Thursday, July 7, 2011

The Hard-OnsAt The Garage, London 25 June 2011

Peter and the Test Tube Babies

Above: Peter and the Test Tube Babies

Originally this show was to be The Hard-Ons with The Stupids but for whatever reason The Stupids were replaced with Peter and The Test Tube Babies. Thinking that there was no way that I was going to miss seeing two veteran punk bands play together, I arrived at this one half an hour after opening time because the Lydia Lunch show last week started exactly on time. Had a look at the times on the sound desk and Peter and The Test Tube Babies weren't due to start for an hour so downed a couple of beers. Looked around at the posters and noticed that A Simple Plan had sold out the 600 capacity venue a few days beforehand and that the Flogging Molly concert next week had also sold out.

Peter and The Test Tube Babies played to about fifty people and opened with "Moped Lads". I think I heard a couple of other songs I recognized but the sound at the garage isn't great.

The Australian trio The Hard-Ons took the stage and the crowd seemd to have tripled. The band played a high energy set blending punk, pop punk and metal which led to the boys all stripping their shirts off in synch. It was announced that this would be drummer Pete's last London show as feeding kids is now his priority. After their set the band left the stage for about a minute they came back and ripped through their encore set.

The reason for the low crowd numbers may have been due to the venue's acoustics or more likely because of the underground line being closed due to upgrading for the London Olympics next year. I talked to one of the guys from the band The Hip Priests, who gave me a badge as I'd heard and like his band. Had a bit of hassle with a bouncer as I'd put my backpack in the venues cloakroom and someone had moved it and lost the label which put a dampener on my night although it was eventually found.

The Hard-Ons

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