SCUM OF TOYTOWN - Live @ The Red Lion, Stevenage 7/2/13 (*A Review*)

Jon, Lea and Nick  (Photo by: Grant Meaby)

Scum Of Toytown are not yer usual 'ska punk' band, yeah they've got the vibe, but there's a lot more going on; with 60's drum beats and rolls, a hardcore Bass rumble and grumble, a twin Guitar attack of Rock'n'Roll chops and psychedelic prog rock licks, all topped of with some dulcet folky tinged vocals, which contrast beautifully with the shouting and screaming backing vocals, then there's the Melodica.... On paper such an eclectic mix of influences and sounds shouldn't work together, but this is Rock'n'Roll not origami and it's all about tearing up the rule book and Scum Of Toytown tore it up leaving it in tattered pieces on the beer and sweat soaked floor of The Red Lion.

Live the band feed of a hungry audience and serve up a musical feast which ensures feet are taping and bodies are skanking. Their set tonight was a mixture of the old and new, all played with the energy, enthusiasm and abandon of folk half their age. There were times during their set when I was taken back twenty years to places like The Sir George Robey, Bowes Lyon House, Harlow Square, amongst other venues were Scum kicked up a racket and rocked the roofs off, pretty much like the did tonight at the Red Lion.  The SoT political message is just as relevant now as it was then, if not more. Question the world around you, take a stand and try and build a better one.  This band have always had the potential to do something, what that something is, only they know the answer to that, but whatever it is, it'll be on their own terms, and in their own time.

A new album has been recorded and is in the final process of being mixed, there's a gig in Camden in March and a couple in Germany in May. Further info and some videos and music can be found at their website and on their facebook page.