New Town Kings: Purple Turtle
Posted by jamie on Jan 30, 2012
New Town Kings, Anti Vigilante
Tyrannosaurus Alan, Upbeat Allstars
Purple Turtle, Camden
28th January, 2012
Jamie
A four-band bill of this quality, in central London on a Saturday night, needs scarce little introduction. All the same, it was amusing to see the show’s facebook page suggest that we “expect involuntary dancing from metallers who’ve come in by mistake”.
You do get a few at the Purple Turtle, of course, and the tunes in this place tonight are unrelentingly infectious, so there are decent odds on a flippant comment on facebook coming true for the first time ever.
As Upbeat Allstars get the party started, a few of us early punters are eyeing the last of the open spaces and itching to get our moves on. The sun’s still going down, and their infectious melodies quickly win over the last vestiges of self-consciousness: legs and then arms start to move to in time with the upstrokes in their vintage ska-punk sound.
There’s no horns, but, make no mistake, Upbeat Allstars are defiantly old-school ska-punk: Nick bangs seven shades out of his snare drums to the point where I actually winced for them, and there’s plenty of super-skankable upstrokes. It all comes together to make for some great, no-nonsense peppy little party tunes and they go down well.
Sure enough, it’s not long in to their short set before a few awkward long-haired metallers start to shuffle about their little space like scarecrows doing martial arts in slow motion. Mission accomplished, and with three bands still to go.
Medway’s Tyrannosaurus Alan, up next, are at their boisterous, surreal best. They’re almost bursting out of the small stage, over the front and at both sides, as they shift sheepishly between the ratatat-tat of their dirty, grime-core rap/punk/ska sounds and some brilliantly surreal stories about using a screwdriver to fail to fix a van’s cigarette lighter, getting splinters in your thumb, and “pubecising”, which, basically means going through puberty at speed. Or your voice breaking on stage. Poor Ollie only said it once, about Ben’s voice breaking, but the hilarity carries on for ages.If you’ve not seen Tyrannosaurus Alan play live yet, you really must: it’s almost always like this, funny, aggressive, and booty-shaking in equal measure. They put plenty of effort in, and they get it back from an appreciative room.
Anti Vigilante are in equally fine form: a flurry of shorts and muscly, sinewy little legs from start to finish, they’re forever buzzing around the little stage. They’re bang up for this, and their raw, uncompromising approach to skacore, and the speed at which they play it, mean they’re immediately a big hit in this room. There are a few stray moshers in, and they gleefully start circle pit after circle pit, each one sabotaged by rogue skankers sneaking in, or, at one point, someone just running through the middle. All of this, like the band’s set, is chaotic, but performed with fervour and huge smiles.
The chaos comes to an abrupt end, though, when the New Town Kings file on to perform. They’re here to get people dancing, but there’s a knowingly mischievous way to Chris’s teacher-style lectures on the subject, almost like he’s half telling us off, but at the same time enjoying it and finds the whole thing just a tiny bit silly.
By now the place is absolutely rammed, and everybody’s on the dancefloor. The New Town Kings glide through the gears like a well-oiled party machine, rolling out hit after hit with practised ease, while, in front of them, a packed floor try to move our feet in time, which is fine, and then our arms, which are for ever banging in to everyone else’s arms, and then, eventually, all the hips and bums down here are grinding in time.
It’s got hot down here, and their rich, smooth, soulful take on two-tone, uniquely movable at the best of times, is especially sexy this evening. A quick look around shows a few pairs who definitely didn’t arrive together and are now getting personal with each other, and there are surely a few more. All of a sudden, there’s a lot of love in here and a more than a few people eager to get it on.
Dynamite and then News Stand get them off to a bang, and, by the time they’re playing La La World, everybody’s joyously shouting, singing and swaying along. They wrap up with Take Hold of Me, my favourite, and Stay on Your Feet, and then encore the brilliant Fire in the Hole.
We’re breathless, by the end of it. I’ve managed to swap hats with someone, but dotted around, there are other sorts of swapping going on. Even ignoring all of that, it has become one of those shows where everyone loves each other: the atmosphere’s incredible: dog tired, deliriously happy, and everyone rushing around just to say nice things to each other. Wonderful.
