The Slaves at the Horn

6 February, 2014

So a ‘random’ tonight. With a strike on in London, I thought it best to ditch any ideas of going in and decided to head over to the Horn in St Albans to see The Slaves.

The evening started with two St Albans bands. First Brocker, a three piece who play fairly straight forward rock music. There was nothing particularly wrong with it. They just didn’t grab me.

Brocker

Next up was another three piece, The Zipheads. Playing rockabilly inspired music. They seemed an odd bunch. A double bass player, guitarist and drummer. Not an unusual setup for a rockabilly type band. But the drummer appeared to be from a completely different band. He looked like he’s escaped from a skate rock band. I kind of enjoyed them. They had a good mix of music but they often seemed to be missing something. I think they probably could have done with a rhythm guitarist who could lay down a simple rockabilly riff to keep everything anchored. Don’t get me wrong. They weren’t a bad band. I did enjoy them. I couldn’t get rid of the thought that something was missing.

The Zipheads

Closing up the evening were The Slaves. They describe themselves as a ‘garage punk band’. Basically they’re two guys with lots of short 2 minute songs and masses of energy. What helps them stand out from the current fad of two musician bands, is that the drummer plays standing up and is also the lead vocalist. Dressed like an extra from ‘This is England’, they also carried a lot of (tongue-in-cheek) attitude, berating the crowd for talking through their set and chastising the crowd for not moving forward, etc. I thought it all added to their set. But I’m sure others might find it all very annoying. But hopefully, they’d still see two lads just ‘going for it’ and I personally thought it was a great set.

The Slaves