Dead Kennedy's at Camden Electric Ballroom (Ft. Catholic Action) review

So I went to see the American punk rock band Dead Kennedys last night in Camden at the Electric Ballroom. I'd never been to the electric ballroom before but I really enjoyed my time there. The venue was really top drawer, and even though there were a lot of people in attendance waiting for a drink wasn't an issue at all thanks to the great staff. For those of you who don't know who the Dead Kennedys are they are an American punk rock band formed in 1978. Over the years members have come and go, however, there are still members of the band that have stayed throughout it all. They focus on Punk and Funk rock music. The lead singer last night was nothing short of a twat, but he really really wanted to be. Taking the mick out of English people he got the audience really stirred up which meant that when they started the place went up.

Before the Dead Kennedys played their support group Catholic Action played a mini-set. I'll be honest I had never heard of these because this isn't my normal type of music to listen to but they were really good. The band are young and come from Glasgow led by their lead singer Chris McCrory. They sort of mix various genres together to create their unique sound but pop comes out the most. The songs they played for us were very very good, my two favourites 'Propaganda' and 'black and white.' Both songs have very important and powerful lyrics accompanied by very effective drums and a very nice guitar sound. These boys tell me they're back on tour in October, so I would thoroughly recommend you get a ticket.

Now for the Dead Kennedys, wow just wow the night was mental. Dead Kennedys have got a very violent and unapologetic sound with songs like 'California Uber Alles' and 'Kill the poor.' From the first second of the gig till the last people were dancing, singing and moshing. I'd never seen moshing like it in my life. It's hard to sort of evaluating each individual song because they're all very similar, all I can say is they were just mental. 'Police truck', 'California Uber Alles', 'Kill the poor', 'Nazi punks fuck off', 'Holiday in Cambodia', are all songs I would recommend listening to, they're all boss. You can tell from the titles what sort of band they are, but they really were so good and definitely a band I thought I'd never see.

The last song of the night was 'Holiday in Cambodia' which I first listened to on guitar hero 3 when I was maybe 5 years old. 15 years later I'm in the middle of a mosh pit singing it at the live gig, you can't put a price on memories like that. I've been in a few moshes before but last nights one is the best one, a constant feeling of panic mixed with pure adrenaline was intense. The punk scene is very much a dying one which is a huge shame because it really is a fantastic genre of music and important one in music history. I'm a big supporter of purchasing merchandise at gigs as it is a very important way of supporting the musicians at the gig, so I did purchase a Dead Kennedys tour top.

Overall the gig was excellent and by far my favourite gig if you exclude any festivals I've attended. If you ever get the chance to see Catholic action or indeed Dead Kennedys just do it, they're both brilliant bands. Please make sure to like and comment and subscribe on my blog, that would be greatly appreciated. Til next time sees you later.