Oh! Gunquit "Flex" Album Launch at The Fiddler's Elbow Camden with Industry Standard

Oh! Gunquit have been one of our favourite live acts since we saw them for the first time at this very same venue courtesy of a much-missed Weirdsville club night back in 2014. They are here headlining a sold out show to promote the release of their fourth album "Flex" (Beluga Records), which is another superb collection of their trademark genre-defying blissed out good time Rock 'n' Soul. With the quality and diversity of Oh! Gunquit's songs it means that they now have four albums and assorted singles worth of killer material to choose from and tonight's set-list is a packed full of irrestistible nuggets. The songs from "Flex" sit easily alongside the more familiar classic Gunquit numbers as the hugely catchy riffs and choruses bounce around the walls of the packed out venue, it's getting hot in here. New single "Shark Bait" distills all that is great about Oh! Gunquit with it's twanging Surf Rock guitar intro, rumbling drums and blasts of sleazy Saxophone and it's one of the highlights of the night. The Punky rush of "Sniffing Glue" and crunching riff of "Gutter Stars" are also real standout moments in a set that's packed full of them. 

Visually the band are as energetic and exciting as ever, vocalist Tina is decked out in a Top Gun cheerleader style outift and bassist Veronica is their very own Wonder Woman superheroine. Ergi on drums powers everything along while guitarist Simon Wild and Saxophonist Luciano are throwing shapes, immersing themselves in the music. Tina is busy as always, one minute she's down in the crowd crawling through people's legs during "Caves" then she's back on stage playing the trumpet while hula-hooping at the same time and then she's whipping assorted band mates and audience members with a cat of nine tails. It's all go at an Oh! Gunquit show. The band just get better and better and with "Flex" they have produced what I feel is their best album of an already impressive back-catalogue, it's thoroughly recommended and can be ordered from Beluga Records or Rough Trade here. Here's some more photos and a video from an extremely memorable show.

 

I must also mention the support act Industry Standard, who were the perfect choice to warm up the crowd. They shared some similarities with Oh! Gunquit - a livewire charimastic vocalist and some catchy guitar riffs, I'll definitely be checking them out further. You can see another video at our Retro Man Blog YouTube channel here.

 

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