Thunderfuck and the Deadly Romantics, Satans Hollow. 16th April 2022

I don’t know if it’s the promotors, the bands or indeed the venue, but I’m back in Satans Hollow for some down and dirty rock n roll… and it’s empty. Seriously. There’s 16 people. Including me. I get it that bands like this don’t have a big audience and these lads are from out of town too, but this is embarrassing. Surely there’s more people would be into Thuderfuck and the Deadly Romantics if they came out, had a beer and a bounce around. Or is this sound just… old? I’ll admit, with my catholic tastes I’ll give almost anything a go, but I always gravitate towards the more punchy angular sounds. Music for me needs a bit of space, some contrast. Straight up rock doesn’t do that well. Thunderfuck etc. probably aren’t the best band to hold aloft as figureheads of a new thought provoking rock movement either. In fact despite being Canadian they come across on the meatheaded side of neanderthal. Proudly embracing controversy on their merch, that’s really not that controversial. In fact I was a bit disappointed. They play the sort of foot stomping blues rock that when done well can be a lot of fun and the band are good. They don’t do much. A bit of rock postering, but they’re tight and sound good. The vocals aren’t great though. The singer sounds like he could implode any second and most of the lyrics are near impossible to hear. To be fair the muddy mix isn’t helping him either and at one point during ‘Drink This Party Dry’ his mic gets cut completely. Bless him though he does his best to entertain what must be a disappointingly small crowd. Working the space in the room and sticking the mic in my face during a cover of ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’. I’ll leave you to wonder how that went. This is gonna sound harsh, but they’re better when the band are left to noodle. The lead guitarist with the patent DMs living out his rock star fantasies. He’s great and the band back him well. The singer though, increasingly annoys me as the set goes on. This is intentional. It’s what he wants. It’s not what I want though and after an hour I’ve had enough. So this isn’t a recommendation, but for gods sake, let the next time I come to Satans be packed with kids wanting to destroy the place. Which has me wondering, what’s a club night like in here these days??