The fifth ever gig from 'The Dogbones' was another stormer last
night. The venue was a pretty tatty old pub with a pool table at one
end and a tiny stage at the other end, and an impressive victorian
tiled fresco of a scene from Shakespear's 'Macbeth' on one wall (from
which the pub gets its name). Opening act were 'Carnival of souls'
(Miranda Sex Garden fans, perhaps?) - a four piece with a very
impressive rhythm section of drums and bass; a widdly-widdly
guitarist who seemed like he was nicked from a 'Van Halen' tribute
band; and a keyboard player/vocalist. Some of the tunes were very
reminiscent of 'Faith no more', and they weren't too bad.
'The Dogbones consist of Crispin Gray & Nomi Leonard (of
QueenAdreena) on guitars and vocals; Vince Johnson (ex Daisy
Chainsaw) on drums, and Bambi (of Selfish C*nt) on drums. They were
back to their double drummer best with the return of 'Bambi' (who had
cut off all his long hair, and now looked very smart), and have
changed their sound slightly since their their first couple of gigs.
Nomi has given up using bass on some songs, and now plays guitar on
all songs. Crispin stuck to his 'airline' guitar, and seems to use an
entirely different rig to his 'QueenAdreena' gear. I'll try to pay
more attention and get some photos of it next gig. His sound is
still 'Crispin', but seems rawer than in QA. Vocal duties are shared
between Crispin and Nomi, whilst Vince Johnson and Bambi pound out an
avalanche of percussion on the two kits wedged at the rear of the
tiny stage. I noticed that neither kit has a snare drum! both use a
kick drum, floor tom, and a second tom mounted where the snare
usually goes. Vince uses a hi-hat and china cymbal, and Bambi uses a
ride and a standard crash cymbal. This leads to a ferocious tribal
style drum beat to each Dogbones song. Vince also uses the rim of his
floor tom as an extra rhythmic device. All of the songs are pretty
furious, and reminiscent of Crispin's days back in the early 1990's
with Daisy Chainsaw; and most of the lyrics are pretty sarcastic
takes on the circus that is the music business. They are great fun to
watch as a live band, and definitely seem to be doing this for the
love of it. They are still unsigned, and don't seem at all bothered
that only about 40 people have showed up to see them. Fortunately all
of the 40 people are here to see 'The Dogbones' and make a
disproportionately loud noise! A few of Crispin's mates turned up
agin - we saw Ben John from 'Ariel X' and old Daisy Chainsaw &
QueenAdreena bass player Richard Adams (who reckoned that he is now
not involved in any music at present). Once again, great fun; and
shame on all of you who couldn't be bothered to come and see them! Do
yourself a favour and put it right next time!
Review by Gary Lloyd aka 'High Horse'
The Dogbones have been described as - "Johny5 playin T-Rexs' guitar whilst cavemen beat up barbarella with dead members of the beatles.."