This was the first Christmas gig I’ve gone to this year and Vive Le Xmess At The Water Rats sets the bar high, with 4 bands all of whom I’ve seen at least once this year.
Desperate Measures - Vive Le Xmess @ The Water Rats
First on were Janus Stark who opened there set with Found My Way like they did at Rockin’ For Robin the Robin Guy Tribute night a few weeks ago, only this time they had a big mid-song stop with Gizz Butt wishing us all a merry Xmess and thanking Vive Le Rock Magazine for putting the show on, before they came back in for an even speedier second half of the song.
Panic Attack has enough jitters to get to the heart of what’s got them panicking again. They made sure we knew that you should really live every moment of your life on Every Little Counts that had a cracking solo from Gizz really flying. Floyd (What Are You On) was full on spiky goodness with some good frayed at the edges bass and drums punctuating it.
Gizz made clear that most of the nights set was from the band’s earlier albums, they went into Dynamo that had bags of energy, before Gizz told us all we were in the Clique that was dedicated to Simon Martin and all the lost friends of which there are too many this year. They were properly angry on White Man Speaks With Fork Tongue, the truth of the damage white supremacy has caused was crushed into our brains. They had run out of time but closed with a great speedy Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t Have) to leave us wanting some more, and I still want to hear them playing Mariana Trench live.
Next on were The Middlenight Men who tonight are a 6-piece Indie Rock band fronted by Nick Hughes who I first saw with The Role Models, I think they opened with The Middlenight Men Theme that allowed Heidi Cotton plenty of room to play some elaborate guitar, the second song featured a countdown and some cool backing vocals. They then went all video games on us for Fighting Skyler that had a good few twists in the way the three guitarists interacted. The songs seemed to get more complicated as they went on. Prison Of Love was one of the highlights while Nick Hughes make-up continued to run all over his face, the pain of what went wrong was clear. They played a cover version of a song I had no clue who it might have been by, which is always the best sort of cover, it sounded great and had some very up front guitar from Heidi, before they closed with a monumental Rat Star.
Eugene Butcher and Claire Sherry then took to the stage to draw the Xmess raffle with prizes including vinyl from all the bands on the bill and some books, My Girlfriend Jo is now the proud winner of The Only Band That Mattered: The Clash by Sean Egan.
Once all the prizes had been given out it was time for Marc Valentine whose 5 piece band opened with Last Train Home that was played express train style, It was also the song they closed with when I last saw them opening for The Electric Boys, they kept the pace good and speedy on Linear Slopes about all the Highs and lows of life with a great solo from Richard Davies. They were sounding great as Marc claimed I Wanna Be Alone Tonight he needs his space at the end of another affair.
His first solo single Skeleton Key from Basement Sparks was next for this speedy fun upbeat treatment. That was followed by the brilliant new song The Jinx Of Finchley Road about an ex who did all sorts of weird things back in the day in the wilds of Finchley Road, I assume this all happened close to where the Sex Pistols played along there. Broken Satellites is always great live this had enough flashy guitar from Richard Davies to really lift it. Complicated Sometimes got to the heart of broken relationships of all sorts with some deft keyboards from Neil Scully. Richard Davies then took lead vocals on a rampage through Born To Lose before Marc claimed the last song of the set was by Cliff Richards as if he ever lived on Mornington Avenue or got up to the sort of stuff Marc and his Last Great Dreamers did while living there. They left us wanting lots more.
After a short break it was time for Desperate Measures to take us Back To The Rat once more, making New Zealand in the 80’s sound like a dark place to be. Eugene Butcher told us Seven Sisters was about the bands neighbourhood as Michael Gaffney’s guitar ripped into it and Phil Roadkill was flying along on bass. Eugene then got Dean Croney up on second guitar for Bodies, the Sex Pistols classic he played while with The Professionals, this was a full-on sing along.
The party carried on during Down Here On The Farm that certainly made the one Ex-UK Sub I know was in the audience happy. Whole Lotta Rosie had some really heavy drumming from James Sherry with Michael Gaffney really letting loose on guitar, before they closed this party down with a monster version of I Wanna Be Your Dog with Dean Croney giving us his best James Williamson style solo helping to close a really great Xmess party.
Live review of The Vive Le Rock Xmess Party @ The Water Rats, London by Simon Phillips on 4th December 2024. Photography by Louise Phillips.
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