Tuesday 08/10/02 Le Neon, Little Hell, Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster @ Barfly, Liverpool

Crikey moses what's goin' on here? Do we have a new Lomax on our hands? - even the staff aren't quite sure if they're in Hotham or Seel Street. Who cares, Liverpool has a buzzing small venue pulling in the top tourers again.

Shame then, that Le Neon don't quite hit the mark. The band are good - the drummer is in a noisecore rhythm world all of his own - but you get the feeling the singer spent his formative years prancing around in front of his mirror to the sound of Blur's Modern Life is Rubbish. It's not lack of inspiration that lets this band down, but lack of cohesion… The indifferent early crowd don't really help matters, and it all ends in a bad prog wig-out by the name of '1,2,3…'. Oh well, maybe next time.

God bless Little Hell. Do they rock? Yes sir, they certainly do. After a shaky start in the form of 'Hemotoxic', they go straight for the jugular with 'Virus with Shoes'… and don't let go. With a set mainly consisting of tracks from forthcoming album 'Demonic Advisory Centre' there's just too many highlights to mention.

It's about time this band were massive - after numerous false starts, changes of personnel and release delays, surely their time is now.

Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster… what the **** is going on here?? What are they?!?! Who are they?!? Who cares 'cos they're FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC… singer Guy McKnight's (the bastard son of Ozzy & the Bride of Frankenstein) scares the shit out of all and sundry, the rest of the band pound the stage like it's their bitch… and the music is, well… Who gives one about the music when you have a spectacle like this?... ok, it's loud, raucous… and sounds like Doctor & The Medics, Dead or Alive and Marilyn Manson crammed into a blender, speed ten. It's ace, trust me.

Eighties Matchbox B-Line's Disaster's 'Horse of the Dog' is out now (Universal)

Photos by Shelly Turner :: shelly@gigwise.com