Neck

NECK

Musician Pub 26th January 2024

Friday night at the The Musician Pub saw a performance by NECK... one of the most bizarre and exhilarating gigs in many a long day...

Neck play a brand of psychelic celtic punk with a large hint of Ramones in there... Despite being hampered by the loss of the fiddle player (covid) and whistle player (stranded on a flight from India) they still delivered well over 2-1/2 hours of glorious anarchic music.

They nearly arrived on stager at 9.00pm.. well three of them did and about 15 minutes later the singer/leader joined them and after a few minutes they ripped into the first piece... 2 songs in the leader got off the stage and disappeared for a couple of minutes to resume where he's left off...

The band kicked off at break neck speed and continued like a runaway train building up the pace as they went. The set was a mixture of original songs and traditional irish songs all delivered with huge energy and power... and breakneck speed. Between songs the leader took small sip from his pint, adjusted the pedals on the floor and moved with sloth like agility to switch from guitar to banjo.. in a few songs holding both and switching from one to the other and back mid song...

The first set then finished around the time the gigs normally end... but in this case they were only half way and came back on after a short break... again the band stood on stage chatting while waiting for the leader. Once he appeared they carried on from where they left off... continuing to deliver high class high energy exhilarating music.

As the show progressed the drummer had to leave the stage for a natural break but assured the band he would be back before his part in the song came in... he was...

The set continued to build and inevitably there were encores... starting with a wonderful acapella rendition of "The Auld Triangle" during which the drummer left the stage to embrace the audience and sing the chorus.. the final encore picked up the speed even further and saw the bass player playing and dancing with the audience...

So there it was... the band finally finished an epic set at around quarter past twelve...

And what of the band generally.. propelled by some incredibly powerful drumming and bass playing and some feisty guitar work. The leader played guitar and banjo and despite his languid approach to proceedings sang with vigour and commitment through out.

This was a totally exhilarating set, high energy, power and hugely exciting fair... we were left to wonder what it would have been like had the fiddle and whistle players been there as well... but regardless.. this gig left me speechless.. wonderful stuff.

Keep music live... keep music real... support your local venue