Show Time!

THE LOVE TRIANGLE, Hayward Gallery, London, UK - 17th July 2010

Now this was not what I imagined at all!! The Hayward Gallery is situated on London’s South Bank - not too far from the National Theatre. The original plan was for the excellent SHITTY LIMITS to headline an afternoon’s worth of entertainment - and that, besides a long overdue catch-up, was the main draw for both Peter Zonked from Brighton and myself to head to the capital on a balmy Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, SHITTY LIMITS had to cancel and in the band’s place we got a LIMITS-splinter group, THE LOVE TRIANGLE that features SHITTY LIMITS vocalist Louis and drummer Tim.

The whole afternoon was organised by http://www.bigtakeover.co.uk/ (this being the collective’s ninth event) and staged outside on a balcony above the Gallery’s main floor. Space only allowed for about 30 people besides the bands, but the excellent July weather meant many more could assemble below or on Waterloo Bridge adjacent to the gallery that spans the Thames. Inside was an excellent record/ zine fair kinda deal and below was a restaurant that provided some over-priced but very tasty, thirst-quenching bottled beers!

By the time Pete and I had finished catching up in a nearby boozer, we returned to find a duo doing its thing. One half of the pair was a drummer while the other fella spent his time bent over some kinda mixing thing that generated various distorted noises and waves of static sound. It was interesting for a few minutes, but the absence of any defined structure ultimately bored.

The bottled beer was flowing nicely by the time LOVE TRIANGLE fired up. The balcony had become a little more packed also, lending a vaguely bohemian feel to proceedings, although the twisted, raucous stomp of the band shattered any hippie metaphor that may have existed. From the off, Louis (attired in a very neat GERMS ‘GI’ shirt) appeared to be the only person who actually performed to and acknowledged those who weren’t on the balcony. A good-sized crowd had formed below and even those on the bridge stopped to watch and groove on the fuzzed chords and sneered vocals of LOVE TRIANGLE.

The band’s sound is not too far removed from that of SHITTY LIMITS, although LOVE TRIANGLE’s probably has more of a direct Rock ‘n’ Roll bent about it. There seemed to be a distinct Aussie Garage Rock feel about them too, best typified by the band’s cover of THE BABEEZ, ‘I Hate School’. I can’t tell ya anymore song titles as this was all new stuff to me, but the tunes were decidedly more raucous than the band’s rather 60s styled name suggests.

Bigtakeover.co.uk seem to hold similar shows on a monthly basis at non-traditional venues, with a minimum of four bands per show and a proportion of the entry funds being donated to charity. It’s reassuring to see such ideals still exist in the capital’s Punk scene; especially in this day and age where Punk is, seemingly, as much about getting sponsored by Vans as it is about making a social/ political statement and inciting change.