24 June 2010 - 0 Comments

The Luger Boa, I Am Giant and Black River Drive at The Bedford, Friday, June 18.
Reviewed by Vicki Anderson.

Based in London, I Am Giant consists of Kiwis Shelton Woolright (Blindspott), Paul Matthews (Stylus and Tadpole), Aja Timu (Blindspott, The Gaze) and Brit Ed Martin (Volume). This is one band that is making waves, blazing a trail across Europe appearing at countless surf/skate events and on Kelly Slater’s documentary Cloud 9. Slater returned the favour by featuring in I Am Giant’s new video for Neon Sunrise.

Martin, who has previously worked with Brit Craig David, is a perfect front man. Paging around with exuberance and masterful scissor kicking.  Timu and Matthews are as tight as a duck’s butt and Woolright’s drumming has lost none of its Blindspott sheen.  Aptly named, I Am Giant is going to be huge. Although I Am Giant and Luger Boa have shirtless drummers in common, they stalk different ends of the rock spectrum.

Live, Luger Boa is like being dipped in mustard and interrogated by the devil.  Standing on the stairs backstage, Luger Boa front man Jimmy Xmas ran past me to get on stage, shiny pointy black boots thumping, cracking his knuckles as he went.

Leaping on stage it was all on as the talented five-piece launched into the first single off their debut album Mutate Or Die.  Luger Boa is all about loud guitars and mammoth melodic choruses and to the delight of the bouncing, sweaty crowd; Xmas strutted and climbed the stage like a Kiwi glam rock T-Rex.  ‘‘Christchurch means a lot to this band,’’ Xmas said before giving the crowd exactly what it wanted, bold rock ‘n’ roll with no pretension.

Offering up maniacal punk-tinged rock, the Luger Boa played tracks from Mutate Or Die including What Is Real, I Wanna Girlfriend, On My Mind, 1000 Hooks and new tracks, Lazy, New Hot Nights and Crazy Love, off their upcoming and, as yet untitled, album which show the Luger Boa to be coiled, tongues flickering and ready to impress.

Xmas swaggered and preened, climbing speaker stacks and crowd surfing only to slither, literally, back to his mic. And it’s not every rock ‘n’ roll star that can make a tambourine sound sleazy. Their encore was generous and well-received.

After the gig a strange man in a gold, glittering top hat, gold vest and pointy yellow teeth told me that he’d ‘‘taken their drumstick’’. I think he was the devil.

Thanks to www.therock.net for this story.

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