Trash Money + Buswell + Lee Cooper & The Outsiders - Messclean @ The Frog On The Front, Portsmouth. 02/06/06.

Another sauna at Messclean as the heat draws in and the sun belts down; just the three bands to entertain us tonight and all is not well in the sound department as some big rumbling sound randomly attacks Lee Cooper & The Outsiders that gradually frustrates the band more and more, but fair play to them, they battle through but they strike me as the type of band that really need a big perfect sound to capture their true essence. Musically they stray between country twang and dark Nick Cave inspired folk rock and it's a shame that the violin can't be heard more tonight along with the female backing vocals as they would really add something to the mix. I suppose we are talking good old fashioned singer/songwriter material here except backed by a full band, so lyrically the songs have depth and are backed up by well crafted, melodic tunes. They will probably put it down as one to forget, but the quality still shone through.

Swindon based Buswell are an absolute delight, a melodic surprise that deal in epic hooks with sweeps of fiddle and keyboards playing upon the acoustic driven riffs of the frontman who possesses one of those strong but sensitive voices. Buswell have that ability to take big pop sounding melodies but turn them into something with more depth and they really have no interest in jumping on the latest bandwagon or being the hippest band out there; more a case of letting the quality shine through, the keyboards twinkle and the fiddle weave a cheery path through an acoustic sunset that basks in warmth and lush melodies. When done wrong this type of material is dull as ditchwater but when put in the hands of such an infectiously happy and friendly band it comes alive and their energy and joy in the music is clear to anyone in the venue. I admit, when I saw them take to the stage I wasn't expecting to really enjoy it but result to Buswell, they scooped me up with their fine songs and won me over. I look forward to the next time they hit Portsmouth, don't leave it too long chaps.

And on to Trash Money who are nothing like the two previous bands and decide to set us on fire with good old glam trash rock n roll. Fucking brilliant is all I should need to say, the guitars splay into a thousand little stars with every riff, the drums are trashy just as they should be for a band with the word Trash in their name and is that a feint with of an electro undercurrent coming from somewhere? I believe so and it's giving a nice pumping feeling to the tunes and we'd better not forget the vocalists...now down below this review somewhere is one I did for The Beautiful South where I said those two chaps who sing for them are the oddest couple I've seen, but Trash Money have beaten it! Splashing across the front of the stage is one skinny hyperactive Hanoi Rocks t-shirt wearing punk ball of energy that spits forth as if possessed by the very spirit of punk while behind him roams a much larger chap clad in ill fitting jacket and jeans who looks like he's wandered out of a student union and into the wrong pub; he spends the gig prowling the back of the stage adding the odd vocal and every now and then moves to the front to do some split throat roaring before placing his hand back into his jacket pocket and heading back to the back of the stage. It's really quite unnerving and it really shouldn't work but it's a fantastic racket as you would expect from someone who labels themselves Trash Money. Tonight they became one of my new favourite bands, filthy rock n roll the way it should be, not packaged in any way, just pure undiluted trash and it feels good.
If only I had realised at the time,that the guitarist Molly, whom I was having a very pleasant drunken natter with after the gig was the same Molly who had fronted a fine band called LK a few years back (search out the album Graceless on Island Records, quite brilliant) I would have wet myself, it just didn't click until reading the names on the website! So Molly, an honour to have spoken to you and Trash Money I salute your raw, filthy rock n roll, as I said at the start of the review, fucking brilliant and I look forward to next time.