Annihilation Time / Gurkha / Valdez
Bristol, The Croft – 9th June, 2009
Locals Valdez are playing as I enter. I’ve somehow never seen them, maybe because I don’t go to ’77 street-punk kinds of gigs as a rule, but they’re serviceable within the genre and cover The Freeze.
Gurkha are up next and make a hell of a lot more noise, based in crust but unafraid to really let wail with some metal solos. They’ve even gone totally Sabbath in places, which is to be applauded, plus Joanna Lumley’s a big fan I hear.
I stood in the correct place for Annihilation Time, as the guitarist and bassist stage left looked to be concentrating a bit too hard and standing too still. In front of me, the other guitarist was having a bloody whale of a time, totally nailing those notes, flailing his hair and grinning from ear to ear. The singer seemed pretty goddamned drunk. In fact I think they all were, but they were still mercilessly tight. They also played that wicked first track from the second album, calling it their “pop song”. Black Flag meets Thin Lizzy equals exactly what’s needed on a school night.