Tonight, celebrating the birthday of one of Liverpools favourite drummers (Tony!) there are three ‘ghost’ bands at Outpost Liverpool. On paper that have all disbanded - I was at 2 Sick Monkeys ‘final tour’ a few years ago and Elmo and the Styx and Super Fast Girly Show haven’t played in about five years. But here they are and its really great to see these old favourites. The monkey’s may be stretching the point as they still seem to crop up with ‘just one last gig’ though!
Super Fast Girly Show start the show telling us how its years since they’ve played these songs, how they’ve probably forgotten how to play and so on. Then the two bass guitars and drums lineup completely wipes the floor of any notion that they are rusty. Their full on noise attack is still there, the complex interweaving bass melodies and straight a head punk charge take turns with a high velocity almost jazz like musical intelligence. No prisoners taken though. Flat out all the way and thoroughly great to see them again. Less than five years gap next time please.
Another great band, Elmo and the Styx, these mix up the punk with the prog almost and produce a very satisfying noise. Like the Girly Show it’s been about five years but no excuses are needed as its a razor sharp performance they deliver. The bass still rocks it all over, the guitar delivers edge of a machine like precision one second then a first class punk roar the next and there’s a whirlwind of drums to keep it motoring forward and excellent vocals keeping the audience hanging on every word.
2 Sick Monkeys are a bassist who sings and a drummer who also sings occasionally. This in no way can prepare those who’ve never seen this duo for the end to end filling in of the audible noise spectrum they can produce. The dextrous bass playing makes up for the lack of other instruments and the vocals are shouted and sung at an incredible rate of knots. Their lyrics touch on personal freedom and the politics of the individual frequently and they produce many laughs (deliberately) as the show progresses.
Happy (well and truly belated by the time we’re posting this) birthday to Tony who put this excellent gig together, cheers!
Words: Richie Yates, Photos: Adrian Wharton/Richie Yates
Links:
Super Fast Girly Show: https://www.facebook.com/SuperFastGirlieShow
Elmo and the Styx: https://www.facebook.com/elmoandthestyx
2 Sick Monkeys: https://www.facebook.com/2sickmonkeys