Gig Reviews: Gay For Johnny Depp & The Computers UK Tour @ Face Bar, Reading 25th Feb 2011

by Gary Smith

So, thanks to Onslaught Radio, Martin Harder won two competition tickets to go to this gig at the Face Bar in Reading so took me along for a fantastic music night!

The opening band, Revol,had a very strong start and did not disappoint throughout their set.  The lead vocal nic started off a bit too loud and muffled, but this was sorted by the second song... in time for one of the speakers playing up during the third!  They maintained a very tight set, starting with the final track on the American Typewriter EP, 'Theres No Time' which had beautiful melodies and guitar licks throughout.  They played all the songs of this EP with a couple of extras - notably 'Feel The Fury'.  The crowd was a bit light for them here, but as well as can be expected for an opening act at a local gig.  I felt they were a little out of place as this was designed as a Hardcore night, and they were more Heavy Rock, but we want to hear more and think they can strive to greatness given the right opportunities as they will deserve it if they try hard enough.  In comparison to the other bands regarding stage presence, they were a bit static, but this was made up from the effort all of them put in and I could not fault them.

During the sound check for Golden Tanks, I heard some impressive guitar work, which I hoped would continue, though noticed some fast bass work which appeared to just be fast for the sake of fast... but we can't judge from a couple of seconds during set up, so what was to come up..?

Some of the best Hardcore Metal that I have heard in ages, that's what!!!  They started off with the 2 guitarists and bassist rocking out on stage and the screamer vocalist on the floor who very nicely encouraged everyone to come closer by telling everyone they have to merge into the middle of the room and "take three steps forward".  They were very tight, though after the first couple of songs I was feeling that as enjoyable as it was, I would get bored soon if they didn't do something different because it was seeming quite generic hardore... As soon as this song ended, they announced they will play some older stuff, and started off with 'Snatch' here, which was my personal favourite as it was exactly what I hoping would happen...just not expecting!  They incorporated alot of harmonised guitars and bass from this point (as I noticed at least), with some guitar solos here, which was a little lacking still, but there was more to come.  I would reccomend this band as one to watch out for if you like hardcore metal, or are interested to find ou what it is like - it's exactly what you should be listening out for in the genre... none of that 'drop c' tuning on everything and whacking the strings as hard as possible with completely unincomprehendable screams and roars.  The drummer here is also one of the best around, knowing exacly when to just keep the beat and when to show off like a bitch!

Now it's time for the touring acts, leading the way with The Computers, who came on stage with a steady bass drum beat for ages, which then turned into a closed hi hat hit for 4 beats before they punched into play.  The style of the backing music was pushing across a melodic sound - much in keeping with Revol, while the singer was screamer to everything running around everywhere with a guitar and the whole mic and stand and was very talented at what he does.  They were all dressed in white trousers and shirts with white shoes - so they were a definite screamo band... Harmonica?? WTF??? Out from nowhere was a very short harmonica solo in the middle of the set by this multi talented lead screamer, lead guitarist and now lead harmonica!  They pulled off some incredibly tight sections, which were very well rehearsed, which had a bit of a ska-punk end to this section... again out from nowhere!  This band also had a fantastic drummer, putting all his effort into his work and kept the band extremely well held together... including the couple of bars break near the end of the set which was pure silence and still no-one missed coming back in.  You could never tell where the singer was if you had looked away for a second... I turned around and he was halfway up the wall on the back of the seats still going strong!  They are a great band to know if you are relatively new to the genre.  It was a shame that the few guitar solos the lead had pulled off were not accented above the rest of the band and all the backing had overpowered it too much to hear.. but that's all in the sound levels, not musical skill on stage.

Before I came to this gig, all I knew about Gay For Johnny Depp was that they were a hardcore comedy band from New York, so not really sure what to expect as I had not seen or heard their stuff before.  I'm not sure how they got away with their lives for so long hailing from Brooklyn, but I'm sure glad I got to see them last night!  They have a truly unique sound, with some very interesting bass work (by a bassist who looks as though Woodstock still exists, with his USA flag tight "pants" and the flowers in his bass headstock) throughout and the denim-glam clad dressed vocalist doing a mix of screaming and singing (at the same time, and yes it does exist!) on the inverted cross covered in barbed wire!  The longest song in their set must have been no more than 3 minutes, apart from a cover which I'll mention later, and some songs were over before they began it seemed - but that's all in the style which made them great!  You may imagine them as a band having fun at being gay, and not taking themselves seriously at all...and you'd be spot on!  From what I could tell, at least 95%, if not all, of the crowd were straight, just there to have fun and they were all comfortable enough with their sexuality to have fun and not take it too far which was great.

One of the biggest issues in small venues is the sound level, and unfortunately the size of this room makes it no exception, so I couldn't understand most of the lyrics, but I swear I just saw the singer plan to fist Johnny Depp while singing in a 'The Darkness versus System Of A Down' way!  In between songs, there was alot of banter with the crowds - where they spotted a guy in a shirt and tie under a jumper so pointed him out and went right up to him asking "What's all this Corporate Shit" and then looked at his tie..."It's a Fucking Clip-On!" so stole it off him to wear round his head Rambo-stlye during the next song... meanwhile groping my hair and grabbing Martin's bum!

Another moment mid set, the emo-dressed guitarist (who was doing a very good camp act throughout) pointed at Martin & I who were making notes on our phone in readiness for this review, so asked us what we were doing spending so long on our phone - naturally they will now be keeping an eye out for this review so I should be saying nice stuff (fucking retards!) here! They then dedicated their next song to us...most likely as a reflection on my height, "Nine Inch Males (Born To Hate)" which was great fun.

The next thing we knew, the vocalist had climbed up the speaker stack to perch on there, but as the ceiling was so low, he took out one of the tiles to fit his head through before singing this nice soft cover "I'm loving Anal instead", and this was not the last in antics to do with the low roof... like when he jumped and accidentally punched a hole in the roof and a different tile fell down!  This was preceeded by crowd surfing and the crowd had dropped him quite hard on the floor which gave a bit of a scare, but he carried on going like a true rock god.  He gave a warning to all that he should not be unattended with your drink or he may snorkel it... (when your mate goes to the "bathroom" stick your dick in his drink)

This was one of the best gigs for Gay For Johnny Depp, as this was their first ever encore so they played a brand new song which was so knew that the metal clad drummer did not know it that well... but he pulled it off fantastically!  This is definitely a band to go and see if you can in their last couple f days of this tour or at any time in the future really.

The final days of the tour left are:-
Sat 26th Feb - Matinee performance @ Club Revenge, Brighton (over 14s)
Sat 26th Feb - iBar, Bournemouth (over 14s)
Sun 27th Feb - Westcoast Bar, Margate (over 14s)
Mon 28th Feb - The Forum, Tunbridge Wells (over 16)
Tue 1st Mar - The Barfly, Lonon (over 14s)
Wed 2nd Mar - The Boileroom, Guildford (over 14s)

The Boileroom is another local venue to me, which I am seriously considering going back on Wednesday to see again!

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