Another night at 360 Club, another great line-up. One of my favourite bands supported by three I’ve never seen before. I never tire of seeing Purple Thread so I was, to say the least, excited to see them again in full band mode (the last time I saw them play was at Shuffle Shuttle playing in stripped down acoustic mode). But I was equally as excited to see three bands who I’ve never seen before – I love seeing new bands.
Why, oh why have I never seen Supermarket Police before? It’s a sort of punky raucous garage-y blast of sound. I was, to be honest, hooked seconds into their first song. Great guitars, great drums, fantastic vocals who could ask for anything more? Bloody hell this band are great.
I didn’t think I could ask for anything else but their second song has a hint of punky 2-Tone, and that’s a great thing, a joyous thing. There’s something of one of my fav bands from back in the day, The Ruts, in what Supermarket Police do. And I loved that hint of that in their sound. But they are capable of, what we might call, subtlety, kind of punky edged subtlety, as they play some hugely tuneful songs.
What I’m trying to say is that what they play crosses a whole of genre boundaries, it’s not easy to stick them into a simple niche, but there’s something that makes their songs hang together, something that is the ‘Supermarket Police’ Sound’.
And as they finish with a riff heavy garage-y song that rocks, it rocks big time, I am left with one simple thought. Supermarket Police are cool, way cool.
In contrast Paradas are in that indie/alt-rock vein. I was impressed, very impressed, by their first song as it had a great tune – I love a tune in a song, as you may know. And I love a great tune sang with great vocals, Paradas had that.
It’s their second song where I was suddenly able to put my finger on something that had nagged during their first, something that had bugged me. And that was there’s something of a hint, perhaps more than a hint, of retro soft-rock sound in what they do. It’s in the guitar sounds, it’s in the vocals and it’s in the vocal harmonies.
And this is a band who know how to play, that’s obvious. I was so into what they played and how they played it that I forgot to take notes. This is a good thing people. A band have to be good to do that when I go to review bands live, I have somewhat jaded ears, this just can’t be helped.
Paradas are a band I’d like to see again. I’m not big on that indie/alt-rock thing but Paradas’ take on it is something I really liked. Do try are catch them play live, you won’t be disappointed.
I am, and I have to be honest here, somewhat on the fence about Moretti. On the one hand I know that the playing was good, the vocals good – in fact very good, the songs good. There’s a great rock swagger going on in what they do. After some thought I wrote the phrase ‘they’re like a heavy Oasis, and sometimes out and out rock’ in my notes, you get the picture. But two songs in and I’m not that sure they’re for me.
Look it may have been the place, or even the time after two bands I really got into, but Moretti just didn’t click for me. This happens, I can’t like every band I see, that’s obvious isn’t it. But as I said I know objectively that what Moretti do is good, the crowd were really into them, they got the crowd up and dancing and even singing along. So what I’m going to say is check out the band for yourself.
So the page in my notebook headed Purple Thread is completely blank. From the moment they came on, it was a complete riot. It seemed Purple Thread were really on one that night. The songs came with something of a sleazy dirty edge, in fact more than a sleazy dirty edge. It was almost too much tearing my eyes away from them to take photos, let alone attempt to take notes, too exciting, too fucking good.
Liz was just all over the stage, throwing her guitar around. The chaos and noise revolved around her. And yet somehow she managed in that maelstrom of sound to produce those vocals, those great vocals, we know she’s capable of. And as crazy as it was the playing is just right, it’s incredibly impressive.
I’ve said it before, and I’m probably going to say it again, but there’s no fillers in their set. There’s no song that isn’t fucking fantastic.
And as their set went on, it got crazier and crazier, when Liz threw herself backwards onto the stage playing her guitar, so crazy had it got that this seemed an entirely right thing for her to do. I mean I’ve seen people do that before but it’s always seemed, with the odd exception, somewhat rehearsed. Her doing that seemed to be a spontaneous thing.
Look, I’m a fan – as you might have realised – but Purple Thread are a band you have to see, you must see. Every time I see I see them I become more and more of a fan, but that night that moved up a whole load. If you weren’t there you missed something special. They rock, they rock fucking big time, but their songs are great to dance to. Seeing them live is an experience, a thrill filled experience.
All photos on this page © Frank Roper Photography
