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Joey from The Temps, with his Voodou haircut and angular features is probably the best-looking frontman in Liverpool at the moment. He’s stood atop a speaker stack with his mic lead wrapped dangerously around his neck. We’re quite a way back but it looks like he’s punching himself in the face.
If you don’t know about these guys yet, you’re a damn fool. The Temps don’t do tunes as such, but they do pretty much everything else: amateur acrobatics, progressive song structures and bizarre experiments with pitch, volume, sustain and reverb, often all at the same time.
Guitarist Thom’s constant manipulation of his enormous pedal collection makes him look like he’s doing some sort of drunken Irish dance.
For a band still very much in its infancy, The Temps are very nearly the finished article. They have the ability, the bravado, youth on their side and are difficult to categorize. They’re psychobilly without the 2/4 beat, punk without the ugliness, indie disco without the yelpy tunes. They fit no mould but their own, ooze character and boy are we going to stalk them.
High School Massacre are playing only their second gig tonight, and there are plenty in attendance to witness what at first appears to be some sort of freakshow. They’re a few weeks early, but each member is decked out in some sort of ghoulish attire.
Musically, we’re predicting something resembling Zombina and the Skeletones, but where ZATS have melody, High School Massacre just have malady.
It’s a dirtier and punkier sound a la Stooges, with plenty of punk rock showmanship, but without being too confrontational.
The Temps laid down the gauntlet for a rock and roll show, and HSM singer Luke responds in kind. He gives it BEANS, lurching around in a fit of spasms and belting out the lyrics to driving sludge-punk opener It’s Real.
If you took Iggy Pop’s limbs, sewed them onto Andrew WK’s body (minus the hair) and pushed the resulting being into the pig’s blood scene from Carrie, you’d have something resembling this guy.
We’re not just talking about another punk band here. There’s a horror vibe, the odd bit of classic rock riffage, but it’s all glammed up to the tits with keyboards and face paint.
Look out for High School Massacre at the new Psychomotel club night on 4th November, supporting Zombina and the Skeletones.