SMALLTOWN TIGERS + HEALTHY JUNKIES + ROTTWEILER – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 10.2.24
Smalltown Tigers are a female trio of punks from Rimini in Italy. The lineup consists of Valli on lead vocals and Fender Precision bass guitar, Monty on Gibson guitar and backing vocals, and Castel on Gretsch drums and backing vocals, plus lead vocals for one of their tunes. Smalltown Tigers originally started out playing squat clubs and beach parties, before scooping the support slots for the likes of Hagar The Womb, Baby Shakes, The Menstrual Cramps and The Speedways. The band came about as Valli and Monty played together in another band called ‘Rockaway Bitches’ which was a Ramones tribute, which is still resurrected from time to time. Castel has three bands that she plays with… a sort of international drummer ensemble from all over the world called Drumatica, an all-female hard rock/metal cover band called Whiskey Wives and a pop-rock project in the Italian idiom called Le Figurine.
This evening at The Prince Albert (as promoted by An Alternative Gathering) was my third encounter with the band, having previously seen them in this very venue on 10th September last year, and before that as the opening act for the original lineup of The Damned when they got it back together and played the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith on 28th October 2022. The Damned that day were Dave Vanian (vocals), Captain Sensible (bass, backing vocals), Brian James (on guitar), Rat Scabies (drums), and they were assisted by Mike Smith (on saxophone).
Smalltown Tigers have made inroads on the Euro garage-punk scene having initially dropped their debut single ‘Just Friends’ which was then followed by their 8 song mini-album ‘Five Things’ which came out just in time for the first Covid lockdown in spring 2020. The trio are back out touring in support of their brand new ten tune long player ‘Crush On You’ which dropped yesterday! It’s a short, sharp, sweet release with the briefest tune coming in at sub two minutes and eight of the others running less than three minutes, with the remaining track ‘Dressed Right And Skinny’ coming in at 3:20.
So at 10:05pm the trio set about their business and for the next 46 minutes we are in their capable hands as they give us no less than 17 numbers! As per last time the girls were showing their unity as a group by all sporting similar pink and black clothing. We have been based at the very front all evening and what is immediately noticeable is that after just a few bars of their opener ‘Find Myself Another Name’ from 2020’s ‘Five Things’ mini-album, I’m already aware that the sound engineer to the rear of the first floor concert room has increased the sound levels for the headliners as the knees of my jeans are being continually hit by copious amounts of blasts of noise emanating from the under stage speakers….my ears will be humming tomorrow!
Quite possibly the best way to describe our Italian friends is to liken them to a gritty punk version of Spanish chicas Hinds. This grit is then given to us in the form of a couple more tunes from their ‘Five Things’ mini-album, these being ‘Runaway Gal’ and the surf rock friendly ‘I Want It Now’. Valli’s vocals are gravelly and there’s a meaty guitar sound, which is a blend of punk rock previously offered by the likes of The Runaways (Joan Jett) and the Ramones, with a sprinkling of very early B-52’s and heyday Suzi Quatro.
Their contributed track for the ‘Defiled! A Heavy Medication Tribute To New Bomb Turks’ compilation album is selection four, this being their drumming led rendition of ‘Girl Can’t Help It’. After which the trio were back on the case of raiding their 2020 mini-album, with the guitar-riffed earworm ‘Just Friends’ and surf rocker ‘Darling Please!’. So that’s seven tunes so far and not a single nod of their brand new ‘Crush On You’ album thus far! However things were now to be rectified big time as they set about performing the first nine of the ten tracks in the exact running order, with only closing number ‘Killed Myself When I Was Young’ not seeing the light of day. ‘Meet Me In The City’ was therefore the first selection and was followed by the new ‘Crush On You’ single, which is a belter. There’s certainly no messin’ with these signorinas as they rattle through the rest of the album with aplomb, and so we next had the melodic less energetic ‘In A Dream (With A Fool Like You)’, followed by the familiar Stooges style guitar riffed ‘Teddy Bear’. The fast guitar strummed ‘I Want You’ was their next offering, and after this lead vocal duty fell to drummer Castel for ‘Maybe’ and she was very good too.
We were now left with only a handful of compositions left to hear, with the first of these being the Ramones-esque ‘Monster’, a tune which I had enjoyed the most during my debut encounter and this is still the case this evening! After ‘Dressed Right And Skinny’ we had ‘Joey’ which I suspect is a homage to a Ramones brudda on account of its 100mph beat. Another beautiful slice of punk followed in the form of ‘Five Things’ and on my last encounter at this point in proceedings, the girls had played a number of cover versions, namely ‘Surfin’ Bird’ (The Trashmen), ‘Let’s Dance’ (Chris Montez), ‘Teenage Kicks’ (The Undertones) and ‘New Rose’ (The Damned), but although they were great, I felt that maybe they would have been best left in a Rockaway Bitches set. Now they have the new album to concentrate on they now appear a more rounded outfit. There was just one other cover tonight and that being the classic ‘R.A.M.O.N.E.S’ by Motörhead and at 10:51pm they were done! A number of eager punters then dutifully showed their appreciation and headed off to the merch stall at the rear of the room. Smalltown Tigers are a great fun band and I hope that they make a swift return!
Smalltown Tigers:
Valli – bass, lead vocals
Monty – guitar, backing vocals
Castel – drums, backing vocals
Smalltown Tigers setlist:
‘Find Myself Another Name’ (from 2020 ‘Five Things’ mini-album)
‘Runaway Gal’ (from 2020 ‘Five Things’ mini-album)
‘I Want It Now’ (from 2020 ‘Five Things’ mini-album)
‘Girl Can’t Help It’ (New Bomb Turks cover) (from ‘Defiled! A Heavy Medication Tribute To New Bomb Turks’ compilation album)
‘Just Friends’ (from 2020 ‘Five Things’ mini-album)
‘Darling Please!’ (from 2020 ‘Five Things’ mini-album)
‘Meet Me In The City’ (from 2024 ‘Crush On You’ album)
‘Crush On You’ (from 2024 ‘Crush On You’ album)
‘In A Dream (With A Fool Like You)’ (from 2024 ‘Crush On You’ album)
‘Teddy Bear’ (from 2024 ‘Crush On You’ album)
‘I Want You’ (from 2024 ‘Crush On You’ album)
‘Maybe’ (from 2024 ‘Crush On You’ album)
‘Monster’ (from 2024 ‘Crush On You’ album)
‘Dressed Right And Skinny’ (from 2024 ‘Crush On You’ album)
‘Joey’ (from 2024 ‘Crush On You’ album)
‘Five Things’ (from 2020 ‘Five Things’ mini-album)
‘R.A.M.O.N.E.S’ (Motörhead cover)
Main support this evening came in the form of Healthy Junkies, who came into being when French born vocalist Nina Courson, who after running away from home in Paris in order to pursue her music career, met guitarist Honey-Jones at a Soho gig called ‘PUNK’ in 2009. They formed the Healthy Junkies and the name refers to “a reflection of the mental health epidemic currently spreading like wildfire through the very core of western society”. This evening their ranks are bolstered with the addition of David Whitmore on bass and David James on drums. Healthy Junkies are now located in London where they specialise in a cross genre mix of Punk Rock with Grunge, Psychedelic Rock, New Wave, Garage, Glam and Goth Rock.
Interestingly enough the group played their live debut here in Brighton at the end of 2010, when they were supporting Goldblade and Viv Albertine. They have since released five studio albums ‘Sick Note’ (2011), ‘The Lost Refuge’ (2014), ‘Box Of Chaos’ (2016), ‘Delirious Dream’ (2019) and ‘Forever On The Road’ (2020) and have since dropped a quartet of releases with the latest being their ‘Lion In A Circus’ EP. They will be releasing another long-player at the tail end of 2024 and some of the tracks performed tonight will no doubt crop up there.
This evening the quartet performed from 8:57pm up until 9:46pm although it wasn’t all plain sailing! Phil spoke over the mic to the sound engineer and the band began to play the reggae filled title track of their 2020 ‘No Control’ EP in order to, as I thought, to check the sound levels, but they somehow raced through the whole tune and had kicked off three minutes early, which was a Godsend. Nina was her energetic self throughout the set by occasionally throwing herself to the floor and Phil’s Gibson SG guitar riffs spoke plenty. Drummer David James, who was using the house Gretsch drumkit, was quite a character and was clearly enjoying himself, and the other instrument being utilised tonight was a Fender Precision bass, this was in the hands of David Whitmore.
The band’s 2019 ‘Delirious Dream’ album was plundered from quite a bit with no less than four of the eleven tracks tonight coming from it. The first of these being the meaty guitar riffed ‘Some Kind Of Girl’, which from the off witnessed the drummer discard his t-shirt. Selections three and four were both unreleased numbers, these being punk ditty ‘Self Conscious’ and the slower ‘Desire’, which segued straight into the frenzied ‘This Is Not A Suicide’, which saw Phil unloading rasping psychedelia from his instrument as they give us a tight example of how it’s done within their powerful in-yer-face sound.
A couple more from ‘Delirious Dream’ were up next, ‘The Sound Of My Guitar’ and ‘All Talk’, which were followed by the final as yet unreleased tune in the form of the melodic ‘Dead Souls’, and no it’s not the Joy Division one. The punky lead track from last year’s ‘Lion In A Circus’ EP was their next choice and this witnessed Nina getting up close and personal with the punters as she briefly joined us. Meanwhile, there were problems in the bass guitar department and sound was lost! Was it the foot pedals? Was it the lead? Was it the instrument itself? Was it the speaker? Question marks were being thrown in the air. Eventually the mysterious breakdown was somehow cured, but whilst this was all going on, the remaining trio decided to offload their take of ‘La Vie en Rose’ which they recorded on their 2020 ‘The Lost Refuge’ album. After this, Phil then announces the track ‘Theft’ was next, but somehow they instead played their recent 2023 single and cover of Lee Hazelwood’s classic ‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin’. It seemed that both of Nina’s mic then gave up, so she took a hold of Phil’s guitar and gave it a good seeing to, whilst Phil himself was forced to ad-lib some vocal deliveries. Chaos averted and set enjoyed by all!
If you missed the Healthy Junkies, then worry not as they are back in Brighton later on in the year, where they will be performing at ‘Does My Festival Look Big In This?’ festival that is being held at The Pipeline on 27th to 29th September 2024 – Grab your tickets HERE.
Healthy Junkies:
Nina Courson – vocals
Phil Honey-Jones – guitar
David Whitmore – bass
David James – drums
Healthy Junkies setlist:
‘No Control’ (from 2020 ‘No Control’ EP)
‘Some Kind Of Girl’ (from 2019 ‘Delirious Dream’ album)
‘Self Conscious’ (unreleased)
‘Desire’ (unreleased)
‘This Is Not A Suicide’ (from 2019 ‘Delirious Dream’ album)
‘The Sound Of My Guitar’ (from 2019 ‘Delirious Dream’ album)
‘All Talk’ (from 2019 ‘Delirious Dream’ album)
‘Dead Souls’ (unreleased)
‘Lion In A Circus’ (from 2023 ‘Lion In A Circus’ EP)
‘La Vie en Rose’ (from 2020 ‘The Lost Refuge’ album)
‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ (a 2023 single) (Lee Hazlewood cover)
First on the bill this evening were local five-piece Rottweiler who have been going for just over a year now. They all met at WaterBear College Of Music in Brighton and I suspect are still studying there. When we first caught up with the quintet, their lead vocalist was Geo Lane, but now those duties are ably taken care of by Jessica ‘Jeb’ James instead. They grace the stage at the allotted 8:10pm and play for exactly half an hour and in that time, they award us with seven self-penned tunes. The rest of the Rottweiler personnel consists of Willow Simpson on left-handed Fender Telecaster lead guitar, Emia Demir on Epiphone rhythm guitar, Matthew Sherren on Squier Jazz bass and Ben Foley on Gretsch house drums.
Luckily for Rottweiler, the venue is rather busy from the beginning of their set which is encouraging for them, and they kick off with ‘Man You’re Fearing’, followed by ‘Revelations’, these rocked along to the punters agreement and the jangly guitar filled riffs on ‘Getting By’ cemented the approval. To the eye they appear an eclectic bunch, but they are already very much singing off the same songsheet. More rock was delivered on ‘No Such Thing’ and it was grunge for ‘Last Rites’, and even an almost disco drumming backbeat was heard during ‘Slide’, their penultimate number. They signed off with ‘Sarah’ with its initial slowish start, but did eventually get rockin’. As I stated in my last review “Rottweiler’s set was full of bite and a band that you can keep on a leash for long!”.
If you fancy checking out Rottweiler, then they are headlining The Rossi Bar in Brighton on Wednesday 27th March in support of their forthcoming debut single. Support on that evening will come in the form of Party In The Valley and Atomic Daisy Chain.
Rottweiler:
Jessica ‘Jeb’ James – vocals (she/her)
Willow Simpson – lead guitar (she/her)
Emia Demir – rhythm guitar (she/her)
Matthew Sherren – bass (he/him)
Ben Foley – drums (he/him)
Rottweiler setlist:
‘Man You’re Fearing’
‘Revelations’
‘Getting By’
‘No Such Thing’
‘Last Rites’
‘Slide’
‘Sarah’
