Sunday, February 7, 2010

Shut The Fuck Up!! Glen Matlock and The Sadies 2/6/2010

So we went to see Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, Rich Kids, Iggy Pop etc...writer of I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol) along with The Sadies at The London Music Hall here in London. We've been to a couple of shows at The London Music Hall, and usually the sound is way too loud and everything sounds like shit being flushed, so our hopes weren't real high for this one, but The Sadies can usually overcome any obstacle, man made or other.
We got there real early, tickets (which btw were not cheap, $25 at the door) said doors at 8, show at 9...so we got inside around 8:30 with the 10 or so other people waiting to get in. Got some seats up real close and then the masses started showing up...didn't recognize a soul until our pals Jon, Bryan and Christine showed up. People asked us if the other seats at the table we were sitting at were reserved?!? WTF, are we at the highschool prom or something? Guess this shoulda been a clue...
Anyways, The Sadies took the stage around 9:30 or so and proceeded to rock their asses off as always. Pure rock'n'roll with all the prime ingredients intact...ie twin dueling guitars, surf, psyche, benzedrine fueled country, rockabilly and anything else these cats could throw at us. As always, they put a smile on my noggin' and a twitch in my legs! Easily one of the most low key rockin' acts on the planet and they always throw in some unexpected tunes that'll blow your mind!



Around this time, our pal Dave from Windsor showed up with his gf Nicole and proceeded to rave about how great The Sadies set was! Neither of them had seen The Sadies before but knew of them due to the recent John Doe/Sadies tour and album. Nicole had to have some CD's, as the merch table was going full blast right behind us and there were at least 8 Sadies CD's plus Tee's and various other stuff. Course i recommended my fave, the Tales of The Rat Fink Soundtrack (played that Black Sheep cut on Radio WW more times than should be legally allowed!) and the double live as great starting points. Surprisingly, a number of the people in attendance hadn't seen The Sadies before but not surprisingly they became instant fans and had to have merch. After a really short break, Glen Matlock hit the stage, looking fit and armed only with an acoustic guitar.



With little fanfare and ready to rock, Glen took over and belted out some classic tunes he's written over his more than 30 year career. Couple of Rich Kids (the band he formed right after leaving The Sex Pistols) tunes including 'Ghosts Of Princes In Towers', a song from Iggy Pop's Soldier LP ('Ambition' when Glen was in Iggy's band) and several others that i couldn't place. Glen is certainly no front man and had very little between song banter, but he put everything he had into his singing and guitar playing which more than made up for any shortcomings. But that certainly didn't stop the crowd at the back from getting louder and louder and more annoying to us fans up near the front. At one point Glen said something along the lines of 'i want you all to clap, clap-clap along with this one, even the noisy folks at the back' and he let loose with 'God Save The Queen' which shut some of them up for awhile. Around this point of the show, Fergus Tranzmitor was up near the front, totally transfixed by Glen, looking like a cat about to pounce on it's victim. Time for a rousing version of 'Stepping Stone' (you know The Monkee's tune that the Sex Pistols covered early in their career) but that didn't do much to lessen the growing noise from the back. Like WTF?!? You've paid your $25 for a ticket and Glen is delivering the goods quite finely and you've gotta be talking and taking pictures of yourselves! Shut The Fuck Up! What do you expect, John Lydon to appear from behind the curtains along with Cook and Jones for a full scale reunion in London. Get a life...Cook and Jones played Fryfogles here in London way back around 1980 and you weren't there then! So Shut The Fuck Up and let us enjoy the show!! Ok, back to the play by play...Glen decided to do a 'you fill in the blanks cause you know the words' version of 'Pretty Vacant' that went over quite well and got people singing along. Course Fergus decided to jump on his prey at this point, mounted the stage like a man possessed and proceeded to sing along with Glen! Ya, Fergus was on fire and immediately Dan Rudbal (Sex Pistols number uno fan!) had to get into this and the 2 of them finished the song with Glen laughing along!! Wotta blast!! Huge thanx to Fergus and Dan for making this show so memorable! And thanx to the bouncers for not being assholes and throwing these 2 uber fans off the stage!! And that was it for Glen's part of the show so you noisy people can carry on or leave now.



Back to The Sadies for the final part of the show and once again, these guys ripped through another top notch set. Glen came up for one tune, that again got Fergus jumping/dancing across the floor like a madman in heat! And The Sadies played a couple more, including a dead on cover of The Birds 'Leaving Here' that of course got me up dancing like a moron while someone (maybe wife or gf?) snatched Fergus off the dance floor for the trip home. Definitely a fun nite and well worth the $ even if some people didn't think so and tried to ruin it for us fans!