So BM was in unfamiliar territory tonight, but heard by reputation of The Bungalow, which along with other Paisley venues flew the flag for punk in Scotland in the era when the city faithers of Glasgow did not like what they saw at a Stranglers gig at City Halls in 1977… a long time ago, even before BM was allowed to go oot to gigs… So the weight of history hangs heavy over this recently revamped venue, a perfect place for the Filthies..
First up was John Zip, a sometime punk (with his band The Zips) and gave us some Zips songs and some of his newer material. A passionate performer on solo guitar, his songs tend to the socially conscious, for example ‘George Square 1919’ and ‘Helmand’. Trump got a bit of a bashing as well in the allegorical ‘Biff’ and he paid tribute to the departed Garry Borland of the band Heavy Drapes. An impressive performance from John, and well worth turning up early for.
Anyone familiar with these pages and postings will know that BM is a big fan of The Filthy Tongues so it is no surprise to announce that they were again formidable, a brute force of nature but also with precision tooling designed to hit targets repeatedly and club audiences into submission. Over two albums the Filthies have given us a morbid but glorious take on the darker underbelly of Goodwill City, pounding the point home that this was never such, and has always had dark and and dank undercurrents…
First track tonight was a very welcome outing for early Filthies track ‘Nae Tongues’ instrumental apart from the guttural howls from Mr Metcalfe, dressed as usual as if he is about to perform an exorcism somewhere in the Cowgate…
From then on it was a heady mixture of highlights from both albums, new single ‘Carlos The Jackal’ dropping early on, along with ‘Ghost of Rab McVie’, another highlight of ‘Back from Hell’…
And the band played on (and BM will forget some names) but in its fullest form a six-piece, Metcalfe on vocals and increasingly searing guitars, Kelly putting in another solid shift on drums and Finn on the bass, recalling again JJ Burnell in the aggressive front (and what fucking age is he now, he looks not a year over 30). The subsidiary members were also great, Sussanah Clark on violin added a lot to the sound and really apologies but forgot the name of the percussionist and the keyboard player but again they made this a rounded out and glorious racket.
The set climaxed with the truly shudder to think ‘Bowhead Saint’ which surely Nick Cave would be proud to be associated with, and of course when things get fraught there is a temptation to drag out some Goodbye Mr Mackenzie classics… There is a complication in that there are shows now booked as GMM in Scotland in May 2019, a welcome return (the core three are going to be joined by former keyboard player Rona – Big John is unlikely to join them, as is Shirley, but no matter, BM is lookin’ forward to this!).
Anyway they played Auld Reekie riposte ‘Goodwill City’, surely the best ever song about Edinburgh (stop me if you have heard this one before!) and another Mackenzies class ‘Green Turn Red’, before the traditional (always played at some point) Brel cover ‘Amsterdam’.
A great gig, and BM would recommend the Bungalow as a venue, and of course the Filthies as “indispensable to me!” This could be their best performance yet…
Betty Mayonnaise