IMPERIAL WAX / GINDRINKER / ALEX DINGLEY | LIVE REVIEW
Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Fri 7 June
“Is it still thundering and lightninging out there?”, Alex Dingley asks those who’ve arrived at Clwb Ifor Bach early in search of shelter and sanctuary. There is no such grand elemental drama contained within his short, idiosyncratic songs – though In The End, a match lit in the dark offering succour and solace to the downtrodden and downhearted, resonates on a more profound level than the others.
Alternating between guitar and keyboard, Dingley forgets the name of one song (Not Alone In The Dark), introduces another as being “about a bathroom visit from a ghost at 2am” (She Just Came By To Say Hello) and explains that the scenario in If I Asked You To Dance takes him back to the indie disco upstairs in the late, lamented Dempseys, a mere stone’s throw away.
Gindrinker never perform so much as confront. The duo kick off with alleged “pop hit” God Of Darts and follow up with Y Chromosome, a song that vocalist DC Gates declares is “about men and how I hate them”. The frontman’s personal shitlist is extensive, encompassing everything from Katie Hopkins to red trousers, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and the cooking lager on their rider. Still, when life gives Gindrinker lemons, they manage to make a potent lemonade punch – perhaps best illustrated by Transit, a hellish trek up the M6 to Barrow in the back of a van narrated by a dishevelled Odysseus who’s accidentally sat on his crisps and is torn between playing Whitehouse or Kenny Loggins on the stereo.
Headliners Imperial Wax have their own ode to a memorable journey, Rammy Taxi Illuminati, a thrilling 10-minute-long beast about a conspiracy-theory-spouting cabbie. It’s the centrepiece of their debut LP Gastwerk Saboteurs, recently released on US label Saustex on the recommendation of Butthole Surfers and Melvins’ Jeff Pinkus, and the high point of a rambunctious set. Imperial Wax may be a new project, but the foursome are far from novices. Guitarist/vocalist Sam Curran is the veteran of numerous Leeds garage punk bands (imagine Brian Cox if he joined Oh Sees), while guitarist Pete Greenway, bassist Dave Spurr and drummer Keiron Melling were the backbone of The Fall for the last decade of Mark E Smith’s life, accustomed to ignoring the mercurial frontman’s attempts at sabotage.
Perhaps surprisingly, it’s Curran’s influence that can be heard most clearly on Gastwerk Saboteurs, a record that reminds me of The Icarus Line’s underrated 2004 masterpiece Penance Soiree in the way that it captures and celebrates the unrulier, noisier elements of US rock in all its various hues. The Art Of Projection and Barely Getting By, a mantra made for screaming, are among the best songs that 2019 has had to offer so far, while Plant The Seed barrels along with Crampsian shake, rattle and roll.
Curran is at the heart of the chaos, pushing plugs of paper into his ears and adjusting his errant mic stand with his mouth before swiping it to the floor in frustration with the neck of his guitar, but he takes a step back for the two Fall covers that close the evening. Greenway performs vocal duties for Cowboy George, while Auto Chip 2014-2016 features a punter making unintelligible noises into the mic, foot on the monitor, refusing to relinquish his spot in the limelight. Somewhere, Smith is raising a glass and smiling.
words BEN WOOLHEAD photos ELMORE