The LA Maybe, The Continental Lovers and The Wicked Jackals, The Hope and Anchor, 2022

We are in a cost of living crisis and it’s just before Christmas, so unfortunately there was only a small crowd for this gig, but strangely it made for a house party atmosphere as all the bands could let their hair down and have fun, with almost everyone in the audience known to one band or another.

First band up were The Wicked Jackals and it’s the first time I have seen them with their new members Rex and Carl. Fortunately it hasn’t changed the vibe of the band (which I love) too much, and my favourite tracks are largely still as they were.

There are some technical difficulties with the bass and the new guitarists did really well holding the fort. With the said house party atmosphere, the band have a laugh as James the drummer goes out into the crowd with his cowbell and Lex the bassist takes up position at the drums. As a result ‘Bad Excuse’ my favourite song becomes the extended AC/DC mix, not a problem for me at all. Lex’s split leg stance is so low in ‘Scream’ I wonder if his trousers might split.

It’s good to see the band maturing. Singer Ollie Tindall, was always great with an AC/DC vocal but when he started he used to avoid eye contact with the audience and hide behind his hair, now he engages them at every turn and is getting the confidence and stage craft needed to be a great front man to complete the package. They are now the veterans of many gigs (not to mention the extra gigs Ollie and Lex have been doing with Chris Holmes) and their accumulated experience shows.

Next up are Continental Lovers who are more punky and new wave, with a streak of the 80s they definitely have a sort of Elvis Costello 70s/80s pop vibe with a guitar base.   I am less familiar with their material, although I have seen them once before.  There’s some good old school guitar solos, although they are not immune from a few technical difficulties either. Again they also handle it well. It’s clearly not their first rodeo, indeed they do say “we’ll let you into a secret some of us were born in the Eighties.” You don’t say! Generally I prefer their fast punky tracks to their slower numbers.

The LA Maybe feature a singer Goliath Furr who looks like the abominable snowman in his woolly  bobble hat and reminds me facially of Greta Thunberg. His voice vacillates between AC/DC-like, a deeper heavier register, and a falsetto which is more of a Taime Downe sleazy style helium Sunset Strip voice. Generally his shtick is OTT tomfoolery and with the ‘we’re in someone’s living room’ atmosphere, all social restraints are off.  This means that you watch him constantly, as you are not sure what he will do next. He comes from the Jack Black school of political correctness and so there are lines like “this is a song about a whore” for ‘She’s Reckless’ and he keeps shouting ‘Any Ho’ instead of “Anyhow”. Indeed there is a bit of a Steel Panther vibe, in that you find yourself thinking ‘did he really just say/do that?’

The rest of the band are  holding the fort musically really well despite Furr filming them from behind through their legs and going missing for ten minutes or so in the middle of the set, when he appears to be dancing and hanging around the bar with The Wicked Jackals.  The band just roll with it, doing a guitar medley of covers including a bit of Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ till he decides to come back. Somehow I think it has happened to them before. The guitarists are very skilled and there’s some lovely harmonised playing. Luckily when he stops goofing around Furr can pull it out of the hat and eventually he gets back on stage. They remind me a little of Skid Row when they get really rockin, indeed they probably think that as they included a cover of ‘Monkey Business’ in the set.

Furr’s ring flies off across the room offstage during the set. Having lost rings in rock clubs before myself, much to my chagrin, I seek it out from the side of the stage near the gear and give it back to him. He extends his hand for me to put it on his finger which foolishly I do. He then starts shouting “She wed me and she didn’t even know”. I think it was an accident, not staged, which suggested he is good at extemporary banter.

One effect that all the comedy has, is that when Furr tries to get serious and talk about suicide it’s difficult to adjust, and everyone is waiting for a punchline that never comes. Indeed his singing is excellent in parts, doing great big powerful long notes like Sebastian Bach. He never quite recovers from being the comedy act tonight though, and any hope of it getting back to be a serious rock gig is long gone. Not to say it wasn’t enjoyable, but there is a fine line between people laughing with or at in the UK, and, I fear tonight, the line was crossed.

He’s not completely fearless. When a woman (with a huge basketball-like surgically enhanced chest bursting out of her Flintstones like scanty clothes) strides in with huge hair extensions looking like an opera diva that could rip his head off with one hand, he studiously avoids her intense gaze and does not engage her at all and stops shouting anything that she might misconstrue. He has some sense of self preservation then at least.

Essentially because this gig became like a sort of mad bizarre house party it’s really in a category of its own. I have seen the band at a festival where the agenda of being a serious rock band was uppermost, so I know it is not always like this. Don’t get me wrong the evening was hugely entertaining. But it was also frequently outta hand. I seriously suggest never ever going asleep around Furr. I think keeping an eye on him at all times is by far the best policy. Fortunately lead singers love this sort of constant attention. Was it a great gig, yes. Was I comfortable at it at all times during the LA Maybe set, definitely not.  I guess that’s Rock and Roll.

Dawn Osborne