Suicidal Tendencies - 29/01/17 – Kentish Town Forum

Yeah, let’s go to a seven-band gig in a venue with no decent food options in the vicinity. On a Sunday, so that the public transport closes down before the gig ends. Iain is a massive Suicidal Tendencies fan, and had never seen them live. I’d listened to all their albums (on tape!) at his insistence, and the new album – “World Gone Mad” is incredibly good for a band this far past their sell-by date (the single is “Clap Like Ozzy” – much better than you’d think). Andy Egg offered accommodation. We were set.
Mike Muir’s Suicidal Tendencies are of a similar vintage to Rage Against the Machine, but a thrash-rap crossover rather than metal-rap. They both had their moment in the sun in the late 80s/early 90s – Robert Trujillo era, which ended when he joined Ozzy’s touring band (and you saw him playing bass with Metallica on the Glastonbury coverage a couple of years ago). What Suicidal have that Rage don’t, is a sense of humour – yes, they exhort their audience to think for themselves, buck the system and ride skateboards indoors, but they do it with style. Muir’s lyrical persona is that of a petulant teenager, but there’s always a punchline that rescues the songs from being puerile. And the music is excellent, no matter who’s playing bass.
After beer (Southampton Arms – teeny tiny pub with fine ale, rammed with gig- goers) and burgers (Dirty Burgers – teeny tiny gourmet burger bar, rammed with the same gig-goers) we progressed to the Forum, in time to catch Walls of Jericho (missing three bands, but good beer matters).
Walls of Jericho are fairly standard punk/metal – nothing to get excited about, but I was looking forward to Municipal Waste. Their t-shirts were everywhere at Bloodstock last year, and they had a very tasteful offering at the merch desk showing the current US president blowing his brains out. I was expecting something a little sophisticated, but they turned out to be more generic thrash. Sad. Then we got Agnostic Front. Knew of ‘em, but hadn’t seen ‘em. An east coast answer to Rancid, with a slight Clash-style inflection of ska, they were staggeringly good – the highlight of the evening for me.
Suicidal delivered. The only disappointments were the lack of any material from the new album, and a somewhat unpleasant crowd. There was fighting in the mosh pit. Ian at one point found himself in ‘Dad’ mode, defusing a confrontation and I spent a whole song trying to shake off some idiot repeatedly pinching my arm. The atmosphere improved by the end and an invitation on stage for “all the true skaters” in the audience (I spent more time falling off skateboards then riding them as a kid). But we got to jump around and sing along and Mike Muir exhorted us to think for ourselves (in a slightly “Life of Brian” fashion). My nice white Rage t-shirt may never be clean again…
(Previously posted on Facebook, so may read here as a little 'dumbed down')