Jello Biafra And The Quantanamo School of Medicine / Moral Dilemma / Banditos

For a band with a name as long as the new super ferry ‘Celebrity Solstice’ I expected the show to take place in the large hall of the Academy. Instead we are crammed into the 600 capacity venue with a bar on one side, toilets on the other and a stage that is more speaker stacks than performance area. Not too bad for the smaller bands here, but the bouncing antics of Jello require more space...

Banditos are a couple of guys from Rotherham playing folk punk on acoustic guitars. No I only believe this sounds good as a solo thing, imagine Billy Bragg or Jim Bob, as duelling clangs from 12 guitar strings seems a little crowded and muffles the sound. There are a couple of glowing similarities to The Pogues with 'Cheers...' and one track sounds a lot like Johnny Cash's 'Jackson', too much in fact. The guys mean well, but just appear to be mucking about in a rehearsal rather than performing to a crowd.



Next band Moral Dilemma are more like it. Gritty punk with spilt male and female gruff vocals, tight punk riffs and attitude with many moral things to say, including CCTV culture ('Under Surveillance'). They came from the London squat scene so know what they are talking about, and the hard hitting speed punk goes down well with the crowd who have swelled in the last half hour to fill the small room. Nothing new here, but the songs throw some seriously good punk punches.

After some really strange, high pitched interlude music it's time for the man himself, ex Dead Kennedy's frontman Jello Biafra and his new band, The Quantanamo School of Medicine. Appearing in a bloodied doctors coat, his raw energy puts younger bands to shame. He quickly moves the many obstacles like monitors and mic stands out of the way on stage, so that he can spin about as much as possible. The band he has chosen too for this new venue are of great calibre, bassist Andrew Weiss (Rollins Band, Ween, Butthole Surfers), brother Jon Weiss on drums, Ralph Spight and Kimo Ball on guitar.



Leaving behind the spoken word tours of yesteryear that have kept Biafra busy since the inamicable split from the Dead Kennedys, this is his finest work since that of 'The Jelvins' (with The Melvins), and harks back to his glory years in the pioneering Californian hardcore band. Well I say he is leaving the spoken word behind; Biafra still has plenty to say about the state of his country and the world between songs, whilst the band provide a quietened backdrop of sounds for his rants on overcrowded in jails, terrorists and war criminals and whether Obama has proved himself yet. Even his T-shirt, visible after the removal of the bloodied jacket, states "I support Iraq Veterens Against the War."

Never before have I seen a man of 51 leap into the crowd as many times as Biafra does; he’s like a cartoon character on a pair of springs. Not a moment goes by where he does not pull a face, point or do something weird during and between songs. Well what more do you expect from a guy who once stood for mayor of San Francisco (in 1979), using the Jell-O ad campaign catchphrase, "There's always room for Jello", got married in a graveyard with the singer of Flipper conducting the ceremony and who allowed Cynthia Plaster Caster to get an everlasting impression of his manhood... the man is a legend!



To the tracks now, the similarity to Dead Kennedy's fast paced political songs are there, and it's good to see Biafra back in a band performing this way. 'Strength Through Shopping' takes a dig at spending "...Am I possessed by my possessions?..." while 'Electronic Plantation' looks at computer career culture "...Your best friend is a mouse..." and the lyrics to 'New Feudalism' are so relevant to today, as are many of Biafra's hard hitting lyrics. "...Forced loans from the World Bank / Soon your country's sank..."

As a treat too there are several Dead Kennedy's tracks on offer, such as the first and second singles from 1980's 'Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables' in the way of 'California Über Alles' and Biafra's favourite 'Holiday in Cambodia', to which the crowd go even more wild.

If you want a live show (as well as the music) Biafra and the GSM will sort that out for you. I can't see many people performing with this much energy 31 years on, with this much passion and such a sense of humour.

The Terror Of Tiny Town
Clean As A Whistle
New Feudalism
Electronic Plantation
California Über Alle
Panic Land
Lynch
Three Strikes
Strength Through Shopping
Dot Com Monte Carlo
Pets Eat Their Master

The Cells That Will Not Die
Holiday In Cambodia

I Won't Give Up

FUTURE GIGS

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