Leeds punks Guns of the Roof have been frequent visitors to Glasgow over the years, but with a new album about to hit the shops in a little over a week and stellar support being provided by The Hyperjax, this is sure to be an evening to remember.
Friday night in Glasgow’s Midland Street bears witness to a diverse parade of clubbers mixing with the punks and psychobillies who are congregating outside Rockers. It’s only eight thirty in the evening and those who have come to see Guns on the Roof are in for a long wait, as the suuport line-up of four local bands have only just begun.
It is not until after 11pm that The Hyperjax appear on stage. Around three years ago they supported Tiger Army at King Tuts, and I left raving about them as much as the headliners. To have a band as good as this on the support bill is a real bonus, and despite the fact that their set only starts after the last bus home departs from the city, the promoters should be commended.
As expected, they play thirty minutes (plus encore) of classic Rockabilly, the highlight being the brilliant, ‘Talkin’ New York City’. Guitarist Sam Woods resembles an ‘ironed-out’ Keith Richards and repeatedly cajoles the diehard fans down the front to throw themselves around a bit, not that they need much encouragement. Liam slaps furiously on the luminous-coloured strings of his double bass, constantly pouting and posing in the manner that only he can get away with. With ‘The Wolf’ dictating the tempo on drums it looks like Guns on the Roof are really going to have be on top of their game tonight to ensure they are not upstaged.
And so, at shortly after midnight the big screen is raised (which, rather bizarrely, has been showing the film ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ to the sound of Stray Cats and The Dead Kennedys) and the dry ice machine goes into meltdown as it blasts out clouds of thick ‘smoke’. From somewhere amongst the smog the cry goes up, “We are Guns on the Roof, this is ‘Last Night’” and they’re off! Marc’s bass throbs with the opening bars as Danny’s guitar introduces the opening riffs of afforementioned opener, before Joe fires off a couple of brief rounds on his snare. Bretty balances between the stage and the crowd barrier as he rasps the vocals of the third track on the new album. Behind him, Marc and Danny are already in manic mode as they run around the small stage, finding spaces that seemingly weren’t there a few moments earlier in which to throw their guitars around.
Taken from their debut album Pure Punk Rock Therapy, ‘Hangman’ is an old crowd favourite, and only succeeds in slowing down Marc and Danny’s antics by virtue of their frequent need to provide backing vocals. ‘Last Orders’ – which has recently featured on MTV’s ‘The Riot’ is next. Again, this features big, raucous vocals from Bretty who paces aggressively and menacingly around the stage with the guitar lads providing backing harmonies. It may surprise some to hear just how Guns on the Roof can effortlessly produce aggressive punk music that is in no way diluted by the harmony, whilst also still retaining a hard edge to their performance.
‘Derailed’ and ‘Michael Myers’ are reeled off in quick succession before ‘Going All The Way’. Again, the older songs have more of a definitive ‘American punk’ sound to them, compared with tracks on current album, New Frustration. Of course, there are big, hooky, shout-a-long choruses for the crowd to sink their teeth into, and by now they are doing just that.
A superb punk interpretation of Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring of Fire’ delights, then we finally have a couple of songs to showcase the new album – ‘Road Of Our Lives’ and ‘So Tired’. The former is a surprising choice; not one which I would say particularly represents the true quality of the new recording. However, ‘So Tired’ is fast and frantic and Bretty affords Marc and Danny more space in which to continue their physical assault on their instruments by leaping into the crowd and belting out the song from within the audience. By this stage, drummer Joe is quite obviously feeling the pain as his sweat-soaked face contorts with each frantic thrash of his kit, but like a champion athlete, a ‘no pain, no gain’ attitude is required to keep up with the relentless tempo of such a band.
The set then finishes with the only political reference of the night as the final song, ‘Stupid Cunt’ is dedicated to a Mr Gordon Brown. Of course, this was never going to be the actual final song as the usual encore was demanded and the band duly obliged with ‘Dying’ another track lifted from the new album. It’s a great way to finish the set – hard but melodic punk played out by a band that did not discernibly put a foot wrong the whole evening, despite their energetic stage presence. And in Bretty’s case it is just as well he is sure-footed as he jumps from the stage onto the bar-top, picking his way carefully through the pints of beer as he sings the final song. (You really shouldn’t even risk the chance of spilling a Glaswegian’s pint, Bretty!)
This is my third experience of seeing Guns on the Roof live, the last time being almost two years ago. Impressive as they were then, these four young lads, with an average age of just twenty – have come a long way since then. Despite the omission of the two strongest tracks on New Frustration this certainly ranks as one of my top gigs of the year.