tour. What could possibly go wrong? Fortunately, nothing. They switched between guitar and bass, making liberal use of pedals and producing a big, grungy stoner-garage-rock sound that was packed with energy.
There was something of the Lemmy approach to the bass, playing it more like a guitar, and it worked brilliantly. These are songs you can get lost in, but there’s plenty going on underneath the noise, with lyrics dealing with life, breakups and relationships. “I’m not your fucking mother!” screamed the singer in I Don’t Like You, which probably tells you all you need to know about that particular relationship.
If this first night is anything to go by, the rest of the UK needs to sit up and take notice. Cold Blossom are headed your way very soon.
And so to our headliners for the evening, also from France: The Spitters. They hail from Toulon, historically a bit of a rough-around-the-edges naval port in the south of France. I did say historically — I think it’s come a long way since then. They did sink their own fleet in 1942 for Christ’s sake. What kind of a band could possibly come from Toulon?
Well, meet The Spitters.
A kind of sophisticated French blend of the Ramones, a chainsaw running at maximum speed, a few road diggers and an on-stage mosh pit. They kicked off with the explosive Superstar and proceeded to crash their way through the set, remarkably managing to remain on stage for most of it. There were gems including Spit and 50-50, before finishing with the Blitzkrieg Bop-esque — but played at 78rpm — I Can Call the Bomb.
After all that, it felt like a bomb had gone off after all. What an incredible night. Well done yet again, Mannie and Shake Some Acton!
The Spitters: Instagram
Cold Blossom: Instagram
Trash Culture: Instagram
Johnny Moses and the Electric Motherfuckers: Instagram
Words / photos by grillyx