The Blind Shake, The Sonic Heartbreakers, Dull Aches, New Woman – Brudenell Social Club – 4/2/16

I love the BBC. It’s a constant in my life, like a close friend, that I would find it hard to live without. Like a close friend, you don’t necessarily like everything they do but Public Service Broadcasting means it’s for everyone – so what I love you may hate and visa versa, which is fine by me. BBC 6Music for instance. During the week it’s on in our kitchen from 7 til midnight playing the type of music I love (ie a bit of everything). Earlier this week Marc Riley had ‘The Blind Shake” live on his show. Not heard them before, but the first track had me reaching for the computer to see if they were coming to Leeds and – deep joy – they were coming on Thursday. Met Martin Mark and Ian down there for what turned out to be an excellent evening.

First up were Guitar and drum duo ‘New Woman’. Drumming Motorhead would be proud of and wonderfully loose reverb-laden guitar and a floppy curly blonde fringe to be proud of – great stuff!

‘Dull Aches’ managed to ‘up the ante’ by introducing a Theremin to their wild style. Each song started with a great riff that managed to stay throughout whilst being mangled and stretched and generally beaten up along the way – loved them!

My only complaint with the support bands were that the vocals were very ‘shouty’ ‘The Sonic Heartbreakers’ continued this trend with another riff-heavy set with added Sax which, I’m glad to say, gave a Beefheart feel to some tracks rather than a Spandau gloss. Thought I recognised Hank Haint….

With a quick introduction “Hi, we’re The Blind Shake from Minneapolis” they proceeded to take command of the evening and shook it for all that it was worth. Dressed in matching tops (but not identical – I liked that) they stormed into song after song, jumping around (often hopping on one leg) whilst throwing guitars over their shoulders, acrobatics around the drum kit like Animal from the Muppets and beating the bass LAMF. I had a huge grin on my face from the moment they started till they headed off into the night. An absolute joy!

Bob the Chiropodist