For me the
night got off to a bad start by missing The Meek. Having, on previous occasions
at da Duke. found myself standing around with my hands in my pockets for up
to an hour while waiting for something to happen, I decided to arrive a little
later than usual. Unfortunately it seems that for once the opening act was
made to go on at something approximating the advertised time, so by the time
I got there they'd already finished and cleared the stage. Damn - after their
recent performance at the Green Square I was looking forward to hearing them
again.
So there then followed almost an hour of standing around with my hands in
my pockets waiting for the 'roids to fire up. I have to say that this is a
band that is technically adept and always delivers a professional show (sort
of like the Hellacopters, only without the artificial MTV video-clip posing),
but in recent times for me there's a spark that's been missing or at least
rarely visible (a couple of notable exceptions last night being Mr Spittles'
tender paean to an ex-girlfriend "I Should Have Killed You When I Had The
Chance" and another that currently escapes my efforts to recall it).
Just so you know where I'm coming from, I guess I should tell you that as
I type this I'm listening to my old copy of "Teen Sublimation Riffs" with
its additional guitar (and vocals and song writing) provided the Scotch finger
himself, Stewart Cunningham. While there's little likelihood that Leadfinger
would ever rejoin the 'roids, I can't help thinking that Mr Spittles might
consider adding another instrument to the line up to give himself something
to work off as he used to do so effectively is the days of two guitar line-up.
Of course I'm no musician (one of the few in the audience who wasn't - in
fact there were so many that I was afraid I'd stumbled into a music industry
only night and that the doorman was going to spot me as a "civilian" and drag
me out at any moment) but I always come away feeling that this is a band that
has more ability and promise than it fulfills.
And so we come to the headliners of the night. This is a band that has always
had some great songs, but has too often let themselves down when playing live.
For once they had it all together and gave their music the tight presentation
it has always deserved (but then, if they couldn't deliver at their own record
launch, what hope could there be?).
The marriage of Ian Underwood's power pop to Leadfinger's Detroit derived
rawk anthems and the obvious subsequent cross-pollination gave the Monarchs
an object lesson in power pop/Detroit fusion, at least in the opinion of this
humble punter. For obvious reasons, the evening drew heavily on tracks from
the new album, plus C7 classics like "Because We Can" and "Bi-Polar" (a particular
favourite of mine).
However, it wouldn't be a Challenger 7 show without at least a touch of bewilderment
and disorder on stage and I did think they lost a little momentum by launching
into a string of covers towards the end (though it's difficult to argue with
the actual choices: The Who, Replacements and Byrds). I did attempt to convey
this to bandleader Ian Underwood after the show and he replied, "Thank you
for the perceptive comment" or perhaps he said, "Jam it up your arse". I can't
be sure as my ears were still ringing and I didn't manage to catch his reply...
All in all, a fitting end to an evening of rock. But the night didn't end
there.
The Duke's after-midnight free attraction was High Society (presumably this
is the band that caused the Monarchs to have to stop also calling themselves
High Society and change to their current name). What can I say? Here is a
band with a message and the message is "Look at us - we think we're the reincarnation
of the MC5!" Very energetic and I found them sufficiently entertaining to
stick around until the end of their set.
- John McPharlin
