JIMMY & THE MIRRORS + MONA LISA OVERDRIVELIVE @ ELECTRIC LIGHT HOTEL / Thursday March 6th 2008
This is Electric Light Hotel on Grenfell Street, not to be confused with Producers Bar also on Grenfell Street, as although this may resemble the exact same location, since they're shot from slightly different angles clearly they're two entirely different venues. Oh, except they're not. Shit! Is anyone else suffering a nose bleed trying to figure this shit out or is it just me? (Oh wait, that's just an inoperable brain tumour, nevermind!) Yup, my guess is that whoever cooked up this bipolar disorder in bricks and mortar back in late 2006 puffed way too much of the weasel in highschool and now they they don't know whether they're coming or going, huffing crack or getting blown. For as they say: the first rule of Fight Club is no one talks about Fight Club, the second rule is.. wait.. what.. where was I? Oh yeah, losing my fucking mind! weeeeee! :)
For those of you still curled up in foetal position, rocking back and forth in the shower screaming, allow me to explain. Producers Bar is a "warehouse" type venue to the west forged and defiled by dark elves from obsidian blackrock and the blood of a thousand slain infants and it plays host to some of the finest live music acts you'll never "see" anywhere else (as let's face it no one in Producers ever remembers to pay the electricity bill). Electric Light Hotel on the other hand is the more "opulent" precinct to the east you'll find yourself frequently being kicked out've in the mistaken belief it's an extra swanky urinal. Yeah I know, it confuses the fuck out've me too but my therapist assures me as long as I keep taking these funny little green pills I'll be fine..
Mmmmm yes, doesn't it make you want to bust out and trash the joint?
Still, in those rare moments when I'm not being manhandled out the doors by that fuckoff scary Nigerian security for drunkenly pissing all over the ornamentals, this joint has also played host to it's fair share of swanky media parties. Y'know the sort: those utterly baffling cross-platform viral campaigns launching telecommunication, fashion and prophylactic solutions for the modern yuppie airhead who need an ipod alternative that triples as a gluten free pez dispenser and an orbital weapons platform that'll offset it's carbon footprint by planting trees on the moon. Cue wanky DJs, lots of champagne, hors d'ouvres like skin infections and me making a run for the hills before western civilisation starts building all them wacky oversized head statues..
*cough* So why the fuck am I here tonight? thanks in no small part to some idiot who must've watched the party scene in "Garden State" a few too many times; this grand decadence in Louix XIV and urine stains is now host to a brand new "Dirty Thursday" lineup of live and local music. And better yet, they were insane enough to invite ME along to document it all... awesome!
MONA LISA OVERDRIVE (**1/2)
myspace ::
Despite all appearances to the contrary opening act Mona Lisa Overdrive should never be confused with the
UK Special (or in turn The Velvet Underground), just like
The Dairy Brothers should never be confused with the
The Beards,
The Amcats with The White Stripes, Producers Bar with the Electric Light or my increasingly surreal writing style this episode with anything approaching a diagnosable mental condition; I swear I'm sane and everyone ELSE is crazy (and while we're at it DON'T get me started on Night Train!). As for the entirely trivial detail of their set tonight, thanks to (a) their MIA house mixer providing them with a sound that could best be described as "flushing an ipod down the toilet whilst your head was still attached", (b) a dazzling light display that could be best described as "a chorus of three blind mice farting with a cigarette lighter", (c) one all too familiar dickhead flapping about in front with a digital camera (*cough* who me?), (d) drummer Alex wearing a hat, (e) them ripping of UK Special; this was the most awesome thing ever. Yup, despite all jokes written to the contrary, Mona Lisa Overdrive are still surprisingly talented for a band that clearly should've died in a freak plane crash 40 years ago. Take lots of acid, go see them live and if your head doesn't explode? you may just buzz off it!
JIMMY & THE MIRRORS (***1/2)
myspace ::
And if ever there was a band born to headline this apocalypse, to rise forth from the ashes, piss and vinegar and stand tall to bellow into the echoes of infamy; it would be this band, Jimmy & The Mirrors. Who has need for such trivial things as speakers, amps and pissy little stage lights when your freakishingly loud trousers, happy pants and orange overalls will do the screaming for you? Yes! If then we could imagine Itchy & Scratchy joining forces with slack-jawed hillbillies from The Dukes Of Hazard all overdosing on 50 redbulls and moonshine to form a crash-test-dummy britpop band channelling the loutish swagger of The Who, The Rolling Stones and The Clash (followed by that weird interlude in the middle where they thought they ape Butterfingers and The Herd too), then we could imagine a brighter future for all of us. I am blinded by it right now: Jimmy & The Mirrors. Illiterate, inbred, webtoed and feral freaks far from house broken; they'll piss on the curtains and fling faeces all over the walls, but they'll damn near do what rock 'n roll was born to do: to kill every motherfucking thing that moves. OOOOOH YEAH!
So there we have it: probably the stupidest, clumsiest, most idiotic, disorganised and crassly decadent "high class" setting ever ill conceived for a one-two punching live massacre on a "Dirty Thursday" night, but one that's also ever so infinitely ripe with potential..
Oh yes kiddies! bring your chainsaw, your sledgehammer and your flame thrower (and bring plenty of your alcoholic friends); we have a shiny new venue for you to play with!
Previously on Spoz's Rant:
Delusions Of Grandma + Like Leaves + Juno 
