By DJ Astrocreep
A cold trip across the Pennines sees me take in the delights of Welsh psychobilly legends Demented Are Go for the first ever time. Combined with a few drinks and some very kind souls around me, it’s also a first visit to Bradford’s Underground venue and between the two, which makes for quite an introduction to the musical heart of Bradford. The venue itself feels not too dissimilar to The Cavern from my own city, quite quickly making it feel like a home from home.
First support The X-Ray Surf Vehicle are an excellent warm up act, playing a welcoming mix of surf and rockabilly which gets the ever busying room nicely warmed up. While some at the back seemed more interested in chatting with friends, it’s good to see a fair amount of the audience moving forward to check out what is quite the tight set from our first support act. There’s not a massive amount of difference in some of their tracks – hardly unheard of for quite a tight knit scene – but they deserve more than the mild scattering of applause that they get between songs.
The half hour set passes quite quickly, as I quite enjoy their set, it’s just a pity they don’t get more thanks for their music.
After the instrumental offerings of the previous act, Ugly Fly Guys take a further step towards the psychobilly antics to come with their own brand of rockabilly, with plenty of throwbacks to samples of the likes of ‘Pretty Vacant’ and a full rockabilly cover of The Who’s ‘My Generation’, which also seems to fall on slightly deaf ears.
It’s a fuzzy, well played set, even when the bass guitar has to be put down side of stage due to a mishap and our main support do themselves a lot of justice with a really enjoyable rockabilly set. It’s good to hear some more applause as they get deeper into their set and it’s a great lead into what our headliners will be providing for us tonight.
As much as I’ve waited a long time, I admit to not quite being ready for Demented Are Go. Sparky and co are in absolutely great form and it’s good to see such a good and varied crowd have come out to support them. The pit is a definite go, similar to when I first saw The Damned in the early 2010s, with fans of any age getting involved in some good natured violent fun. I would be remiss to not note just how much the crowd are an equal part in proceedings as the band pound their way through a brilliant set of songs, with the love definitely spilling out in both directions.
Hearing the likes of ‘Cripple In The Woods’, especially since my own health issues kicked in so badly, is actually quite heartening and I have a stupid smile on my face throughout that particular track. While there is always going to be time for the likes of ‘Bodies In The Basement’, it’s the rest of the tracks chosen that interest me most and the variety makes for an excellent set. The likes of ‘Queen Of Disease’ is fantastic and seeing the crowd go for it genuinely hits the happy place in whatever I now have that classes as a heart.
A few encores are enough to send us all on our way with happy faces and it has been an absolute hell of a night. Three fantastic acts that feel like a journey through music as much as a concert and it’s been worth the journey over and then some. A fantastic night of good, old fashioned fun.
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