Covid seemed to change the lineup for this Fulford Arms show every few hours, or was Vlad the Insane trying to prevent us from raising money for Ukraine? First This House Is Haunted dropped out with Covid and soon after that so did Cowgirl, I hope all the band members infected are now on the mend. This left the lineup as Captain Starlet (probably the next band name that I have heard in years and that is a typo in the gig poster. They definitely need to be on the same bill as the Mysterines, right?), Perspex, and the Black Lagoons. Sadly owing to me being at a York Literature Festival event earlier in the evening I missed Captain Starlet, although to be fair Magid Magid’s session at St Peter’s School was inspiring!
So first up for me was Perspex, a band that I saw for the first time last October as part of the Slow Education mini-festival at the Crescent in York. Back then I said “Perspex have a tank full of energy and probably a whole bunch of jerry cans full of the stuff too. At their peak, they sound like prime time Clash with vocal phrasings like Steve Harley. Who doesn’t love Perspex?” Tonight they came across like the Velvet Underground on copious amounts of E and a box of blues. After a slow and somewhat messy start and further fuelled by Guinness and shots they did get better. Singer Michael S. Cable tried hard to maintain that classic mean moody rock-star demeanour and mostly managed it. But when he let his guard down he was quite dryly amusing. Perspex are a great band, anyone who has seen them before can attest to that. However, this seemed like a sub-standard off night for them, well that is how it seemed to me. If I were crafting a school report for Perspex on this performance I would give them a C- and add “could do better” in the comments. But we all know Perspex can be an A+ band, don’t we?
The eventual headliners the Black Lagoons are a band that I have now seen five times in six years. They have an elegant rock swagger about them and they were really firing on all cylinders tonight. It may not have been a full house, but there was hardly anyone who wasn’t pushing to be near the stage. Black Lagoons have a long association with my favourite current band Avalanche Party and in fact three of the times I have seen them live they were supporting Jordan and the AP boys! Given the almost constant lineup and stage time changes, this was a stunning set from a great band. Psychedelic, punky, garage rock at its best! Probably the best I have seen them play, so far! Click here to stream their rather excellent new EP, ‘The Big Rock Candy Mountains’
All pictures, except the gig poster, were taken by me using my very cheap Chinese Android phone. The videos were found on YouTube. If the video is yours and you would like a credit or for it to be removed please let me know.
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