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| Eddie Shambles and the Shambles
- live at The Bearpit The Bearpit is the kind of club where the men are men. And so are the women. A throwback to the dark Goth heyday of the early 80s, it's an unlikely venue for an album launch, still less an album by the post-punk darlings du jour, Eddie Shambles and the Shambles. In fact, the only thing that seems likely to be launched there is a sulphuric anal emission from a drunken beatnik who's starting to feel the effects of that undercooked biryani. Not to be deterred, Eddie Shambles and the Shambles mount the stage like a bison in rutting season and begin smashing up their instruments. A masterstroke this, sadly lost on an apathetic Wednesday night crowd - a complete subversion of the classic rock n roll gig's climax. But it's a gesture that's not without its problems. Not least, how do you play a set when your guitar is smashed in two, the bass has only one string and the drums are quite frankly on fire. The band make a brave attempt at their new single, It's a Bloody Shambles. On record, it's a 12-minute epic that builds from a dark, sinister strum to a screeching feedback crescendo. Live, performed only with vocals and one bass note, it becomes something altogether more subtle and hypnotic, almost like a sitar drone. Oh, and it goes on a bit longer. Well, a lot longer. Half an hour longer. By which time the crowd has largely dispersed. They don't know what they're missing. ----- Michael Fuque |