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This has got to be one of the most poorly-attended gigs I've seen at the Met for ages. Okay so it's a Sunday night, it's the touring quiet season and most of the students who usually frequent this venue have long since disappeared but still, there can't be more than 100 people in the Met tonight.
More fool them because they missed an excellent gig. Openers Any Given Day sound like a speeded up Ash/Foo Fighters hybrid, all Johnny Ramone guitar heroics and catchy choruses with all four members sharing vocal duties between them. They may well go on to bigger things if they play their cards right.
Strangely, given TLV frontman Acey Slade's rep as guitarist with every teeny metaller's fave group the Murderdolls, it's Antiproduct who pull in the biggest crowd of the three bands tonight. Mind you, you could hardly say they don't deserve it - as rock shows go it really doesn't get any more insane than this. Singer Alex Kane looks like Beetlejuice posessed by the spirit of Bon Scott while guitarist Clare Product strides round the stage like some sort of giant Satanic gazelle pulling off the full range of Ace Frehley style guitar moves she's doubtless been perfecting for years. Add to this a clutch of the most insanely catchy pop-metal tunes you'll get outside of a Wildhearts gig ("Bungee Jumping People Die", "If I Was Orson Wells", "The Rules We Rock 'n' Roll By"), about three audience singalongs where Kane simply vaults into the crowd and starts offering the mic to startled onlookers whether they want to sing or not and a high-speed thrash through "Blitzkrieg Bop" as a closer and you've got a damn fine band here.
It leaves Trash Light Vision with a difficult act to follow but credit to Acey Slade, despite the dwindling crowd, he just to say pulls it off. Clearly more inspired by the New York Dolls than the Misfits, TLV play a hard-hitting brand of sleaze-glam with a lot of song titles with the word "fuck" in them. Which, let's face it, keeps the kids happy. Add to this that a fair few of the tunes like "My Fuck You To You" are actually pretty damn good and you hope that a few of these kids will bring their mates along to give a more respectable turnout next time.
It all ends with half the audience on the stage singing backing vocals to a ferocious run through Murderdolls fave "Dead In Hollywood" which all goes to show you don't necessarily need a full venue to have a good time. All good unclean fun.
Review and pics by Andy James
