Glen Matlock & The Philistines - Dirty Martinis - 19/3/11 (Kilmarnock)

Blaggers. You've got to love them.
Billy Liar who we had booked to play with Devilish Presley on the Saturday night arrives a day early and asks if he can crash at my flat before demanding we let him play on the Glen Matlock bill. The sheer up front hunger for it was deserving of being accommodated, so as a special addition to the line up Billy with guitar in hand thrashed his way through some of his material to the handful of lucky people who arrived early enough to catch him.
For a young man he's got it sussed. There's power and passion in equal measure in the performance and lyrically he strips away a great deal of the bullshit that others get bogged down in to really deliver a raw take on life as he sees it.
It's the perfect start to the evening. Real honest to goodness punk rock that acknowledges the past without pandering to it.
Zoe Lewis is the local talent on the bill and strangely enough this is the first time I have seen her perform live. It's one of those never in the right place at the right time situations.
Within a couple of songs it becomes very obvious that the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree here as she displayed all the talent that her father, a local musician, has.
The vocals are spot on, the guitar work fluidly compelling and the material from her two self released albums could genuinely compete with and other so called rock chicks doing the rounds. In fact it would also be fair to say that the material is far more mature than any of her contemporaries can manage, even with their armies of songwriters to bolster their meagre talents.
She can belt them out, or bring it down to a more intimate delivery with ease and it would be a great shame if talent like this was to be overlooked.
Filthy Little Secret then demolished any lingering romanticised ideas that the night may be anything more than a rock and roll bloodbath of excess.
They have two settings. Loud and Heavy.
It's a yowling and yelping primal scream that sounds like Lux Interior having a brawl with the Kings of Leon and who is effortlessly painting the walls with them.
Fuck knows where the sound comes from, but if you close your eyes there's an image of southern hill-billies wired on hooch playing behind chicken wire to a crowd that are hell bent on breaking the record for the longest bar room brawl ever recorded.
Scarily exhilarating.
If people were wanting a break after that then they were kidding themselves on as Tragic City Thieves hot off their first UK tour took the baton from Filthy Little Secret and kept running with it.
The new material that is yet to be released makes some of the songs from their début sound a bit shabby, and that's saying something as there is nothing shabby about that album.
It's just that the new material is a quantum leap forward again.
If you take all the reference points that have been mentioned before. New York Dolls, Turbonegro and such, and then imagine that they have just turned it all up a notch then it will give you a small hint of where they are at. Everything is tighter, faster and more impassioned now.
As performances go these are the guys who walk it like they talk it. They deliver every single time. They simply don't do bad gigs. They plough through their set and convert another few people to the cause of the Theivon.
It's probably pertinent to mention here that a guy came across to me and said “this is like a real gig”.
At first I didn't know what he meant, but he went on to say that he goes and sees bands playing locally and most of the time they could be described as good at what they do, but it's obvious why they are still just playing bars and small clubs. Whereas in comparison this was like a real big show with bands who have all paid their dues.
While I would say that Ayrshire is currently awash with talent the guy did have a point, and Glen Matlock and his Philistines where still to play.
His head was likely to explode.
For those who had missed this then what can I say. You had the chance of one bite at the apple and missed it.
When Glen Matlock and the Philistines did come on the magic was in the room. Kicking off with Born Running they didn't slow down at all. I reckon they played about twenty songs in quick succession. The people who were there sang until they were hoarse and a lot of swaying and cheering was the order of the night.
Timebomb sounded great and all in I've got to say that the sound guys were real stars of the night.
Everything sounded awesome. None of this support bands getting the shitty end of the stick and the head-liner managing to sound crystal clear. From start to finish the sound was great.
I suppose everyone will want to know what he sang that wasn't from his Philistines career.
Well Burning Sounds got a good going over, as did Stepping Stone and God Save the Queen, but to claim that they were highlights would be unfair become they were just some fantastic songs in amongst more fantastic songs.
It was that good that I just abandoned my place on the door and had a jump about and sang along with everyone else.
If success was measured by the amount of enjoyment people had and not the numbers through the doors then this was a magnificent success.
Thanks to all the people involved from Dirty Martinis, and more so each and every single person who made the effort to attend.