The Creepshow Live at Moho Live, Manchester

Kev it seems lords it up with the Chilean glitterati at Massive Attack gigs, over priced, it certainly seems by all accounts. Me, I have been to very few gigs this year, Leeds Festival, Biffy Clyro in Vegas and Neil Diamond. Last week saw an additional band added to that very small list and that was Canadian Psychobilly band The Creepshow and the Manchester date on their current European tour.
I haven’t been to Manchester to see a band since around 2000 and that band was Hefner. I heard gunshot that night, so ten years between gigs would be about right. In the meantime Manchester made itself easy on the eye, put in trams and made me feel that it was safe to walk the street without someone looking like a member of N-Dubz trying to mug me.
Our hotel was conveniently next door to the venue therefore limiting the chances of mugging even more.
So we took the short walk to Moho Live, a smallish venue near Afflecks Palace, small but really quite nice, not the cavernous room we last saw The Creepshow at The Asylum in Birmingham. Link to that review is over on the right there. Moho Live is more in keeping as a venue for the type of bands that play there.
The bar was a little pricey, not the average wage costing that Kev had at “Trip hop pioneers Massive Attack”, more that average wage of a paperboy. £6 a double tequila and coke. I tried singles and it was then that I realised that the measures my good lady wife serve at home are more generous than the 1 6th of a gill served in Manchester. Enough drink talk though.
When we walked in a three piece band were playing, Hyperjax. Vocalist/guitarist, vocalist/upright bass and a drummer. Playing punk infused rockabilly, erring at times towards very very early Billy Childish. They were it has to be said, excellent. They were energetic, raw and I suspect, if I knew what it meant, visceral. They were marvellous, a good mixture of original material and I think the odd cover. Their biography tells me that they have been doing this some time and in all likelihood I think we will be returning to Manchester in the New Year to see them supporting European Psychobilly band, Mad Sin. I liked Hyperjax a lot and their place on this bill was definitely welcome.
That brings me neatly to second support band, the London band Buster Shuffle. Buster Shuffle were only on this bill by virtue of them having a stand up bass. Their cockernee knees up love a duck chas n dave madness sound was extremely grating. They sound like a band that would be first on in a tent at Glastonbury and was as far removed from the other bands on this bill as you could get. Just thinking back to their set makes me swear massively. Jamie Cullum seemed like Black Flag in comparison.
We had to consume a lot more tequila to get over the shock of that performance. One T-shirt purchase later and finding a vantage point for the sub 5ft members of the party, The Creepshow came on and (excuse the expression) ripped Moho Live a new arsehole.
The Creepshow have just recently released their third album, They All Fall Down on Hellcat records, the follow up to Run For Your Life and Sell Your Soul. The latter album has had a more punk leaning but still maintains its Psychobilly roots.
Their set was raced through at pace drawing from all three albums but definitely highlighting the new fantastic material, notable favourite for me is Hellbound. Certainly a contender for a single. But the breadth of material from Rue Morgue Radio, to Hellbound, Cherry Hill, Zombies Ate Her Brain, You'll Come Crawlin and all points inbetween.
Vocal duties on the whole carried out by the petite Sarah Blackwood but ably assisted by Sickboy and The Reverend McGinty.
A really excellent night on the whole playing to an audience made up of punks, psychobilly and rockabilly people and everyone was into The Creepshow, a far cry from the Birmingham gig.
Towards the end Reverend McGinty made a comment about the Birmingham gig and we spoke about it at the end of the night, we both agreed Birmingham’s The Asylum is a shit venue, but Moho Live is definitely worth a visit to the north.
As for The Creepshow, excellent, really excellent.



Cherry Hill by The Creepshow

The Creepshow, The Asylum, Birmingham

Last night me and my very own 3 foot Elvis, my good lady wife went to see Psychobilly band The Creepshow. They were playing at The Asylum, a new venue to us in Birmingham. If you have stumbled on this entry and just want to know about the venue, its quite nice, pretty good parking, its new but the main room is quite cavernous, much too big a main room for the bands that play there.
So what of the bands? The first support was a local roackabilly band called, according to the posters, Lunavegas. I have to say this all male 4 piece were excellent, they had enough of a punk edge to keep my wife happy and enough rockabilly to keep me happy, with stand up bass in tow and very strong songs they were damned enjoyable and their enthusiasm was pretty infectious, but as swine flu also is I wouldn’t take that with too much weight. They have the obligatory myspace over at http://www.myspace.com/lunavegas and you should really give them a listen, I thought they were excellent.
Following them was the female fronted Dragster, we were both familiar with them thanks to Youtube and I think they bill themselves as psychobilly, but really they were a punk band, and a poor punk band at that. I have to say I found them to be not so good, the singer just seemed dated, throwing eighties rock shapes that was a little embarrassing, not even in an ironic way, the songs weren’t strong either, they were an interruption and nothing more.
Finally The Creepshow were next, The Creepshow are a Canadian 4 piece, female guitarist/vocalist, stand up bass, keyboard and potentially the best drummer I have seen in a long time. They have released 2 albums and both are extremely strong, they do psychobilly on the pop side of things in a similar vein to The Horrorpops, for me though The Creepshow do it better.
The raced through a lot of the tracks from both albums, Shake, Psycho Ball and Chain, Rue Morgue Radio, Dog House and also a cover of The Ramones track Pet Semetary, before finishing with a misfits cover and The Garden, the later was performed without bass and drums and quite effective it was.
It has to be said they struggled at times with the room being so huge and the crowd being not as enthusiastic as they should be however as gigs go, for us at least, it’s a highlight of the year, very very enjoyable.



Doghouse by The Creepshow