Special Branch, Bush Hall 09/04/11
Rock & Roll is possibly the closest thing we have to the idea of alchemy. The fusing of seemingly disparate and often base materials into something of great power and beauty that defies all rational thought and seems to work precisely because it shouldn’t. Take a suburban, middle-class, gangling and slightly camp white boy (la Jagger), or a chubby, priapic pot-head with poetic aspirations (Mr Mojo Risin’), mix in with a bunch of fellow outcasts, assorted freaks and ne’er do wells and you have the recipe for pure gold: a pan-sexual, polymorphous waif of indeterminate gender and decadent sensuality, or a Dionysian, leather-clad, shamanistic Lizard King of unspeakable appetites, respectively.
Although Special Branch look more like the sorts who’d come bursting out the back of a Transit van armed with pickaxe handles during a particularly violent episode of “The Sweeney,” they also have that gift of alchemy. The ability to take something essentially of little apparent worth: a covers band; and imbue it with the kind of raw excitement and visceral energy that fuels all great rock music. With a rhythm section that could punch nails through concrete, a powerful, yet subtle guitarist and a great R&B vocalist who’s also a dab hand on the old harmonica, Special Branch, like their namesake, kick the doors in and trash the place, taking no prisoners.
It’s not easy choosing highlights from a pretty much faultless set, but the Dr. Feelgood tracks, especially “Down at the Doctors” and “Back in the Night” were particularly great. An incendiary blast of “You Really Got Me” and a version of “Pump it Up’ that if anything, displayed even more urgency and vigour than the original, also added plenty of heat to the mix. Even the “usual suspects” of cover band sets (“Louie Louie” and “Route 66”) sounded as fresh and primal as you’re ever likely to hear anywhere; and “The Price of Love” was a moment of pure, unadulterated class.
Cover bands are ten a penny as the old cliche goes, but Special Branch don’t so much “cover” songs as grab them by the scruff of the neck and give them a damn good hiding. This is dirty, vulgar, no-nonsense Rock & Roll at its best and you need it now more than ever before. Go and see Special Branch before they come looking for you…
