BACKYARD BABIES

TRACY GANG PUSSY

NEW DEVICE

In celebration of their 20th Anniversary, Backyard Babies are back in London…

I wish I had something good to say about New Device who opened the night, they looked like they tried hard, and some of their songs were ok, but the singers screech didn’t agree with me so that’s where it all ends unfortunately. I doubt it’ll be the last I see of them so I’ll leave it to them to prove me wrong next time.

Tracy Gang Pussy were slightly better. Four young guys with some decent hard rock tunes, but in the end not all that memorable. Near impossible to get any photos of either due to the non-existent lighting.

Backyard Babies are here promoting their best of compilation, ‘Them XX’, after 20 years of being a band and for anyone needing a lesson in sleazy hard rock ‘n’ roll, this is how it is done. The setlist is absolutely perfect, each song causing it’s own mini riot and a mass sing-along. For any BYB fan, give or take a couple of your favourites, this set is as good as it can get.

The band kick off with ‘Backstabber’ from their Knockouts EP and follow it quickly with the opening track from ‘Total 13’; ‘Made Me Madman’ and it is clear tonight will be a show to remember. Dregan is his usual manic self pulling out all of the standard guitar poses and scissor kicking off of the monitors, although less spitting on and kicking photogs would have been nice though (even if it was accidental) . Nick Borgs vocals are at their growly best and Peder Carlsson on drums and Johan Blomqvist on bass are faultless.

With the set list exploring the Babies catalogue right back to debut album “Diesel & Power” it is great to hear them play ‘Fill Up This Bad Machine’ and ‘Electric Suzy’ which apparently we wont hear for another 20 years. After an hour and a half the tunes are still coming thick and fast with explosive renditions of ‘Nomadic’, ‘’Look at You’ and ‘Robber of Life’ ending the night in perfect style.