I’ve just been out on the UK leg of Italian post punkers CUT’s 30th anniversary year tour. Its been mostly good gigs with one of the most dynamic live acts I’ve ever seen and a whole host of often fantastic support bands. I’d thought it would be hard to narrow it down to just review one, but then the band rolled into Rockpoint Records in New Brighton and the review gig presented itself.
It had been a last minute change of venue due to a booking issue elsewhere and local heroes The Dry Retch rolled up to fill in on opening duties at short notice. Then it all went off.
Like a musical bull in a china shop, both bands veering wildly off centre in style from each other with a love of garage punk and bands such as the Stooges and MC5 to give them some commonality and an audience that got the zeitgeist of the day and were every bit as much the main event as the bands.
The Dry Retch are a brutal, no frills, sonic assault machine. Its big slabs of noise with frantic drums and locked in bass and lead guitar that Ron Asheton would be proud of taking their sound from a punkier base to a more psych sounding whirlwind. Add some acerbic but very funny banter from vocalist John who maintains that the band have been on tour from Australia now for over 20 years and disses ‘Poms’ at every opportunity (and gets it back) and its a near perfect set of musical nihilism that entertains on every level.
Just when the locals thought it couldn’t get better, CUT arrive on stage. They are an unknown quantity to many locals but a large contingent who’ve travelled in for this final UK gig know what to expect. Musically the band are a furious beat machine with grooves that bury inside your head and played so tightly that it is hard to keep up with them. They have banter ‘we’ve swum the English channel to be here, you can do better than that’ when berating the audience to respond more wildly but its the sheer dynamism of the band that shocks.
They are in the crowd, over the crowd, under the crowd. They surf the bodies whilst still playing guitars and the crowd really does love it and responds by jumping around in a way I’ve not seen in a long time. All the while this is going on they deliver excellent song after song. CUT return to the UK in 2027.
WORDS AND PHOTOS RICHIE YATES
FOLLOW THE CUT ON FACEBOOK / WEB / INSTAGRAM
FOLLOW THE DRY RETCH ON FACEBOOK / WEB / INSTAGRAM
