Someone told me a bunch of British lads had blown the roof of this pub last weekend. Pint Shot Riot were re-booked for Saturday night (4/02) so I went to check them out. To set the scene, Bleecker Street is in Greenwich Village and there are people moving from bar to bar until around 5am. The Red Lion is packed with New Yorkers out for a sing song as most bands here play covers, so for anyone getting up doing their own stuff is a brave move. I clocked the English fellas at the bar, it wasn’t hard as they all had shades on yet it’s a dimly lit place….. There seemed to be a hub of girls around them lapping up their English accents and I thought, milk it boys milk it.
The stage was set and I knew the band were about to start as the singer – Rocket – was tying a Union Jack to his mic stand. Without saying anything the band launched into three songs that made me feel like I was about to take off! I recognised ‘Not Thinking Straight’ from FIFA 10 and ‘Nothing From You’ has a remix that I’d heard on a game as well. Baby Dave plays the bass like Flea from the Chili Peppers, Rob; the very thin left-handed guitarist reminds me of Mick Jones complete with his backing vocals and yes Mini Rocket on drums does BV’s as well. Front-man Rocket finally speaks and is very humble thanking everyone for listening, the next song is ‘Holes‘ this is one of their older songs, I’d seen the video on youtube, it’s shot in front of a Coventry home crowd who go nuts and you can see this happening around the world, it’s just a case of the band getting the breaks. We then drop down from 100 mph to 10 as Rocket starts to sing the very melodic ‘Sing A Song For Me’ just backed with BV’s from Rob and Mini. The crowd keep quite and listen, you can see the mobiles being held in the air to this one when the big arena gigs come… After Rocket charms the crowd with some British banter we’re back at 100 mph for ‘Start Digging’ and ‘Come Back To Me’ both being past singles which I’d heard along the way. We then get what is probably the bands masterpiece ‘Twisted Soul’ it starts with an almighty bass thunder and then twists and turns through verses and choruses until the middle 8 where Rocket kinda goes nuts on the guitar, he has his head down and attacks it with his rhythmic chops, this seems to be his trademark style that no doubt air-guitarists can copy in the future. As we come out of this we’ve gone supersonic, Rob is in full flight with a wailing guitar solo and Rocket ad-libs to the end with the crowd singing Twisted Soul which as most have just heard it for the first time shows how catchy this song is. It’s a smash in the making!
Another 2 minutes of high energy rock ‘n’ roll finishes the New Yorkers off, with the girlies shouting out AWESOME, AWESOME!!!! -and I have to agree. I saw quite a few Brit bands at SXSW and they really pale into insignificance compared to PINT SHOT RIOT. Wave the flag boys and go for it, America is about to open its legs for ya!
For more on the band visit : www.pintshotriot.co.uk
