Friday, June 01, 2007

Damn. I can't access the posting page on my home pc but it works here... the investigation will continue but there seems to be no obvious reason as to why this would be.

Anyways, Tom Phobic has kindly supplied the following and I'm off to wreck a computer...

New York Loose - Dirty Water Club London 18th May 2007

"Oh Yeah! Make some calls - I'm going out - put some lipstick on my mouth and if you snub me - well, I don't care you can't tell me where to go, I'll go anywhere - and they say I'm a BITCH - well go on call me a BITCH -I guess I'm a BITCH if you say so.. "

So begins a gig I've been waiting for the best part of a decade for, the memory is spluttering trying to remember. It feels like a fucking decade tonight just waiting for the support bands to get on and off, and, as sometimes happens at the Dirty Water Club, the night overruns to the extent that people have to leave before they get to see the band they came out for. I'm not moaning, I know the drill and the odd hour between friends makes no odds to me. However, bass player Tommy Spencer (ex Yo Yo's) has recently broken up with his girlfriend and has filled the time apparently drinking the entire rider single handedly to ease his broken heart, and coupled with the ever delaying stage time all is not ticketyboo in the NY Loose camp.

A preamble ramble ... The current band comprises founder member and native New Yorker, Brijitte West on vocals n battered white SG and baseball boots, who should need no introduction to NBT readers as Mr Hutton has been flying the NYL flag for some time. On guitar, another former Yo Yo, Rich Jones, whose CV and reputation goes before him. (All you need to know is Rich was a founder member of Canadian Uber Glamsleazepunks The Black Halos). Finally, squaring the magic circle, on drums is the mysterious Laura Fares, 24 years old and all the way from Buenos Aires! Brijitte reckons she's an amazing drummer and that is tonight's understatement!

Those in need of a history lesson should immediately (you can finish this later) click this link http://www.myspace.com/nyloose and check out NYL in their glory, maximum rock n fucking roll guaranteed and a few choice videos to boot. Back to business, BITCH, the debut 45 from the 90's is as fitting a set opener as you could wish for, beautifully bastardized Personality Crisis riffola, smart lyrics (see above) and more attitude than a South London Comprehensive School. Walk Out quickly follows - brave choice as it's a brand new song, but it fits in seamlessly. My first (addled) impression is it tells of Brijitte jumping off the industry image focused rock n roller coaster, tired of LA hogwash and heading for these septic isles for repair. Luckiest Girl is dispatched with gusto and Tommy's availability is announced from the stage, to which he responds by trying to gee up the crowd. Mess of Myself, the second debut of the night never misses a beat and seems a companion song to Walk Out Brijitte writes from the heart and the guts, base emotions and feelings, with and about love, hate, kicks, betrayal, disillusion, confusion, and pain, we all wanna be 16 forever, but sometimes growing up is a box worth ticking. Life's short got that pen ready? Detonator and Broken from the Year of the Rat album ring familiar, and smiles increase in the vicinity, the latter coulda bin writ up in the confession box an a more hook laden toon you’d be hard pressed to find. Tommy is still trying to work the crowd as Long Island Lolita the third and final debutant, chugs out of the PA and the requests come thick and fast. Rip me up does what it says on the label and the band return for Pretty Suicide which, if there was any justice on this planet would have been one of THE biggest hits of the last decayed decade.

Writing this and looking back, I must have dreamed that they played Monolith Kids, but I got the set list from Brijitte and it aint there so blame it on the booze. 9 songs whizzed by, I woulda been happy for another half hour, but for openers this left the punter wanting more, which after all is a good thing. When you take into account the years of ring rust, new line up, late running and poor Tommy's achy breaky heart, tonight the New York Loose were flawed, but not floored! I stole that line from an old review of Johnny Thunders So Alone album by the way, only steal from the best, kids! With a few gig under their collective belts this outfit are more than capable of smoking most, if not all punk pretenders, and I'm fucking glad people are giving due respect to one of the most influential and overlooked bands of their era. NYLoose kicked the doors down for femme fronted classic punkrawk/pop but unfortunately never benefited from it themselves, while a host of inferior watered down copycat bands gained chart success.However, the desperate hopeful can find solace and succor in the long awaited recently released retrospective album aptly entitled Born To Loose which covers pretty much everything you'll need from the first 7-inch singles, the Loosen Up EP, rare tracks and a slew of unreleased stuff. And you DO need this. Get ya card out now and click here! www.fwmusicstore.co.uk