The Stems - The Boston Arms, London
My brother Andy and I made the trip out to the Boston Arms Music Room in Tufnell Park to see Aussie legends The Stems perform what was surprisingly their first-ever London show.
The gig was part of a regular club night called The Dirty Water Club - covering all things sixties garage and retro. Clearly something of a regular gathering for some punters there was an impressive mix of era appropriate hair-styles and outfits.
There was a bit of confusion with the start times - so kind of double booking meant a battle of the unsigned bands went through to 11:30 so the Dirty Water club didn't start until close to midnight. To their credit, the organizers handed this pretty smartly, so instead of running through all 3 bands so The Stems wouldn't be onstage until around 2 or 3 am - they reversed the ordered with The Stems coming on around 12:30 (sorry Muck & the Mires and Cretinos but we didn't stick around for you).
The reformed Stems are touring in support of their new album 'Heads Up' and from the half a dozen new songs played tonight - it fits in perfectly with the retro-pop of their classic debut 'At First Sight'.
It was great to hear early single "Make You Mine", and other unusual inclusions included "My Beach" and a cover of The Easybeats "Sorry". Fittingly the show closed with a great "At First Sight"
The gig was part of a regular club night called The Dirty Water Club - covering all things sixties garage and retro. Clearly something of a regular gathering for some punters there was an impressive mix of era appropriate hair-styles and outfits.
There was a bit of confusion with the start times - so kind of double booking meant a battle of the unsigned bands went through to 11:30 so the Dirty Water club didn't start until close to midnight. To their credit, the organizers handed this pretty smartly, so instead of running through all 3 bands so The Stems wouldn't be onstage until around 2 or 3 am - they reversed the ordered with The Stems coming on around 12:30 (sorry Muck & the Mires and Cretinos but we didn't stick around for you).The reformed Stems are touring in support of their new album 'Heads Up' and from the half a dozen new songs played tonight - it fits in perfectly with the retro-pop of their classic debut 'At First Sight'.
It was great to hear early single "Make You Mine", and other unusual inclusions included "My Beach" and a cover of The Easybeats "Sorry". Fittingly the show closed with a great "At First Sight"
