Wednesday 30/05/07 Trabant @ Ghetto/The Ice Bar, London

If you think you’ve seen it all before – you clearly haven’t witnessed a Trabant live show. Leather, glitter, make-up, garish costumes, tit wobbling and a stomach churning striptease are all integral parts of the fun… but more about that later. Tonight, we’re celebrating the release of the eccentric Icelandic outfit’s album ‘Emotional’ – and where else to start the party? None other than London’s ultra-trendy Ice Bar, of course. Yes, a bar where everything is made of Ice, even the glasses, prompting many a bad joke from the Industry types gathered about not asking for ice in their drinks. We’re a funny lot. After an introduction to the upcoming gig from band frontman and serial stripper Ragnar Kjartannson, during which Gigwise loses all sensation in his feet, and it’s a trek over to Ghetto where the real fun begins.

Despite being lubricated up with free drinks, the crowd seem to be loitering suspiciously around the edge of the venue, scared to get too near for the stage. It transpires they know something we don’t. Where at The Ice Bar Trabant were comic looking, affable type chaps as soon as the re-emerge at the Ice Bar, they’re transformed. A perspiring Kjartannson is adorned in a gaudy white suit, wide-eyed drummer Þorvaldur Gröndal looks like he belongs to a gimp convention, while the rest of the band are spattered in a bucket-load of glitter. It’s a look that matches their music perfectly – tonight they’re sleazy as ****, insanely enthusiastic despite the initial frosty reception and obliterate their album apart in the best possible sense. Beginning with the self-appreciating ode ‘Loving Me.’