Last Thursday Sonic Boom, The Early Years and The Flowers of Hell played at The Legion in Shoreditch.
I had not seen Peter Kember/Sonic Boom live since he was playing as Spectrum in the early 90s, but he clearly has a dedicated following - the gig was packed. This was also a discerning audience - virtually everyone pushed up to the front for support bands The Early Years and The Flowers of Hell.
When I first started going to gigs I managed to convince myself at one point that the more members of a band where on stage the better the band. Watching The Flowers of Hell (who managed at least 7, with a change of violinist as well) this concept came flooding back to me. They are certainly a band whose influences can be easily identified - Velvet Underground, Spacemen 3 and The Telescopes - but their ability to construct instrumentals is both original and strong.
As for the man everyone had come to see, Pete Kember spent the first 15 minutes wrestling with various technical problems, much to the irritation of some of the audience, who could see last tubes departing without them. Such I'm afraid is life.
For a man who once had a reputation on a par with Amy Winehouse or Pete Doherty, he certainly looks in pretty good shape these days. The beauty of any Sonic Boom gig is of course that his back catalogue is so strong, there is so much to choose from. "When Tomorrow Hits" and "Revenge" were the highlights - oh and after all these years he still says "Thanks for coming."
Here's to the next gig, and some of the best music currently being produced in the UK.
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