HOT HOT HEAT / MOVING UNITS 28/03/03 Louisiana, Bristol

This was a small but sold out gig at the Louisiana, which was full of blokes old enough to be your Dad, you know the ex-indie types from 80's who were quite old then and now, even though they have grown up kids of their own, they insist on going to gigs and complaining that you've knocked they're pint of bitter over. It wasn't me!!
The point being they don't dance or move, they've heard it all before, they don't get over excited about the bands /music and they don't like anyone else to do it either. Get the picture?

First up were Moving Units, a cool trio from L.A playing a mix of punkesque disco Britpop. The drummer is a tall, dark mysterious character called Chris who just looks like he's gonna play the drums madder than Keith Moon, the bassist supplies the disco punk basslines, over and over. The vocalist/ lead guitarist, Blake, sings with a slight English accent which is also very Britpop and Wellerish, All this creates a strange, unusual but very cool sound that you can't help but enjoy as it takes you back to those Britpop days but with a strange punk disco beat. You'll love it, we promise!!

Hot Hot Heat are the new phenomenon……these Canadian boys sure know how to rock, mixing garage punk, new wave and 80's keyboards with another English inspired accent from Steve Bays We can hear a touch of Kevin Rowlands from Dexy's in there somewhere and we like it a lot!! Bandages shall go down as one of this years underground successes before it was even released so, Hot Hot Heat shouldn't worry about the radio airplay ban given to 'Bandages' for having war connotations (yes, that's the word Bandages, not the actual record!!). As we have said on the Phlem forum anyone who rocks to Hot Hot Heat has the record in his or her collection already.

It would, however, have been nice if Phlem had managed to actually see the gigs but the tickets had sold out so we missed them both!! Rubbish!! Luckily we did get to meet both bands when we went to the Louisiana on the night of the gigs to flyer for 'Bang', which is where we met Chris the drummer from Moving Units, who was sulking about 'the boring old blokes in the crowd', Phlem can sympathise. The rest of Moving Units were very laid back and they gave us tips on running a night club and asked all sorts of questions from what records we played to the most offensive swear word and Fraggle Rock (of course). This was all going well until their van got broken into, they swiftly left. We then spoke briefly to (how tall is he?) Paul, the drummer from Hot Hot Heat, we recommended he got himself a mini drumkit, like the drummer in Hoggboy (where are they now, did the album come out yet?) Anyway, we managed to persuade Steve Bays to come for a drink with us at Renato's - a strange pub next to the Old Vic which is covered wall to wall with signed publicity shots of theatrical lovies and darlings and other b-list celebrities. This is where we managed to get Steve Bays, vocalist with Hot Hot Heat, posing in front of them for the Phlem website……..Priceless.

Steve's comment 'so who are all these people in the photos?'
Phlem's response……um…we have no idea