The old saying what you see is what you get definitely doesn't apply to The Monsters. Standing quiet on stage, looking like a cocktail lounge band in well-worn matching red jackets and ties as Mandy by Barry Manilow blasts through the speakers for a good few minutes. Smiling out at the audience then cordially shaking hands with each other wishing good luck for the show, then BOOM! straight in, kicking off at 200mph with Searching and pushing the sound up to 11 early on.
It carried on like that for the rest of the set - fantastic frantic punk/garage rock’n’roll mixed with courteous conversations and chat from these deceptive but entertaining ageing delinquents. This three-piece Swiss punk outfit (with almost four decades back-story) look anything but what their sound is like when they came on, and their calm, pleasant demeanour in between songs give off more of a concierge, friendly vibe than the riotous sound these guys make.
Along for the ride for this evening was Peni-Goth Bill (loving his Gig-Antics Introducing Q&A profile, posted the same day) and Campbell who we’d arranged to meet beforehand but have bumped into each other at half a dozen gigs this year alone (almost all being shows put on by Under The Wires, there’s a theme emerging).
In amongst the 20+ songs played in just over an hour, there was also a good deal of engaging chat for the bands first ever gig in Edinburgh and to get in with the local crowd guitarist, singer and main conversationalist Beat Man, talked about the beautiful city, Buckfast and what Switzerland and Scotland have in common to introduce one song which was about cows and sheep and rock’n’roll and trash. Less ingratiating, he then asked everyone to fart for the next tune Gimme Germs. And after a few more tunes, took it to another slightly bizarre turn by asking what colour us Scottish folks’ tongues were - the reason being the next tune was a statement about the bands dislike of their native Switzerland’s neutrality (“ours are brown, because we Swizz are ass-lickers”) and launched into Smell My Tongue!
Next was completely unexpected and was one of my favourite moments of any gig for years. “It’s better than church!” we were promised, as drummer Jan went round the entire audience handing out Monsters branded beermats with “hymn” lyrics written on the back for us to all sing along. Bizarrely it was a pleasant and uplifting few minutes as the whole place sang along, not quite church-style, but almost a ballad compared to the rest of their set, which exploded again with Kiss You Dead, Voodoo Love, Blasphemy and more. Another insight into their psyche and song-writing with a sex song written during lockdown for the Corona virus, Get Drunk On You.
By this point we were well prepared in expecting the unexpected from the band - both through their chatter between high tempo tunes, and when Beat Man explained the simple life of musicians on the road then thanked us for coming to see them on a cold Tuesday night, apologies for being about to ‘fuck the whole thing up’ with a heavy metal number (Carpool Lane, I think), then came back to Buckfast claiming a song was written about it (I Love You).
A bit of off-stage then back on-stage meandering by Beat Man gave Jan and Janosh a chance to play extended sections to build the crowd before finishing the set with the classics High Heels and A Mini Skirt, Ce Soir and Happy People Make Me Sick. Brilliant stuff.
Honourable mention to the chaotic, charismatic Mexican-wrestling dressed support band The Bucky Rage too. A good 45-minute set from a support band not to be missed. An unusual but enjoyable sound that lined up the crowd for The Monsters perfectly.
At the risk of repeating myself (again) another cracking gig from Colin and the Under The Wires team. I did expect The Monsters to be good but not this good and such an entertaining evening (Peni Goth Bill pre-booked the day off after to recover, maybe I should take his lead to make the most of future Under The Wires gigs). I should know by now if it’s an Under The Wires endorsed gig, it’ll be 11/10 guaranteed.
A monster Monsters gig and keep singing about (but don’t actually) Drink Yellow Snow. Otherwise, no-one will Smell Your Tongue.
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