– MOHO LIVE, MANCHESTER –

The local support slot is occupied tonight by Manchester nutters Bad Taste Barbie.  If you can imagine Fuzzbox fronted by Divine then you might get the idea. They have a song that goes ‘SiegHeil, Jeremy Kyle’.  No, Really!

The main support is from Girl Spit (I think) whose front man looks like Jim Carrey as the Joker. They make ugly music for beautiful people.

America’s infamous bad taste garage punkers, Dwarves are celebrating 25 years  (or it might be 27 according to their website) which is nothing short of miraculous considering how chaotic their early shows were. Formed in the mid 80’s their debut Blood Guts and Pussy was released by Sub Pop in 1989, and in between the drugging, fighting, onstage knock –outs by the audience  they managed to get themselves dropped by the label  after claiming guitarist HeWhoCannotBeNamed  had died. They even added a hoax tribute to their ‘late’ guitarist to their SugarFix album which was the final straw for Sub Pop.  They split, and reformed in 1997, with The Dwarves Are Young And Good Looking.  As a comeback album, it was near perfect, all killer and no filler, as they say. Almost pop-punk, with hooks, but still with stories of salacious goings on in the world of Blag Dhalia and Co.

The majority of tonight’s set is culled from ‘Young and Good Looking’ and the new album ‘The Dwarves Are Born Again’. That said, it’s impossible to tell as the sound is hideously distorted for the first four songs. ‘Anybody Out There’ is recognisable from 1993’s SugarFix album and the sound improves after that.

Unusually, HeWhoCannotBeNamed is fully clothed tonight, which I think is the first time I’ve seen the guitarist properly attired. He must be cold. It doesn’t stop the band from playing at a breakneck speed. ‘I Will Deny’and the skate punk classic ‘Everybodies Girl’ come mid-set.  On the record the song ends with a sampled girl’s voice imploring “You’re Creepy!” at Blag Dhalia. As the song finishes someone in the audience shouts it back at the singer, and he jokingly retorts “Oh Yeah? You’re fucking creepy, bi-atch”.

The set ends with a blinding ‘We Must Have Blood’ and they are gone, there are no encores. Job Done.

Post By Paul Robinson (32 Posts)

Hello Robbo here, DJ at T.R.A.S.H Your Life at the Dog and Partridge in Bolton, and occasionally at Retro Bar in Manchester. Garage, punk, 60s, kitsch, library tunes, all the good stuff.. Labels: InTheRed, Goner, Swami, Sympathy, Estrus, AMREP, Domino, Touch & Go, Dischord, Rough Trade. Shops: Beatin Rhythmn, Vinyl Exchange, Fopp, Charity, Vintage.