Eugene Butcher reports back from the Finnish capital...
LOVERS LEFT ALIVE, RIMBACHER, DEAD FUN
BAR LOOSE
HELSINKI ,FINLAND
Nearly a year to the day that we were here in Hell-Sinki, Rock City, to
celebrate Michael Monroe's 60th birthday with the reformed Hanoi Rocks
and we are back at Bar Loose to sample the city's underground rock'n'roll scene.
First up is LOVERS LEFT ALIVE, a hi-energy, hard-hitting 4-piece who have a barrelful of songs with mighty choruses and hooks. They obviously like Johnny Thunders but there are elements of Chinatown-era Thin Lizzy and The Saints in there too. They are very, very good and want to play the UK soon. Keep an eye on them.
Swaggering onto the stage next are RIMBACHER who shoot into a set of Poison and Motley Crue-styled metal. Its all big choruses, big hair and plenty of attitude.
They are super tight and on the money but after a few songs its all a bit too cliched for this old punk.
Finally we get the covers band DEAD FUN who are way more like it. They virtually play all my favourite covers, from the Dead Boys, The Damned, Lords Of The New Church, Cramps and UK Subs, including a petrol-burning take on 'Endangered Species'. Once again, like all the bands, they are tighter than Rishi Sunak's government, and singer Anzi Destruction goes for it, piling all over the
stage, into the audience, blasting these epics into orbit. Anzi and the
band are great fun and a brilliant blast for a Tuesday night in downtown
Helsinki. Anzi Destruction also has his own solo album coming up soon
and will support The 69 Eyes in London in October. They live and breathe
rock'n'roll, metal and punk in this city and they always do it super well. Now I gotta get back to London....
Eugene Butcher