Enmore Road was a-jumpin’ and a-buzzin’ this humid December evening, with Morrissey on at the Enmore Theatre just up the road.
Ah, but other musical pleasures could be found in more intimate spaces on this night and they don’t come much more intimate than the Green Room Lounge, tonight playing host to The Intercontinental Playboys supported by Bad Vibrations...
My learned friend Mark Fraser reviewed Bad Vibrations as part of his piece on the return of The Psychotic Turnbuckles on this site last week, so I’ll just add that Alex and co played their usual stellar selection of 60s gems of the garage/ r n b kind (The Monkees, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Pretty Things and more) with their usual aplomb, love and due care. Watch out because they did say they might change their name again!
Next up were The Intercontinental Playboys, who I had neither seen nor heard before this show but I was looking forward to it, having had them recommended to me by those whose tastes in music are similar to mine. A friend in the crowd suggested a Doors/Stranglers comparison and certainly in the earlier slower numbers, with slinky grooves and lots of spaces for the instruments to weave around each other, that comparison didn’t seem altogether unreasonable.
However, as the set progressed and the grooves were complimented by more ‘straight ahead’ numbers, it was clear that this band has a good hold on its dynamics and can either sit back or power on as the material demands it.
I regret that I wasn’t more familiar with their original material but they did do a fine selection of covers -The Atlantics, The D Coys, Velvet Underground, among others - each arranged and played to sit with their originals and not jar against them.
The small but appreciative crowd had a good time and The Intercontinental Playboys are definitely a band worth seeing live and I for one will be checking out their recorded work herein.
Keith Claringbold - rebackrock.com
Comments