Engine Room, 27 January 2010
“I don’t want to sound like an artist or anything, but this is the last time we play this fucking hole, it sounds like it’s made of paper. Right, well, this is our new single but you won’t be able to tell!”
Lead singer and guitarist Rich Frownes seemed far less enthusiastic about the venue than he should have been, after all the sound in essence was not all bad. The vocals were scratchy and lyrically unattainable at best, however the guitar sound, being nothing less than incendiary, shot through the body and soul of the audience. The band had just endured what must have felt like hours of ultimately fruitless sound checks and still gave it their all and put their full array of tricks on display for all to see. Bad for Lazarus are what Rock Sound Magazine described as ‘good filthy fun’, in all honesty I could find very little in their performance to dispute this quite apt analysis. They spent the entirety of this set trashing, kicking and screaming; almost chucking their thrash punk musical bricks out of the pram in disgust at the apparent lack of musical equipment at their disposal. This behaviour, a truly rock and roll style of destruction, was much to the distaste of the venue manager, but they didn’t seem to care because they claimed they would never play there again! This was one situation where the phrase ‘a bad workman blames his tools’ did not apply. The effort was there but unfortunately the mechanical know how needed to produce the substance wasn’t. So out of frustration they produced a show more than a gig, dancing around like they were performers in a West End show titled ‘Testosterone Teenagers’.
Overall it was nothing less than top entertainment but alas not a top gig. It depends largely on what you were in it for. If you were a dedicated fan you wouldn’t have caught many tracks but would have loved it anyway. If you were new to them, as I was, there was enough musicianship and personality to give it another go on their next gig in Brighton. Bad for Lazarus are madness, humour, testosterone, metal, punk, pop and savagery all in one, good value for a relatively short gig I’m sure you will agree.
What Did You Think of the Gig?
Cash (left): 7/10 “They just trashed it all very efficiently, just a really well put together mess.”
Charlie Electra (right): 8/10 “I really enjoyed it; the hard core metal themes are an inspiration to younger people to take up the style of music.”
Jade: 10/10 “Amazing.”
Mark (right) and Tantra (left): 10/10 “It was sick regardless of the fact that the sound was so screwed up, good for the music and good for the violence.”
Lilly (not pictured): 7/10 “It was lovely, it was very sexy, a sexy 7/10.”
Words by James Rowland
Photos by Emma Meston
myspace.com/badforlazarus
