Three in a row at the Alleycat, fast becoming a venue fave despite the prominent bouncers. First time here, however, for tonight's gig buddies Beef and Ady, so my muddled directions had to suffice!
Pink Kross came on at 9; far from being a diluted version of the excellent Redd Kross, this was a Scottish trio of tiny girlies dressed up as Catwoman, The Riddler and Wonder Woman respectively, who played unlistenable ultra-speedcore with not a tune to rub together to make fire. Each 2-minute squealing thrash merged into the next, making them quite the worst band I've seen for years! "This one's our next single," Wonder Woman said before one indecipherable number which sounded exactly like all the others; must've taken them ages to decide!
Still, we had The Cup up next to restore order. I popped to the front and bopped away at this Chicago 4-piece's solidly built, catchy rock set. They disappointed a little (okay, a lot...) by omitting both "Divebomb", their best-known number, and also, more surprisingly, their excellently sing-along Weezer-esque single "Monkey Song". T'uh, wilful obscurists... Nevertheless, this was a fine chunky set of groovy and slightly off-beat rock songs, which got me rocking down the front!
The place filled up more for headliners Urusei Yatsura, but wasn't quite the sell-out crush we'd expected. Urusei Yatsura played 40 minutes of their feedbacky, space-age, Jesus And Mary Chain meets Teenage Fanclub on a cartoon spaceship, style thrash rock, which had the punters bouncing, but somehow lacked a vital ingredient for me. They were energetic and enthusiastic, alright, but somehow also failed to completely set the place alight, despite a cool "Phasers On Stun" and some more tuneful newies. Still, I didn't really mind, as I wasn't specifically here for them; I was "Up for the Cup"! (groan etc.).
Incidentally, a quick chat afterwards with Number one Cup's vocalist revealed they don't do "Divebomb" as they're sick of playing it, and concerned about it becoming a "Creep" style millstone number around their necks. So there!
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