“London! Been a minute right?” Black Lips ask their 47k Instagram followers. It’s a rhetorical question of course, and they’re not wrong. In fact, the last time Black Lips played in London the world was just one month shy of being slapped in the face by COVID-19. Following the release of their 10th studio album Apocalypse Love in 2022, the Georgian Quintet chose to remind their London fans just why they have a renowned presence in the garage rock sphere – at the same exact location as their infamous stage invasion 15 years prior. London’s legendary gay club Heaven is where it’s all kicking off tonight, or so we hope.
Black Lips @ Heaven
Dressed in vintage leather (faux?) and pulling off a jet-black mullet, Cole Alexander injects some much needed energy into the crowd with his instantly recognisable quick chord changes from Slime And Oxygen. It’s easy to see why a track from their fourth studio album Good Bad Not Evil became a common opening number for the band. Teething sound issues drown Alexander’s vocals in a sea of fuzz from his Gretsch Billy-Bo Jupiter. It’s an unsophisticated, short-but-sweet opener and it does not disappoint.
Black Lips @ Heaven
There’s a brief thank you to the crowd then it’s onto Holding Me Holding You, with Oakley Musnon on the train beat and Jeff Clarke stepping up to lead the vocals. Still riding on a garage wave from the opener, the change in pace leaves the crowd somewhat confused about what to do with their bodies. It’s almost as if the band senses this, as rolls of toilet paper suddenly start flying off the stage and into the crowd, propelled by a mysterious figure from stage left.
Black Lips @ Heaven
It becomes apparent that the club lights are bothering Alexander and after some retching and almost keeling over, he manages to keep himself from vomiting on stage.
Barely pausing for breath, the Atlantans turn back to rawness with Boomerang from the earlier years. The crowd is receptive though not overly impressed, but they truly come to life with Modern Art and as far as the they’re concerned, this is where the party is at. Everyone feeds off Jared Swilley’s mastery and early signs of a mosh pit begin to form with the first emerging crowd surfer. Swilley oozes pure rock n’ roll wisdom and as he belts out “well it might have been a molly, cause my mind is being blown”. The crowd feels it.
Black Lips @ Heaven
Clarke returns to the mic paying homage to their home state with Georgia, swiftly followed by Angola Rodeo, a rock ‘n roll statement with references to the inhumane southern American tradition.
Now it’s time for Zumi Rosow to channel her inner Nico, with a brilliant rendition of The Velvet Underground’s 1966 lost recording of Get It On Time. The Gucci muse and Black Lips saxophonist, and occasional maraca player, stuns the unexpecting crowd with her unconventional husky voice. Roscow turns Get It On Time into an almost gospel-esque track with the raw emotion she carries.
Black Lips @ Heaven
Alexander travels back to his youth with Cold Hands and the crowd welcomes the rushed tempo. Stolen Valor is the first number of the night to come out of their latest album Apocalypse Love, which is surprising. The crowd responds kindly but doesn’t offer much else.
Black Lips @ Heaven
Family Tree reignites their interest and the crowd explodes into a frenzy and proves it to be the band’s most sing-along track of the night, whether they like it or not. If this crowd had any inhibitions at the start, they have all but vanished. Body after body surfaces above a wave of arms in frantic, and mostly successful, attempts at avoiding being pulled by security. This is not their first rodeo and the band recognises this. It’s no coincidence that the stage barriers are put up as soon as the guards catch their breath. Security must have been briefed on Black Lips’ reputation for pulling off some crazy shit and are not taking any chances.
Black Lips @ Heaven
These fans are here for the older stuff and they’re not hiding it. Neither is the band, who seem to have energy reserves for the staple songs they’ve been playing on stage for decades. There’s not much chit-chat in between, which is exactly what you want tonight. Black Lips turns on the fuzzbox for Stranger coupled with creaming howls, turning back the clock to the days when the Iraq war was still in its infancy and WMDs were already evidently invisible. A slightly tamer and more subdued version than the times Stranger was performed in the early days at the Dirty Water Club in Tufnell Park. A time when Alexander would frequently display to suspecting crowds both his penis and how much he craved the acidity of his own piss.
Black Lips @ Heaven
Rosow features prominently in the consecutive numbers from their latest album, Tongue Tied and Lost Angel where she once again hypnotises the crowd into surrendering 100% of their devotion.
Black Lips @ Heaven
For the next two minutes the band will go HAM at the crowd with MIA and it’s a miracle how Alexander has any voice left for Dirty Hands, Hooker Jon and Gentleman, before briefly exiting the stage.
Black Lips @ Heaven
The band returns, and upon hearing the most recognisable bass line in their repertoire (Swilley’s gift to the rock n’ roll world), the crowd begins to chant to O Katrina! and are once again ready to become fully immersed into Alexander’s screeching guitar solos. A fall on the now slippery stage by their own in-house fashion model does not detract anyone from Bad Kids, but it’s ending all too soon. The five Georgians give their last ounce of sweat to the song that reminds us all of the bad kids they once were.
Black Lips @ Heaven
Live review and photography of Black Lips @ Heaven by Dnieper Cruz on 25th April 2023
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