After a short break, following my 5 gigs in 5 nights effort, I was feeling thorougly refreshed and ready for more of the live. And what better band to go see than The Von Bondies, who having kept a lower profile than Lord Lucan in recent years, are making a glorious return to the British music scene, sounding tighter, brighter but definately not lighter. The Von Bondies, in case you haven't heard of them, are a band out of Detroit, Michigan, who initially received some excellent exposure of their mad talents back in the year 2001 (yes, it really was nearly 7 years ago!), when they toured with little known obscure outfit, The White Stripes (who?! lol). Well, the world went Jack and Meg White nuts, and quite rightly so. But in all the hoo-har of those halcion days when The Stripes and The Strokes were conquering all, when freedom reigned, in the before-time, before 9/11, before government by terror, before smoking via hypothermia, before Orwell and Huxley's fancyful tales of tyranny became the pathetic reality we all live through today, in 2008, this foul year or Our Lord, we managed to almost forget about this band. The Von Bondies, if you ever pull your finger out and attend one of their shows (they're playing The Wigan Tavern on 29th February btw, which is in erm...Wigan, funnily enough), will remind of that long-forgotten musical genre known as 'grunge' (see Nirvana, Hole, Neil Young for a brief moment, and er, Nirvana - did I say Nirvana - yeah). But worry not, they all appear to know where to point their shower nozzles and actually smelled quite nice.
All joking and mockery-based humour aside, The Von Bondies are back, with old music, and new music, and it all sounds at least as good as it did back in the summer of 2001. If you wanna remember the days of freedom, of excess, heck, of good old-fashioned FUN, then well, watch 'em while they're hot - The Von Bondies. That's V, O, N, space, B, O, N, D, I, E, S, people. And I must make a special, much deserved mention of Leann Banks, the band's bassist. I was blessed to be 1 inch away from her throughout the show, and in spite of her having the hottest pair of legs I've seen in some time on a stage, I did manage to direct my eyes upwards every so often, to watch her absolutely blow ten bells out of her bass guitar. She is a bassist with immense talent and natural ability who plays those thick metal strings with the finéssé of a flemenco guitarist.
Moving on; there were two support acts as is the norm in The Night & Day Café, where you really get your money's worth on a gig night. Both supports were very cool, but a special mention must really go to a Blackburn (with Darwen of course!) band called The Sugars. Not been around long, but with a voice like Matt Bolton's on lead, a true blue wailer of the old tradition, and the sweet but strong dulcits of the majestically named, majestically talented and majestically beautiful Anna Greenaway, I know I'll be watching them again, and again and again at many fine venues in the future (not to forget their new drummer whose name I don't know yet, but will know shortly, cos anyone who can still pull of playing the drums in a knackerdy old vest like he had on has got to be worth his salt!). And that future includes venues near you, and venues near me - specifically, The Dry Bar (next door to The Night & Day Café on Oldham Street in Manchester) on Thursday, April 17th. Be there or be a manic depressive with no stereo. Also be there because I had the pleasure of talking to Matt Bolton after his set and he's a genuinely nice guy with bags of enthusiasm and a passion for singing his heart out, and you don't get that every week.
Another night of giggery, another write-up of buggeringly long proportions. Thanks for reading, keep on rockin' and if you're a Yank, vote for Obama or fear my wrath forever...just kidding. I think. Vote for him. Do what you want. No, vote for him and then do what you want, but only because I say so. Thankyou.
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