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Ludes means crazy girl in Czech apparently, and something to do with drugs. Which is handy because Ludes front man David Ashby brings both things to mind. All camp and preening like Jarvis with the sweaty realness of Kevin Rowland in that 'Come on Eileen' video where he’s wearing dungarees (not that Ludes wear dungarees mind you), Ashby prances about the stage, hand on hip, tipping his hat forward with every line and generally playing the dandy with all his might.
And the Dexys Midnight Runners theme ain’t too bad really since the band bash out an excellent gypsy ska rhythm’n’blues racket which is as funny as it is impressive. Clearly a band of their time, you can hear the seaside psychedelia of The Coral as well as the scratchy guitar lines of The Libertines in most of tonight’s set. And on songs like 'Zorba the Greek', with the comic mysticism of the latter, evidence that Ludes have ambition outside of these walls but with a demeanor thankfully that suggests they aren’t too worried about looking ridiculous to surrender to onstage abandon in the name of a good show. Which is good for us and good for them. Despite a bag full of melody and one song that reminds Gigwise of, inexplicably, 'Catch the Pigeon', you sense that Ludes are lacking their breakthrough hit but with all the tools to create it.
They end with insane new single 'Your Dog Don’t Bark', which contains one of the best nonsense lyrics of the year, and leave us to beam at how much fun this can be. Good stuff.
