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The Bellrays
@ Metro, London, 4 July 2002
I'm already extremely pissed and, after the day I've had, I'm not really in the mood for any "malarky".

Unfortunately the first band up are The Legacy of Destruction. Yes, The Legacy of Destruction. It sounds as bad as it is. They're all over 30 and I know that doesn't make a bad band but when your still doing college garage punk and calling yourselves names like The Legacy of Destruction (hahahaha!) it's maybe time to put down the guitar and find a day job. To make it worse the vocal PA is set up for a much louder voice and the bassist looks as pissed as I am. They get sweaty, they get loud but that's about it.

Now I must wait for a band I've seen twice and didn't like: The Bellrays. The first time I saw them was at the Monarch, which was terrible as the place is too small for a woman like Lisa Kekaula where everything about her is BIG: her hair, her eyes, her ass and especially her voice.

And the second was at Brixton Academy supporting the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, which was also pretty bad. They were the first on and effectively played to no-one as everyone was getting tanked at the bar.

So I had my reservations and many doubts about the hyperbole the critics have been spreading on this particular bed of roses. But all that was about to change.

Blues For Godzilla, like the whole set, is like stepping right into 1975, flares, tank tops and all, with singer Lisa Kekaula throwing moves like she's attached to a '50s weight-loss gyro-belt.

New single They Glued Your Head On Upside Down is strident and almost offensively sexy, jarring the audience with a sound that's like Parliament slapping Henry Rollins around while James Brown holds him down.

They call their music "maximum rock & roll" and they're right; with rolling Motown licks and a punk-pace like this I suggest you go out, now, and find their last three albums, not just the compilation, and start getting sweaty with The Bellrays.


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The Bellrays - They Glued Your Head On Upside Down



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