An evening of dirty post-jazz-punk-blues with the Viagra Boys in the Welsh capital.
Cardiff’s Student Union is a beast of a place. Built over the top of a railway line it has bars, music venues, study rooms and any facility you can imagine a student wanting. According to their website, they have two live music venues and a bar, but I have been to at least three live venues there – so who knows what is hidden inside the building.
Built in 1973 it is the oldest live music venue in Cardiff. I should be able to tell you the first live band I ever saw there, but those early days are a blur. It would have been in the late seventies, and it would probably be someone like The Stranglers, Hawkwind or Aswad. Thinking about it, I bizarrely once saw Aswad supporting The Strangers there: an odd combination if ever there was. I’ve lost count of the number of gigs I have seen there over the years, but it would include Sleaford Mods, Killing Joke, Stiff Little Fingers, Dr and the Medics, Dr Phibes and the House of Wax Equations, House of Love, Spear of Destiny, New Model Army, Gentleman’s Dub Club, The Damned, Clutch, Public Service Broadcasting, Slade, The Sweet and (*cough cough) Gary Glitter.
In recent years they have spent a fortune upgrading the building with a new frontage making it unrecognisable from a few short years ago. We enter from the front, as we always used to, to find no sign of a gig and no signs pointing to a gig. There is initial confusion before I remember that sometimes you have to enter from the rear (something we definitely didn’t do for the Gary Glitter gig). We are not alone in our confusion and none of the staff seem interested in helping the people wandering around, but we eventually find our way through the building, down the stairs, out the back and back in again, before heading back up stairs to where we started. (Mental note to self, since they have developed the front, it looks entry for all gigs is now around the back.)
Tonight we are in the biggest venue, the 1,500 capacity Great Hall. It is a sell out gig, so full to the brim, but no queues at the bar. I’m not sure if that is because the bar staff are super-efficient or if it is because it is a school night.
Formed in Sweden in 2015, this tour is to promote the Viagra Boys third album, ‘Cave World’. Imagine being tattooed, on an airboat skimming across the Everglades whilst drinking Jack Daniels – and you’re somewhere close to their vibe.
The rammed audience are well up for it by the time the band hit the stage and rock straight into ‘Ain’t No Thief’. The crowd bump and grind like it’s a punk gig, complete with crowd surfers. Lots of crowd surfers. More crowd surfers than I have seen for a very long time. Not since venues started taking health and safety seriously. But there are so many at it, if they chucked everyone out there would be no crowd left.
The gig has the vibe of a band on the crest of a wave. I doubt we will see them in a venue this size for a while – and everyone knows this is a band about to explode.
The band have recorded a number of ‘live’ tracks in the studio as part of the ‘Shrimp Sessions’. It is quite noticeable that their recorded output takes an extra dimension when performed live and tonight confirms this.
They blast their way through tunes like ‘Punk Rock Looser’, ‘Creepy Crawler’ and ‘Troglodyte’. There is banter and dark humour between songs, including the tale of how illustrated singer Sebastian Murphy left a life of drug taking to live in Stockholm. And take drugs.
They end the set with ‘Shrimp Shack’, but there is no doubt this gathering is going to demand an encore. ‘Return to Money’, ‘Worms’ and ‘Research Chemicals’ quench the thirst of the baying mob, before we pour out into the night, smiling, sweaty and slightly shell shocked.
