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Dustins Bar Mitzvah @ London Koko, 5/1/07
Some bands are just so London. Judging by the amount of people trying to blag their way in through the guestlist entrance tonight, half of Camden ‘know’ or ‘are with’ the band. They’ve certainly gathered a bit of a following around these parts in the past few years. And with debut album Get Your Mood On released just weeks ago, its time to celebrate.
With an incendiary live reputation, it was always going to be difficult to capture the mayhem of a Dustins gig on record. Somehow though, the LP is a cracker, and judging by tonight’s performance, they’ve moved on as a live band too. The old favourites like Kick Him Out, Jimmy White and the album’s title track still retain that ‘spirit of 1977’ punky, anarchic edge, but the band are a much tighter unit than the gigs that made their name on the indie-club circuit.
Never exactly short of confidence, tonight the four are noticeably aware they are overlords of the moshing masses at their feet. With the merest flick of his sweaty mane, Dave commands the delighted squeals of the girls, and everyone is singing along and soaking each other in beer (quite a compliment at £3.40 a can…). Offered a hat from the crowd, Dave introduces newbie Carry On as “a new song, in a new hat, for the New Year.” The assembled masses love it.
It may not be entirely original, but Dustin’s punk leanings are at least full of the better bits of the likes of Sham 69 and the Buzzcocks and there are much worse soundtracks for a few drinks on a Friday night out. Also, when they do change the pace slightly, as on Catholic Boys, they do not disappoint.