¡Forward, Russia! / Tera:Tora / The Tommys / You Slut!

Phwoar! Before they’ve even taken the stage You Slut! have won the crowd over with their epic moniker, but thankfully the thrills don’t stop there. Sure, they’re lacking a vocalist, something that would make them truly complete, yet as far as instrumental bands go, they’re working at a premium. At times funky enough to compete with anything the DFA might cough-up, at others so eccentrically heavy they might lock heads with System Of A Down or At The Drive-In, these Nottingham locals have a perfect cohesion of musical talent that – lead singer pending – could take them out of the UK’s gun-crime capital and set them rolling on the road to rock stardom.

Kind of like the punk-rock equivalent of that surreal moment in Moonwalker, when Michael Jackson and his posse shrink down to a pint-size gang of move-busting kids for ‘Bad’, for a moment you wonder if this time it was The Donnas that were left too long in the wash as mini-me counterparts, The Tommys, launch into their fem-punk riot. These four pretty young girls from Cheshire are yet to take their GCSEs (collective ‘Awwww!’), but their youth shouldn’t distract from the fact they play with undeniable dexterity. People look around in bemusement, wondering if they’ve been reawakened at a former school assembly as the band play through Busted-esque jaunts ‘Set It Off’ and ‘The Day The World Turned Chav’, but ultimately (bar a few bitter hearts at the back) people look on with admiration that a gang of girls so young have managed to pool together their talents and get this far. Still, as guitarist Stevie Shepperson chops an impressive solo on set-closer ‘Fight’, you do worry her maths homework might be suffering.

‘Back to reality!’ elicits Shaun Hencher, lead vocals/guitarist of Nottingham’s homebred Tera:Tora, obviously as fried by the The Tommys’ odd billing as everyone else. The confusion does them no harm, as the band that claim to sound like ‘your favourite bands played backwards’ kick up a powerful, screeching punk-funk storm that’s far from dilettantish. As it is with Nottingham gigs, the audience are crap – is anyone even listening to drummer Jonny Stafford’s wild, commanding beats? This is music to dance to, ferchrissake!!! Still, even as the band that stand out the most on the evening’s line-up (let’s just make this explicit: they’re fucking excellent), they still end up having to berate the crowd for responding to them with precisely sod all, just like so many other bands who’ve been cruelly submitted to the Notts Indie-Zombie Collective before them.

¡Forward, Russia! have an upside-down exclamation mark at the start of their name and a regular one at the end, which is obviously excellent. They are also amongst the most innovative of new British bands that our little island has produced, and that’s something, as we’ve been producing LOADS. The basic underpinning is a slab of The Rapture’s danceability, built structurally with dense guitars in the vein of Death From Above 1979 (whilst ultimately sounding nothing like either of them), some keyboard electronics thrown in the mix for decoration and a lead singer who’s falsettos manage to overstep the cunty nature of Justin Hawkins’, to tie a bow round this perfect package of musical excellence. They’re fresh and exciting and – Woowee! – their songs don’t have titles, they’re merely numbered in the order they were written, which can either be deemed a revolutionary tactic or a little bit silly.

They play the hits, including ‘9’, ‘13’ and, of course, ‘11’ and they finally managed to evoke a reaction in the previously passive crowd. Still, by the time it’s all over, it’s been another triumphant evening at Nottingham’s finest venue and a consistent line-up to compliment it – rarely can you say you’ve seen a gig where all the support bands are, in their own ways, as worthy as the headliners.

Kids! It’s time to dance!

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.