The No-Things know how to warm up a crowd, albeit a small one, at the Electric Circus tonight. Having only reviewed them a month or so ago, I’m not going to go into too much detail (link to the previous review can be found here). However, they are up to their usual standard, and are certainly one of the best garage punk bands around at the moment. Although a little bird tells me that they might not be around for much longer, and I certainly hope that this isn’t true ...

Barrence Whitfield - a bit of a legend I’m told, is a young 60 year old; and quite a striking character in his purple paisley shirt and headcoat. Conversely, we have unassuming guitarist Peter Greenberg (ex-Lyres (or as an old friend said to me 'it's easier to name who hasn't been in the Lyres at some point')). The quintet are touring to promote their new album Under A Savage Sky released on Bloodshot Records in July this year.

Whitefield and The Savages 'garage rock and soul titans' open up with the musical equivalent of a big fat exclamation mark, and by the second song in we are left in no doubt of Whitfield's screaming ability; before tearing through stomper (and best song by far) ‘Cornerman’, which is 2 and a half minutes of well, The Sonics basically! Not to take anything away from them. Their performance is tight, and very powerful stuff. It's also a shame that the sound isn't great; it's loud for sure, but a bit too clean in places. Having said that, the band work extremely hard, and they are certainly giving it all they have got.

Barrence talks in-between songs about a variety of subjects like having tried haggis earlier in the day (I didn’t quite get whether the response to this was negative or positive) before linking in to 'Incarcerated Casserole' from the new album. The sax player leaves the stage at one point through the front entrance (pee break?) and then as if by magic, he reappears.   

After a brief encore, the band are kicked off just before 10pm when the venue turns into a club night. Not the best venue (with hen and stag parties traipsing through the bar every 10 minutes to fetch jugs of cocktails) with rubbishy sound, but all considered they did a sterling job, and the fans obviously appreciated it.

Under A Savage Sky is available from amazon & iTunes.

Kicking off with ‘Family Tree’ & ‘Modern Art’ from previous album Arabia Mountain, the Black Lips brought their Underneath The Rainbow show to a packed and very receptive Electric Circus just before Hallowe’en. Which explains the guy right at the front of the stage in the pumpkin helmet.

Having of late been surprised at the lack lustre nature of Edinburgh audiences tonight’s performance is strong enough to inspire scenes seldom seen since the closure of the much loved Venue – stage diving, crowd surfing, pole climbing & finally a full on stage invasion (forcing Jack Hines to remove a couple of punters lest he be squished).

Seemingly sponsored by Andrex, given the number of loo rolls being flung across the stage, the band took no time to whip the crowd into the seething mass that was required to birth the above mentioned interaction. Add to that their own balloons being bounced around all over the place and the atmosphere was ripe for raucous but good natured partying by all concerned.

Looking more clean-cut than when last seen three or four years ago in Glasgow, the quartet’s easy blending of Fifties attitude with punk from all eras saw later songs in the set (including ‘O Katrina’, recent single ‘Boys In The Wood’ and a slight tease of ‘Dirty Water’) successively meet with heartfelt cheers and resounding applause. Banter was in short supply but inter-city rivalry was stoked when the Glasgow crowd was unfavourably compared with tonight’s throng. This time though you could well believe that was no empty compliment.

True to the punk ethic there was no encore after they’d blasted through 60 minutes but all four of the guys were in evidence upon leaving the venue, engaging with passing fans & no doubt keen to try out a pub or two before closing time. If anyone in the city deserved a pint tonight it was them so fingers crossed they found plenty.