It’s the week before Christmas and what better a way to spend it than having your ears and brains blasted and cleansed of the anodyne and ever present sounds of Christmases past, present and probably future by some modern-day punk-rock in a dingy small pub.
If it doesn’t sound your cup of slightly warm cheap cider, I sympathise with you, but it was a blast, trust me. If you have yet to witness the six-legged angular art-pop-punk of Dundee based Gong Fei then you have a treat in store to come. I’ve seen them twice this year already and tonight, despite protestations of having not played together or rehearsed for ages, the self-proclaimed ‘busiest lazy men in Dundee’ (a title that I’ve long believed to be my unassailable right) they sound bloody brilliant.

By day Dan Faichney is a mild-mannered bookseller (at least until borders self-imploded) and student of film but at night he becomes a man possessed by stranger spirits. Along with Mike and Matt he plays a set of breathtaking brilliance, shifting effortlessly from arty dissonance to sheer pop joy, from gentle to ear shattering, usually pretty much within the confines of the same song. They can be brutal and bruising, tender and teasing and effortlessly playful and inventive, at times recalling Fire Engines, Shellac, early Sonic Youth, Minutemen and countless others but always messing up those trace elements and sounding like Gong Fei.

The equal parts sheer brutality and delicate intricacy of the rhythms, the interplay between vocals and Dan’s inventive guitar lines work to make Gong Fei a forceful live act. Old favourites (well mine anyway) such as ‘Teamwork Makes The Dream Work’ with its infectious, looping riff makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up while a few newer songs sound equally as thrilling to a small but highly appreciative audience. Between songs Gong Fei seem nervous, even a little shy, but once a song starts they are men possessed, a continual blur of motion and sound.

The Black Rat Death Squad, a Glaswegian quartet with one 7” ‘Evelyn’ to their name, have a tough job following up these upstarts. On record they sound a little dense, muddy and under-recorded but live the sound is better despite the rudimentary PA. The songs are full of menacing riffs, twangy guitar and yelped vocals. They have some pretty neat songs full of sleazy threat and an air of menace. In-between songs the singer tries out his own line in dodgy banter that sometimes seems ill-advised – “This songs about the best shag I ever had. She was 16 and gave me chlamydia” – is the tasteful introduction to ‘Evelyn’ and sometimes you think they’d be better letting the songs do the talking. Musically they are pretty enjoyable, seriously primitive yet smart and lacking in a few social skills.

Gong Fei and The Black Rat Death Squad, two sides of the same coin. The former coming across dumb and clever but wearing it lightly, the latter revelling in a dumbness that is sometimes smart but sometimes just plain stupid.

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