LIVE REVIEW: THE BLINDERS, ROCKSTEADY, LONDON, 23RD FEBRUARY

“Which way is Canary Wharf? Burn it to the fucking ground”. Seriously these boys don’t piss about! They mean business and it was business as usual in the tiny basement at the Rocksteady in Dalston on Thursday night. Playing to yet another SOLD OUT crowd it’s a trait these Doncaster lads are getting used too. Sure it’s cliché and you’ve heard it said a thousand times before in every other tom, dick and harry’s ‘blog’ but you won’t be seeing them gracing the stages of these intimate venues much longer. Grab the chance by the bollocks whilst you can. What a night! I barely know where to start with this, it literally blew me away. We gobbled up our first helping of their live action back at This Feelings ‘Big in 2017’, Nambucca in January and since we haven’t stopped listening to their heartbreakingly sparse array of tracks on Spotify. It’s not often we get so easily encapsulated by a new band but The Blinders are pulling on our heartstrings like a twisted psychopath drenched in pheromones.

We would recite the usual waffle about the current ‘hype’ surrounding The Blinders and why they’re are the ones to watch BUT, the likelihood is, if you’re sat reading this then you already know who they are. You don’t need me to tell you again! Their debut song ‘Swine’ went down like an all you can ‘eat’ cocaine brunch buffet in rehab. You’ve been deprived of music this good for so long, now it’s here you just want to consume it all day every day for the rest of your life. I’m sure most of you are wondering, like us, when they’ll be releasing their next track/ debut EP or whatever it is that’s in the pipeline at camp Blinders. Well don’t get your hopes up cos we have no fucking idea BUT it can’t be too far round the corner. We DO know they’ve been selling ‘Swine’ on special edition 7” vinyl at their recent gigs which has an, as yet unheard, B-Side on it. Come to mention it there wasn’t actually a merch stand at the Rocksteady. Chaps if you’re reading this and you’ve got any of those knocking about still drop me a line I’m desperate to get my hands on one. The neighbours have been giving me some shady looks for the past week or two and I wanna wack it up full blast to piss em’ off. I’ve probably got more chance of being struck by lightning or getting storm Doris’s number (she kept pushing me away) but hey’ you know what they say “he who dares, wins”. Anyway the point is we’re all buzzing for some new tracks right?

We’ve never been to the Rocksteady before, it’s a great little place! Only the size of a garden shed but packed full character, atmosphere and intimacy. Just before The Blinders hit the stage we bumped into lead singer/ guitarist Thomas Haywood in the bogs putting on all his paints and writing ‘NME, ENEMY’ on his chest in thick black sludge. We threw him the textbook ‘break a leg’ remark as he swung his fur coat back on brimming with confidence before heading to the stage to get shit going. Come to mention it all three of them are full of confidence, you can see it pouring from their every move. This gig had it all, proper fucking Rock and Roll. They were up on the amps, spitting on the ceiling, downing drinks and took a brief cameo in crowd for their final song shredding both guitars like wild animals. Class act! It was loud and aggressive, making you wanna grit your teeth and slog out the best slow mo head bang you’ve got in your locker. That eerie, piercing lead guitar sends shivers down your spine and warps the room into a haunting atmosphere. The reverb, delay and tremolo are on full blast throughout with the crunchy distorted grit providing a dirty Zidane-esque head-butt to the chest. Basslines are punchy, funky and running all day, everyday like Mo Farah. Drums are the backbone that gives their sound its tenacity; providing the cue to change tempo or drop to the dark side with heavy crashes of the cymbals and slow taunting fills. The contrast is what makes it though, they pick up the pace at the right time and drop half speed out of the blue just to add that extra slice of dirt to the remedy. Vocals are a different class aswell. Replicating the contrast of the instruments he goes from smooth and soulful to screaming the house down in about one second flat. If you’re not prepared you’ll quite literally shit your pants.

Stand out songs for us were ‘Swine’ (obviously) and ‘Murder at The Ballet’. MATB is a beautiful piece of work like a fucked up twin brother to the Arctic Monkeys ‘Do I Wanna Know’. It fiddles around with your mind, you’re wondering where all the crashing and banging’s gone. It’s only a momentary glimmer of calm though. This song is the best indication of The Blinders potential. It asserts their dynamic nature to write songs that compliment eachother perfectly but are in no way ‘more of the same’. This one had the crowd bouncing around with a sedative sway, that didn’t last for long though as it descended into pure chaos at the end. The same goes for ‘Swine’, there was a pause just before the solo, lead singer Thomas Haywood wrapped the microphone lead around his neck like a noose suggestively depicting the crippling control our destructive government has over working class lives? He stood up on the amp towering above us like a modern day prophet. Drummer Matty Neale swung the backing mic round to his young crusader pal so he could unleash political hell and outrage on us all. He spun some poetic like verses referencing their pals Cabbage along the way with a rant about the government’s stance on our national healthcare service. “I was born in the NHS, I will die in the NHS” a relevant topic in today’s world given the state of our corrupt tory elects. One I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about over the coming years given the fact our almighty and powerful prime minister seems so willing to get into bed with that narcissistic prick Trump. He then got down from his platform and blasted the crowd with a solo that could pry open the gates of hell with its bare hands. It hit me like a sack of unpeeled potatoes, we were witnessing something truly special here tonight a band with so much raw talent, energy and vigour that have the potential to do whatever the fuck they want with it. Have we found our new favourite band…….. i think so!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT8zdtXhNUQ