Tales From That DJ Booth - 27/06

Words by Marcio Custodio
Picture by Stuart Nicholls


Oh, that was a very good one. June seems to be a quiet month for bars and clubs, as most of us are finishing exams and saving money for our deserved holidays in the summer. Not Goonite though. Tonight we have a crowded Buffalo Bar enjoying three remarkable bands and grooving to the tunes selected by me, the humble disc-jockey.

It was Semaphone who kicked off the night, delivering an Americana vibe to an audience that was still filling the bar. These guys don’t come from Nashville or its surroundings, but they’re actually from Ireland/Italy, all based in London. Their songs are excellent, consisting of refined guitar lines and a warm voice, alluding to a successful collaboration between The National and My Morning Jacket, with Nick Cave as a producer. The song “Stretch a Canvas” is up there with the best things I’ve heard this year. Just bloody brilliant!

Then came Lawrence Arabia, and with them a splash of delightful vocal harmonies and glorious ballads. They managed to take Semaphone’s Americana vibe to a dreamy level, and it just blew our minds. The place was already full by this time and, even when the quietest songs were played, we could feel people were just hypnotised by the performance’s beauty. There were moments it reminded me of a George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass era going on a sensitive path, or a simply folk-ish Abba. This might seem strange, but there you go.

As for the next and last act, I simply can’t recommend them enough. Johnny Boy is without doubt one of the best bands in this country right now, and it’s a shame they are not as popular as they deserve. But maybe they’re happy with that. I like them not for the fact that they are highly praised by both mainstream and underground media, or because some rock legends love them (Mick Jones and Johnny Marr are huge fans, and Manics’ James Dean Bradfield produced their first single), but merely for the fact that their music is absolutely creative, infectious and fantastic, in all ways.

Instead of the formulaic average guitar band that seems to be everywhere these days, Johnny Boy sounds non-obvious as much as possible, and yet they manage to write colossal pop tunes, that could easily, if this world was not so cruel, reach the masses. But that’s fine, lucky us to have them at Goonite Club, and to witness an explosion of colours, vibration and energy that is this band’s concert. On record they are a Spector-esque wall-of-sound convoy, firing bullets made of pop nuggets, but on stage you can add to it a proper punk band fiercely playing a non-stop selection of splendid songs. The screen behind the stage, showing boogie-neon-fireworks images, only helped the spectacle’s magnificence.

The song “War On Want” was a shoegaze-tour-de-force going to a Massive Attack aura, while “Fifteen Minutes” came with hypnotic guitar riffs. Other highlights include “All Exits Final”, “Bonnie Parker’s 115th Dream” and a Ramones mashup-cover. And for the ones euphorically waiting the hit single “You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve”, the band left it for the finale, ending the concert with class. Seriously, I respect you if you are not a Johnny Boy fan, but I’ll never be able to understand you. Bless them.