Gig Review - Good Grief, Cowtown and Mincemeat at Outpost Liverpool - 18 March 2022

Good Grief have been around for a while, then suddenly they stopped a few years ago whilst personal lives changed. The didn’t kill the band off though and recently re-engaged with each other to record an album. Tonight is the release party for the album ‘Test Your Faith’.

To celebrate Good Grief are joined firstly by Mincemeat. This sonic scrambler machine exist with one foot in the Stooges and MC5 camp and another firmly in the land of the Oh Sees. They are loud and furious sounding with long repeating musical sections that drive into your head and could probably cause insanity. I believe Mincemeat would be happy with that result. Towards the end they dismember the stage equipment and band membership. Instrument loops are left running, guitarists become drummers, drummers take parts of the kit off stage, bass players walk to the bar. This deconstruction seems right, playful and meant deeply at the same time.

Cowtown come from Leeds. Thats all I know. I take in the guitar, drums keyboard setup on stage and wonder what kind of noise they are going to make. Another band with half a toe in the repetitive garage psych of the Oh Sees but very different from Mincemeat. There’s real moments of full on melodic attack followed by moments of thunderous fuzzed out keyboard baselines and scathing guitar attack with plenty of control over when to back off and hit us with gentler melodies and when to suddenly jump out and hit the audience with a full on overdriven musical onslaught. More than a few hints at Devo. Had a whale of a time watching and listening to these, a bit different, wry sense of humour and on stage banter, and very very insistently catchy.

Good Grief used to proudly proclaim Husker Don’t on their web presence and yes, this does help place them. Not quite Husker Do, still a pop-punk Americana influenced band, more subtlety than a lot of the shouty punk popsters but still could be placed in that genre.

Its their album release night (and we’ll get round to reviewing that in the near future) and the are the main event as it were. They have the licks and the musical sharps to hold attention. Its an adult take on pop-punk (if you will). The lyrics are introspective and often deep, the music has its quieter moments well as times where it all thunders along and they are not afraid to hold a theme for a while and let it sink into the collective consciousness before moving on with varied and never quite the same take on riff repetition. There’s a genuine musical creativeness at work there and the three band members bounce off each other with each serving the songs well. With Good Grief, it’s all about the songs. A welcome powerful return for this band after a number of years away from gigs.