If you lie down with dogs, so the saying goes, you’ll get up with fleas – and if you lie down with Cardiffian mucky pups Cemetery Dogs then I’d venture it’s pretty much guaranteed. The trio are a bit too mild to truly warrant the term “bruisers”, here at Tiny Rebel supporting Thee Alcoholics. Bonus points for the occasional Lemmy rasp and the bassist’s unconventional mohawk, however.
Since first we met, I Am Drug appear to have lost a drummer. Thankfully, though, they haven’t also lost their knack for causing chaos. Context is everything: if you were at a bus stop and a middle-aged man suddenly stripped down to his tight red pants and started ranting and raving about Donald Trump while rubbing sweat on you and trying on a succession of masks, you’d (probably) run a mile, but in the confines of Tiny Rebel’s upstairs venue, it’s not only perfectly acceptable but positively entertaining. It takes a special kind of warped genius to imagine how Jane’s Addiction songs might sound if butchered by The Jesus Lizard: there must be something in the water in Barry, and whatever it is, I’m not sure it’s safe to drink.
And talking of drinking, let’s raise a glass to headliners Thee Alcoholics, who’ve come from London on a mission to give us all headaches, in the best possible way. That they’re led by Rhys Llewellyn, a sometime member of Hey Colossus, and have one release on Rocket and another on Wrong Speed, the latter recorded with Part Chimp’s Jon Hamilton, should tell you all you need to know. But just in case it doesn’t, suffice to say they’re fabulously fuzzy and fiendishly loud. “I think we’ve broken everything on stage,” Llewellyn says, by way of introducing one final skull-pounder, Politicians Kill Yourselves. Mission accomplished.
What’s more, at £7.59 (including booking fee), tonight’s gig costs me less than a pint of fizzy piss did in the Motorpoint Arena two nights previously. Never let it be said that grassroots music venues like Tiny Rebel don’t give you a lot of bang for your buck.
Thee Alcoholics / I Am Drug / Cemetery Dogs, Tiny Rebel Cardiff, Fri 8 Nov
words BEN WOOLHEAD photos KEITH BOLTON
