Tuesday 11/03/03 Ambulance @ Camden Barfly, London

If you've ever wanted to be a fly on the wall at a bands first ever jam in a cold empty garage, then watch Ambulance and all your questions (not prayers) will be answered. They don't play live often and you can tell, the sound check was the gig, and the mess you witness before you is what Ambulance are all about.

They sport a Metallica Euro '88 tour T-shirt, Pat Cash-esque head band, red neck shirt, a tattoo and two pairs of specs between them, but don't let that be the end of it, the mess…sorry, show…must go on. They swear at the barely-there crowd with a mouth so dirrty Christina Aguilera should be banging down their door, and when Pink's 'Just Like a Pill' hit comes out to play during one of their many sound checks, what was once kooky and bizarre turns to hilarity. However, I do get the feeling it is meant to, and that Ambulance's tongue is planted firmly in their collective eclectic cheek.

The bassist has his back turned for the duration, even for his moment of glory - shouting 'Liverpool, can you hear me?' during a 30 second swirling fusion of sound. And for the set closer, a five minute mashed guitar and horn ensemble, the guitarist orders for all of the lights to be turned off. Unfortunately, the darkness only amplifies the crashing din, and it means that you can't see which one of the seven (count 'em) instruments the only girl of the group has now laid her hands on.

The gig now finishes with guitarist Adam strutting around the confused, s****ing audience with a megaphone squeezing what is left out of a harmony. But the repetitive drone rock has left us baffled, a little too baffled to even enjoy recent single 'I Am A Star, I Am An Angel'. Shame. Perhaps even a little sound check could mend the ills of a sick Ambulance next time.

Photo by Shelly Turner :: shelly@gigwise.com