| :: '63 Monroe w/ The Dropouts; Priestess;The Lewd Junkies @ Call the Office by: Josh Geddis (Saturday Once again the power of London's '63 Monroe drew many of London's old school punk community to the Office. The Lewd Junkies were first up. Calmly taking the stage and nodding to the crowd, they struck their first distorted note and the ride began. Their sound was fast, dirty, and sloppy. Everything a good punk band should be. Priestess, made the long trek from Montreal to treat the CTO crowd with their gut wrenching stoner rock. These boys were incredible, their muffled distorted sound quickly conjured up comparsions to Mudhoney, and they do live up to it. The most compelling thing was their stage presence. Pausing only once between songs, to flip off the crowd, Priestess delivers the balls out stoner rock they promise. The Dropouts followed, and delighted the crowd with their psycho-rockabilly sound. A healthy combination of the Misfits and Crash Vegas, The Dropouts capitalize on their female singer. Her borderline operatic vocals are the ray of light shining through the band's dark, yet catchy riffs. Then it was time, the crowd began buzzing as four members of '63 Monroe took the stage. After a few brief moments, many crowd members began scanning the bar. Searching for the elusive, fifth member. When suddenly, Marky stormed his way through the crowd from the back. Clad in a black silk teddy, white garters, a beret, and his man boobs exposed Marky quickly plugged in his B.C. Rich and counted the band in. From the first note, '63 Monroe had a white knuckle hold on the crowd. They could do no wrong in front of the home town audience. Tearing into classics such as Heart Attack Victim, and Can't Trust Her. It's strangely comforting hearing a crowd (the majority aged 30 and above) singing along to these glam punk anthems, it truly displayed the respect the band has earned since the 80s. No words can really describe their live show, those who have seen them know what I mean. From cross dressing; to taunting the crowd; to being too drunk to stand; '63 Monroe is glam-punk in its most basic, and honest form. |